Alcohol and tobacco at the till: age checks, asking for ID and how to say no

It is nine in the evening, three young people are at the back of the queue, and one of them puts a can of beer and a packet of cigarettes on the counter. He could be twenty, he could be sixteen. Four people are waiting behind him and the assistant is alone. This happens in every small shop every day, and the person at the till has a few seconds to get it right.

Most mistakes are not made out of bad intent but out of awkwardness: we don't want to offend, we don't want to hold up the queue, and the customer asks so confidently that surely he is over eighteen. That is exactly why it should not be left to the assistant to decide when to ask for ID. With a simple internal rule, a few practised phrases and an owner who stands behind them, the awkward moment becomes routine.

This article is about what happens at the till. Which licence you need to sell age-restricted products is covered in our article on permits (What licences and permits do you need to open a shop?), and preventing theft has its own article (Shoplifting and shrinkage) — here they come up only as far as they affect the work behind the counter.

Why the person at the till is responsible, and why mistakes are expensive

Age-restricted products differ from every other product in that someone has to make a decision at the moment of sale: is this customer allowed to buy it? That decision is not made by the owner in the stockroom, nor by the till, but by whoever is standing behind the counter. In many places responsibility is therefore twofold: the rules can hold both the assistant personally and the shop as a business to account.

The cost of a mistake is usually out of all proportion to what you earn on a can of beer or a packet of cigarettes. Exactly what can happen depends on local rules, but the typical consequences are similar:

• A fine for the shop and, in many places, a separate one for the assistant — typically rising for repeat offences.
• Suspension or withdrawal of the alcohol or tobacco licence, which in a small shop can take away a significant share of sales.
• Temporary closure or a ban on selling age-restricted products.
• Reputation: in a small community word spreads fast about which shop you "can buy from" — and parents hear it too.
• The burden on the employee: someone who has made a mistake once and been fined finds it hard to go back behind the counter with peace of mind.

So age checking is not a matter of courtesy but one of the shop's biggest risks — one you can keep almost entirely under control with a rule, a few phrases and a notebook.

The internal rule: who to ask for ID

Nobody can judge age by looking. A sixteen-year-old can be tall, bearded and confident; a twenty-five-year-old can be short and young-looking. If the rule is "ask for ID if they look underage", the assistant is guessing every time — and will sometimes guess wrong.

The proven solution is a safety margin: under the shop's internal rule, you ask for ID from everyone who looks a few years younger than the legal age limit. The assistant then does not have to decide whether the customer is seventeen or eighteen, only whether they look thirty or twenty. That question is much easier and goes wrong far less often.

Write the internal rule down in one sentence, put it up behind the till and tell every member of staff. It is also worth displaying it to customers on a neutral sign saying that the shop asks for ID from everyone who looks younger than a given age. The sign takes a lot of weight off the assistant: they are not personally doubting the customer, they are applying the shop's rule.

What to accept as ID, and what not to

Exactly which documents are acceptable is set by local rules, and it is worth putting the list up behind the till. The general principle, though, is the same almost everywhere: an original, valid, official photo ID that shows the date of birth.

Checking the ID is not just a glance, either. A few simple habits help a lot:

• Ask the customer to take it out of their wallet and hand it to you. You cannot properly check an ID shown through a plastic sleeve from a distance.
• Look at the photo, then at the customer, then at the date of birth. Don't rush — this is two seconds, not an interrogation.
• Count back from today's date. It helps to have a small note behind the till with the year of birth after which a customer cannot yet buy — and to update it at the start of every year.
• Feel it: a genuine ID has consistent material, edges and surface. If something seems odd, you don't need to prove anything — it is enough not to sell.
• Give the ID back; don't keep it and don't photograph it. Confiscating it is not your job, and the personal details are none of your business.

What to say, word for word

Most assistants do know the rule — what they don't know is how to say it. Without a practised phrase, whatever comes out in the moment is either too harsh or too hesitant, and the customer picks up on both. The phrases below are worth learning word for word and adapting to your own style.

Difficult situations at the till

The clear cases are simple: there is ID, or there isn't. The difficult cases are the ones where the rule is clear but the situation puts pressure on the assistant. It is worth agreeing in advance what to do in each.

An adult buying for a minor

A young person waits outside or browses the shelves, then an adult brings the beer to the counter and hands it over. This is a proxy purchase, and in many places it is just as prohibited as selling directly. If you can see that the product is clearly being bought for a minor — they chose it together, money changed hands, the young person said what they wanted — you can politely refuse. You don't need proof; doubt is enough.

Friends, neighbours, a regular's children

A small shop's strength is that you know your customers — with age limits, that becomes its weakness. A regular's sixteen-year-old son is just as underage as a stranger, and "he's just getting it for his dad" is exactly the situation described under proxy purchases. If the rule applies to everyone equally, you don't offend the person you know either: you are not singling them out, you are simply not making an exception for them.

A group at the till

When a group of friends shop together and one of them pays, the question is who the product is for. Good practice is to ask for ID from everyone clearly involved in a group purchase. If one of them has none, or is underage, you don't sell the age-restricted product — even if the person paying is an adult.

An aggressive customer

A refusal sometimes triggers anger. The rule then is that safety comes before the sale, but the refusal does not change either. Don't argue, don't explain yourself, don't step out from behind the counter. Calmly repeat the same sentence, and if things get out of hand, call for help. Afterwards, write in the notebook what happened. Handling complaints has its own article (Customer complaints at the till) — but with age limits, no still means no even if the customer is unhappy.

A queue behind them

The most common reason to give in is not a threat but hurry: the queue is long, the customer impatient, the ID at the bottom of a bag. Say it: "I'll wait while you find it — I'll serve the next person in the meantime." The queue can wait two minutes — a fine or a suspended licence will not.

Protect the person who says no

An assistant will ask for ID consistently only if they are sure the owner stands behind them. If they hear even once "oh come on, we know that lad" or "we lost a good customer because of you", next time they will rather not ask. So the rule is not decided at the till but by what you say afterwards.

• Say it in advance and unambiguously: anyone who refuses a sale in line with the rule is right — even if the customer complains afterwards.
• Never ask for an "exception" — not for a friend, not for a regular, not for your own family. If the owner makes an exception, the rule is gone.
• If a customer complains about a refusal, you talk to them, not the assistant. Your answer is the same: it is the shop's rule.
• Praise anyone who held firm in a difficult situation. One sentence is enough, but it matters.
• If someone gets it wrong and sells, don't shame them; look together at what led to it: the queue, pressure from the customer, an unclear rule? Fix the system.

„An assistant does not become consistent by knowing the rule, but by knowing that if they say no, the owner has their back.”

The refusals log

A refusals log is a simple notebook under the counter where every refused age-restricted sale goes in. You don't need software for it, nor the customer's name or details — just enough to show that the rule is actually applied.

• Date and time.
• Which product it was: beer, wine, spirits, cigarettes, e-cigarettes, energy drinks, lottery tickets.
• A short description: no ID, underage, suspected proxy purchase, the customer became aggressive.
• The assistant's name or initials.

The log protects in several ways. If a question comes up after an inspection or a complaint, the shop can show that it refuses sales regularly — that the rule does not exist only on paper. If an angry customer later claims otherwise, the entry backs up the assistant's memory. And the owner can see from it which shift and which hour the difficult cases come in — where more help or a more experienced assistant is needed.

When a test purchaser comes in

In many places the authorities or an appointed organisation check shops with test purchases: a young customer, sometimes close to the age limit, tries to buy an age-restricted product. Where, how and with whom this can happen is a matter for local rules. For the shop, the point is always the same: you cannot recognise a test purchaser, so the only shop that passes for certain is one where the rule applies to every customer, at every hour, in the same way.

Some shops run their own internal test: a young person they know, below the internal threshold but already an adult, tries to buy, and afterwards you talk through what happened. This is not a trap for the assistant but practice — and a good opportunity for praise if everything went well.

Arranging the shelves and the counter

Checking does not start at the till but where the product stands. The harder it is to reach age-restricted goods without going through the assistant, the fewer awkward moments there are.

• Tobacco, e-cigarettes and refills should be behind the counter, reachable only through the assistant. In many places this is required anyway.
• Keep alcohol within sight of the till if you can, not in the most hidden corner of the shop.
• Don't mix energy drinks and age-restricted products with goods aimed at children — neither on the shelf nor in the impulse spot in front of the till.
• Behind the till, display the internal rule, the list of accepted IDs and the year-of-birth note.
• Facing customers: a neutral sign saying that the shop asks for ID from everyone who looks younger than a given age.

It is also worth knowing when age-restricted products sell. If you put them in their own category — on paper or in a till app such as Boltom App, where the report shows sales by category and by the hour — you can see which shift needs your most confident assistant at the till. The assistant still has to check the age; the report only shows where the pressure is greatest.

Training in 10 minutes

A new assistant does not need to learn the law, but what to do when a young-looking customer puts beer on the counter. Ten minutes is enough if you do it at the till and the new colleague actually says the phrases out loud rather than just hearing them.

• First 2 minutes — why: what the shop's risk is, and that the assistant can be held responsible too. One sentence saying the owner always has their back.
• Next 2 minutes — the internal rule: who to ask for ID, which products it applies to, where it is displayed.
• Next 2 minutes — the ID: what to accept, what not to, how to check it, where the year-of-birth note is.
• Next 3 minutes — the phrases: they say the request, the refusal and the reply to an argument out loud. Role-play it twice, once with a difficult customer.
• Last 1 minute — the notebook: where it is, what to write, and that every refusal goes in.

Common mistakes

Putting it in place step by step

If you have no written rule now, a working system can be in place within a week. Most of the work is one-off: write it down, put it up, train people. After that, daily practice and the owner's consistency keep it alive.

1. 11. Check the local rulesWrite down which products are age-restricted where you are, what the age limit is, which ID is acceptable and who carries the responsibility. If you are unsure, ask the licensing authority or your trade association.
2. 22. Decide on the internal thresholdChoose an age a few years above the legal limit, and if there are several limits, match the highest. Write it down in one sentence.
3. 33. Rearrange the shelves and the counterTobacco and e-cigarettes behind the counter, alcohol within sight of the till, age-restricted products away from goods aimed at children.
4. 44. Put the rule upBehind the till: the internal rule, accepted IDs, the year-of-birth note. Facing customers: a neutral sign saying the shop asks for ID from everyone who looks younger than a given age.
5. 55. Put out the notebookA notebook under the counter with four columns: date and time, product, short description, assistant. Tell everyone that every refusal goes in.
6. 66. Train everyoneRun the ten-minute training at the till with every member of staff, saying the phrases out loud. Also tell them that whoever says no is always right.

Once a quarter, go through this short checklist as if you were the test purchaser:

• Is the internal rule written down, and can every member of staff say it from memory?
• Is the list of accepted IDs and an up-to-date year-of-birth note displayed behind the till?
• Can tobacco and e-cigarettes be reached only through the assistant?
• Is there a sign facing customers about the rule?
• Have entries gone into the notebook in the past few weeks? If it has been empty for months, people are probably not asking for ID.
• Has every new member of staff had the training and said the phrases out loud?
• Have you recently made an exception, or told anyone off for refusing a sale?

Summary

• The person at the till decides on and is responsible for an age-restricted sale, and the price of a mistake affects the whole shop.
• The internal rule puts a safety threshold above the legal age limit so the assistant does not have to guess.
• Accept only original, official photo ID; a photo, a photocopy or someone else's ID is not ID.
• The practised phrases refer to the rule, not the customer, and don't change because of the queue or a friend.
• The owner backs the assistant who refuses and never asks for an exception.
• A simple refusals notebook proves the rule is applied — while the age limit, product range and penalties always follow local rules.

Frequently asked questions