Sainsbury's Newport
Four local residents who tried to purchased drink for the Isle of Wight festival were shocked to find the security in front of the car trying to take it back after they had shown ID and were served legally.
3 of the 4 revelers went into Sainsbury’s petrol station, Newport on Thursday night (10th June) to buy alcohol so they could take it up to the campsite.
Sue Baines, 25, from Newport High St was the first to purchase a box of beer. The lady behind the counter had checked her ID and proceeded with the sale and she returned to the car and waited for her friends.
The other two party goers, Amy Cotton, 23 and Lucy Lock 26 tried to purchase drink but because Amy had identification and her friend Lucy didn’t the sale was refused.
As they went back to the car and were about to drive away they were approached by a young security guard who told the driver of the car to park up so they could take the purchased box of beer back and issue a full refund.
Sue Baines spoke exclusively to the IW Chronicle:
I could not believe what was happening, how can they sell you drink and then try and make you take it back into the store for a refund, that’s like selling your home at auction and then telling the buyer you will refund because it sold to cheaply.
The security guard asked me to take the drink back into the store I asked him if it was a request or an order, the guard replied “I’m not a police officer so it’s not an order”
With him saying that I asked the guard if he was aware of contract law when purchasing beer and he became very blank faced. Again he tried to request me to take the beer back into the store and again I refused, he then went on to say he had taken the number plate of the car and if we drive off they will report us to the police.
He was trying to scare the driver, who never entered the store nor did he try to purchase drink. With comments like that I asked him to call the police, if anyone had broken the law it certainly wasn’t me. They refused to call them while we was there so we had no choice but to drive off with our legally purchased box of beer.
I respect that they are trying to do their job to cut down on underage drinking but we were all over legal age and having a security guard that doesn’t know the law did not help the situation. This seems to happen quite a lot with supermarkets, We have even seen people refused drink because their children were with them.
Sue Baines plans on making an official complaint to Sainsbury’s later today and will be requesting a copy of the stores policies after feeling humiliated and annoyed with the staff making a scene outside the petrol station.
The Isle of Wight Chronicle contacted management from Sainsbury’s for a statement. They refused to comment on the situation but said they will investigate. We asked if they would like the details we had but Michelle said they would contact the security guard and staff in the store from Thursday night to find out all the details.
