Nanny State

Woman Required to Show I.D. to Buy a Six-Pack…of Teaspoons

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Apparently British people sometimes buy six-packs of teaspoons at the grocery store. Who knew? Perhaps their spoons get worn out from stirring all that tea?

Anyway, a gal who happens to be a reporter for a grocery store trade publication called (unsurprisingly) The Grocer was innocently buying some teaspoons at Sainsbury's when beep, an I.D. check alert went off at the self-checkout scanner.

When she asked why the purchase had to be verified, she was told the spoons "could be used as drug paraphernalia".

Sainsbury's later changed its story, saying that the alert calling for age verification had been an error. Whew. Sanity restored, right? Wrong. 

"The self-scan system recognised the spoon's SKU as one for a knife," said a spokeswoman. This had now been rectified. 

Of course you have to be 18 to buy cheap cutlery with a dull blade. That makes perfect sense.

Read more Reason on the United Kingdom's crusade against knives.

Via BoingBoing