Supermarket refuses to sell bottle of wine to mum with kids

Staff at a supermarket have refused to sell a mum a bottle of wine because she was shopping with her children.

Mum of three Kristel Aholova was shopping with two of her kids, aged 15 and 10, along with three of the teen’s friends, at Countdown Northcote in Auckland on Saturday.

The single mum placed a bottle of wine on the counter along with her groceries when the woman behind the checkout counter said, “sorry, we can’t serve you this”.

“I thought she was joking,” Ms Aholova told Yahoo7.

“She told me it was because I had children with me.”

The 35-year-old asked to speak to the manager. She claims the manager supported the staff member.

The mum was perplexed. She said she’s been shopping at the supermarket for 10 years and staff there know her kids by first name. She’s never had a problem buying alcohol.

“I go there every couple of days to buy groceries,” she said.

“When I had the kids with me it was one bottle of wine. I would have understood if I was buying several cartons of beer but one bottle of wine between six people?

“Other customers think it’s ridiculous too but it’s also happened to them.”

Ms Aholova said she spoke to other supervisors who apologised. They referred her back to the manager, but he’s standing by the decision not to sell her the bottle.

It hasn’t stopped her from shopping at the store though.

“I went back last night (Thursday) with eight kids and bought a bottle of wine,” she said.

According to New Zealand Alcohol Law, it’s illegal to supply alcohol to anyone under 18 years old unless the person supplying it is the parent or legal guardian.

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Countdown’s Alcohol Responsibility manager Paul Radich said in a statement staff “may have been a little overcautious in this instance and we apologise to the customer”.

However, he’s standing by the store’s policy.

“Our policy is that where there’s a person in a group who looks under 25 and our team has reason to believe beer or wine is going to be supplied to a minor, we reserve the right to ask for ID or to refuse the sale,” Mr Radich said.

“We take our responsibility around selling alcohol really seriously because there are significant consequences if we get it wrong.”

He added the supermarket’s team has to make “a lot of judgement calls every day”.

Ms Aholova said she’s aware of the law and jokingly suggested she might have to bring proof her children are hers.

Countdown NZ has been contacted for comment.