Shop Assistants: Our New Conscience
Author: Elsabe Smit

Are you tired from work today? Are you putting your feet
up and having a drink?

Before you take another sip, let me ask you: who gave you
permission to have that drink?

If you are saying it is none of my business, you are right.
However, if I was a shop assistant in the UK, it could
easily have been my business.

Of course you are an adult and you can decide when, where
and how much you want to drink. And chances are that you
are a generation older than the average shop assistant.

How would you feel if you go to your local friendly
supermarket to buy your favourite tipple, and the shop
assistant refuses to serve you? Would you go back to that
shop?

Before you answer: what if the shop assistant is acting on
instructions? Would you really want to shoot the messenger?

The UK is well known in Europe for having the highest level
of alcoholism. For every one person who is addicted to a
class A drug, there are six people who are addicted to
alcohol.

A BBc web page states "There is an urgent need for the
government to give as high a priority to tackling alcohol
dependency as it does to addressing drug misuse."

How does the government do this? Since 2002 drinkers no
longer need to finish their drinks so that the pubs can
close at 11pm. The pubs can now stay open later because
when the law was changed, "Ministers also hope[d] the
changes would help "encourage a more civilised culture in
pubs, bars and restaurants".

No that makes complete sense to me. Take one drunk,
aggressive person who knows of no other way to entertain
themselves than to get blind drunk night after night. Add
lots more alcohol and a very tired publican. Stir in some
equally drunk buddies, and voila - problem solved. The
result? A "more civilised culture".

But at the same time the law was changed to ensure that
this drunken behaviour is limited to people over 18.
Apparently it is OK to turn 18 and have no experience with
alcohol. Not that I am encouraging excessive drinking at
any age, but there is nothing wrong with anything in
moderation. I just wonder how many 18-year-olds learn
moderation from an older generation who is encouraged to
spend longer hours in the pub so that they can achieve a
"more civilised culture".

Of course the same government is hell-bent on ensuring that
nobody under the age of 18 gets access to alcohol. Hence
the law which ensures that a shop assistant who sells
alcohol to anyone under 18 will be severely punished.

But it does not stop there. A shop assistant is by law
also obliged to refuse selling alcohol to anyone who may
provide that alcohol to a person under 18.

What is the result of this? A woman and her 20-year-old
son cannot buy a bottle of wine for Sunday lunch, because
the son, who is with the mother in the shop, cannot at that
moment prove that he is over the age of 18. His mother's
word is not acceptable to the shop assistant. And what
will happen if the son is by any chance 17 years and 364
days old? The shop assistant will get a hefty fine and
lose their job.

Can the same shop assistant sell the same bottle of wine to
the next customer who has her 11-year-old son with her? Of
course. In the judgement of the shop assistant, the
11-year-old is too young to drink, and the mother would not
give the alcohol to the boy. And we all know that no child
would ever steal alcohol and experiment with it at any age.
And the moon is definitely made of cheese.

Next in the row is the lady with arthritis in both hands.
She brought her 15-year-old daughter and 14-year-old niece
with her to carry the groceries. Can she buy wine? Of
course not. In the opinion of the shop assistant, there is
the risk that the lady will force-feed the wine to the two
girls, or even offer them each half a glass of wine with
their meal, under her supervision. Sorry, madam, no sale.

What kind of society allows - no, forces - teenagers to
police parents? What kind of government resolves
alcoholism problems with longer pub hours? What kind of
nation allows a government to put barely-out-of-school shop
assistants in a position to be the moral judges of the
nation?

We created this government. We can create a different
government. Do we know what we want from the government we
create? Or do we just want to sit back and see what
farcical legislation they come up with?


About the Author:

Elsabe Smit is a professional transition coach, helping
individuals and companies to achieve their personal and
commercial objectives.
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