Coles Liquor vs Liquorland

Don’t worry about it mate. Good on you for actually having a job and contributing to society unlike the scumbag emo kids who hang out on goon bags in Civic all day. Nothing wrong with working retail, I’d say most people start off their career that way.

AngryHenry said :

I hope that one day you have the experience of knowing someone with autism, maybe it will open your mind a bit more.

I quite happen to know someone with autism quite well, he sleeps in my bed and shares my body.

AngryHenry said :

I think your time would have been better spent looking for a new job if you don’t like the one you’re in.

Look at all of the literary talent you could have poured into your new job application for starters!

Well how many jobs other than retail can be found by an under 18 with only a Cert 1 in IT?

This is my life, it’s ending one minute at a time and if I can avoid jumping through an extra hoop in my day to day then it’s a good thing…

AR – truly crappy name mate. I hope that one day you have the experience of knowing someone with autism, maybe it will open your mind a bit more.

I think your time would have been better spent looking for a new job if you don’t like the one you’re in.

Look at all of the literary talent you could have poured into your new job application for starters!

Twice I have been lucky to have had my six pack of beer scanned as one bottle at my local IGA- I have no issue with 15 year olds selling beer- they don’t know any better apparently!

for the lazy, or time limited, you can now buy grog and smokes from coles online. might be a good idea though, to chuck in some food, too.

Woolies occasionally do the 20% any case of beer deal which is pretty good. Otherwise I head to Denman Cellars.

And regardless, the prices in Woolies and Coles leaves much to be desired! I also choose to share around my cash when buying goods. Local Liquor there’s one near you 🙂

thinking about it, if the grog was in the supermarket together with the food, my alcoholism would have been far, far worse… I wouldn’t have eaten anything…

Woolies in Gungahlin probably seperated their bottle shop from the supermarket for this reason. I guess they got fed up with underaged staff copping abuse from people who can’t read signs properly and put an end to it. It sucks because I’d rather buy my grog and groceries in one go as a matter of convenience.

Pseudo Nym said :

Welcome to the world of retail.

Honestly, grow up and accept the fact that (unfortunately) as a checkout operator in a supermarket you are automatically responsible for everything that has gone wrong in each customers day so far. People wont read, will assume the rules make exceptions for them and are otherwise there simply to cause them discomfort.

Coles could use some form of signposting that is both more visible and at eye-level, but even if they did, people wouldn’t pay attention.

try working in the liquor section at woolies belco. I was 21, and still had to explain to numerous people that they couldn’t just send their kids in to buy the grog. Then, having to work the later shift out at a checkout, i got to hear about how i was:

1. incompetent
2. to blame for their woes
3. lucky there was a counter separating them from me
(though, i did offer to catch up with them later, after i finished work)
4. the reason they don’t shop at woolies.

customers don’t read the signs, they don’t care that the sign says express lane, 12 items or less, since they are in a rush with a full trolley, or that you must be 18 to buy smokes or grog…

a sign telling them that they can only buy grog from designated checkouts has no impact.

Vic Bitterman said :

Cantily said :

I must say that the current arrangements at my local Coles (hardly any signs, etc) do make for good street theatre. Many a time I’ve been stuck in line and have really enjoyed the dramatic interplay between a desperate drinker trying to buy their cask or individual throwdown of VB only for them to be turned away by the pimply 15 year old checkout kiddie. Very entertaining!

Yeah? I’ve never observed this in my thousands of visits to the various Coles (and other places) I have associated over my 25 year legal drinking career.

I suspect you embellish the truth somewhat. Agree?

Well, who lets the truth get in the way of a good story? Yet, since my local Coles (Chisholm) got rebuilt and lost is separate liquor shop (which is probably causing the consternation), I have been in line 3 times and have seen that whole scenario go down. The most recent was only last week when the manager was actually shadowing the guy who wanted to buy his cast of whatever. Nice as pie he asked him to move to the other line, but the poor man didn’t want to do that, swore and marched out – probably going to the much better liquor shop up near the fruit shop. It could be a massive coincidence but I suspect it could have even been the OP on the register that day (although I could be wrong).

Just because something doesn’t happen to you, doesn’t mean it didn’t happen – still nice to know that you care 🙂

Cantily said :

I must say that the current arrangements at my local Coles (hardly any signs, etc) do make for good street theatre. Many a time I’ve been stuck in line and have really enjoyed the dramatic interplay between a desperate drinker trying to buy their cask or individual throwdown of VB only for them to be turned away by the pimply 15 year old checkout kiddie. Very entertaining!

Yeah? I’ve never observed this in my thousands of visits to the various Coles (and other places) I have associated over my 25 year legal drinking career.

I suspect you embellish the truth somewhat. Agree?

I must say that the current arrangements at my local Coles (hardly any signs, etc) do make for good street theatre. Many a time I’ve been stuck in line and have really enjoyed the dramatic interplay between a desperate drinker trying to buy their cask or individual throwdown of VB only for them to be turned away by the pimply 15 year old checkout kiddie. Very entertaining!

fabforty said :

Its a harsh reality but any job dealing with the public is going to mean getting a fair bit of agro. Don’t take it personally. Maybe you should think about moving to a job at Woolies if it gets too much.

Won’t do much good because Wollies sells grog in their supermarkets too. Mostly wine though, but they still clearly have the seperate lines for this purpose.

PantsMan said :

I
You may not need an RSA, but the benfit from Coles’ point of view is that when someone leaves your store, gets drunk, and then steals and crashes a bus into a day care centre, they can show that they have taken reasonable steps to train their staff and are less likely to be legally responsable.

difference is that rarely you’d get as many intoxicated persons in a retail/CLG environs than in a bar purchasing alcohol.

CLG are generally (LL & VC’s) are more expensive that the Local Liquor Independent stores

“You may not need an RSA, but the benfit from Coles’ point of view is that when someone leaves your store, gets drunk, and then steals and crashes a bus into a day care centre, they can show that they have taken reasonable steps to train their staff and are less likely to be legally responsable.”

This is Australia, not the USA. I have a funny feeling that the stealing and crashing of a bus wouldn’t be something ‘reasonably foreseeable’ when alcohol is sold. The Nadruku defence is also gone in the ACT (the ‘I was too pissed to be responsible’ one). Not that ACT Courts pay attention to it

Meh. I’ve noticed coles liquor is expensiver than woolies liquor anyway..so, i shall just shop there. Hurrah.

Actually there is no restriction on the age one can sell alcohol in the ACT, I believe this may be different to NSW. In the ACT all laws surrounding the possession of alcohol and entry into licenced areas of underage people do not apply to any employee of the business.

Most decent businesses do not allow people under 18 years old to sell alcohol and require the staff to do the Responsible Service of Alcohol course before then can sell it. You will probably see something similar in the major supermarkets here and they will generally comply with the laws of NSW as well as the ACT.

As for the morons who can’t read signs and subsequently abuse staff to hide ther own lack of brain cells, it’s not restricted to coles. You will find it in pretty much every retail environment because there are a large number of people out there who are lacking a lot of brain cells and will make up any excuse to get in the short line because they are more important than anyone else. Anyway I doubt Coles’ experiment with the alcohol lanes in the middle of the store will last long, it doesn’t work and they lose most of the alcohol to the thieving scum.

I prefer to buy grog and groceries together, much more convenient to do one transaction instead of two. If I have to do a second transaction just for grog I will do it somewhere else (ie a proper liquor shop that is probably cheaper anyway).

I never have trouble reading the sign above the checkout at Coles. It’s a little inconvenient sometimes if the grog line has more people in it than the non-grog line but nothing too stressing.

I think you can sell alcchol when you’re 17 and nine months. I think the law is structured this way to allow young people to get jobs when they’re on the cusp of 18.

You may not need an RSA, but the benfit from Coles’ point of view is that when someone leaves your store, gets drunk, and then steals and crashes a bus into a day care centre, they can show that they have taken reasonable steps to train their staff and are less likely to be legally responsable.

I agree with fabforty, if the presure is too much at Coles, maybe try Woolies. It could be the next big move in your low-level customer service career, and thrust you straight into a management position at Pizza Hut, or Bing Lee. (Don’t want to be too harsh, I’ve done my three years at a quickie-mart). 🙂

AutisticRetard said :

I will change my name if there was a User control panel here

Hi and welcome to RiotAct and congratulations on your first thrashing. Just remember you are just as entitled to a rant as anyone else.

I gather you are quite young and probably grabbed your “name” out of the air without thinking it through. Good on you for trying to change it now, though.

For what its worth, I rarely buy my grog from Coles but when I do, I get quite antsy at those who don’t have alcohol going through the alcohol lanes – maybe they should be turned away as well. Seems you can’t please all the people all the time.

Its a harsh reality but any job dealing with the public is going to mean getting a fair bit of agro. Don’t take it personally. Maybe you should think about moving to a job at Woolies if it gets too much.

astrojax said :

what on earth possessed you to choose it in the first place?

Have you read the post this person made? I believe there is something wrong with him/her, but their self-diagnosis is a bit wrong.

what on earth possessed you to choose it in the first place?

i’d be clicking ‘contact’ at the top of the screen and asking for the site managers to sort you out…

I will change my name if there was a User control panel here

…and they have beer vending machines in the streets in japan, ant! gotta love that…

(my mormon-central story is a little different: xmas/nye there a couple decades back and i wasn’t allowed to use a credit card – even though it was actually a debit card, but would they listen? – to purchase demon liquor, and the friend with me had to threaten a diplomatic incident when they first refused to not charge the duty he was entitled to not pay with his credentials. very bolshy about it all…)

Correct you do not need RSA to serve alcohol in the ACT

Despite their apparent wowzerism regarding grog, the yanks sure make it easy (and cheap) to get your hands on the stuff. I remember feeling like a beer one night around 2am in Salt Lake City, and pedalling my treadly to the 24-hour WalMart to grab some Tecate. In Mormon-central! You can get beer from petrol stations (I have not found one that didn’t have beer), supermarkets, variety stores, you name it.

Working for a big corporation you can’t have much input into stuff like signage.

It is really annoying to queue up and then be told you can’t use that register. I think the best you can do is keep your eyes peeled and try to warn people you can’t scan their wine/beer before they have queued up for ten minutes already.

– On pathetic signage, Big W in civic has a tiny sign two metres in the air above one of the two checkouts, that says ‘5 items or less’. I missed it, and queued for ages with a load of stuff – embarrassing, but I bet stacks of people don’t notice that sign way up in the air.

Just to clarify, RSA (Responsible Service of Alcohol) certificate is not required in the ACT to serve or sell alcohol, so I’m guessing they do it because their Under 18s, legally, can’t sell alcohol. What other stores do illegally is another matter.

Ive noticed one issue that no-one has raised here.. Trading hours. Sure, I can go to the bottle-shop down the road or the IGA that closes at 8pm, however I am a shift worker, and often dont get off work until 10pm. This leaves me 1 hour between my work finishing and the governments mandated cut-off time of 11pm for liquor stores. Unfortunately, the only places available to grab a cold one after a long hot days work, are a few select coles stores, which offer the ability to purchase alcohol as long as the store is open and the law allows. When was the last time you saw a Liquorland or Dan Murphys, or an IGA open until 11pm? Heck, open past 9pm even?

For morons who cant read the signs about which checkouts to use, I have no explanation, but as for why we need such a retail outlet, the market has cornered itself into this position, where a handful of bottleshops actually are open until legal closing time. This is especially prevelant during early week, when some bottle-shops often shut early (several in woden close at 6pm).

Im not the sorta person who goes and buys alcohol with the weekly shopping, its not that big a part of my life, but sometimes after a hard day of work its nice to grab a 6-pack on the way home, and coles (with the liquor aisle, not liquorland) is often the only place even remotely open when I finish work.

Pommy bastard said :

My perspective is a little different to the above. Despite a reasonable price differential I never ever buy my wines from Coles, Wollies or their affiliated grog shops.

The choices there are bland, mainstream, and there is absolutely no chance of good recommendations or advice.

Sure it may be convenient, but how many good local bottle shops have these bland corporate monstrosities put out of business?

How many good small wine makers will never get exposure as the do not produce in sufficient bulk for the giants?

Remember Porters Wine shed at Belco markets, it was everything a wine shop should be. Good advice, hot tips, good recommendation for wine with meals, all the advice you could wish for in fact.

Not there any more is it?

Porters has closed ??!!! I am really sorry about that. They were always nice people and knew their wines. I had a feeling they were doomed as soon as First Choice appeared.

Australia has very strict rules about the sale of alcohol in comparison to the US and many EU countries. Also worth noting is that generally speaking, on a whole people are stupid.

Much in the same way you can only purchase pharmacy-only medicine from a pharmacy/chemist, these people that you speak of are not capable of applying that knowledge to the buying of alcohol.

Do I care that you have to put up with it? No. Even if you have your dream job there’s obligatory crap that everyone has to deal with.

Do I care that people aren’t able to purchase food and alcohol at the same time? No. Although I appreciate the vain efforts of Australian regulation at reducing alcohol abuse, it’s still illegal to sell alcohol in a normal un-licensed supermarket- hence the Liqourlandesque concept. Why would anyone care about profits when one works in the low galleys of a faceless corporation? Seriously, it’s not a rhetorical question… why?

Kick this little bitch off RiotACT now, JB!

Why do checkout people need that silly RSA bit of paper? A bureaucratic process with no tangible benefit…

Does this mean all their staff have done their responsible service of alcohol (RSA) or is the RSA not necessary for selling alcohol retail and Coles is trying it on?

You’ll find that Coles have this system set up so they have the flexibility to have under-age employees man the non-alcohol and those over 18 run the alcohol checkouts. It is against the law for people under-age to serve or sell alcohol.

On the topic of RSA, I’ll think you find that the “sale” of bottled alcohol, is the same as dispensing it from a bar or club. The employees must be trained in RSA to ensure they do not sell alcohol to people not of age, or who are intoxicated. The fact it’s a supermarket instead of a bar is irrelevant.

Welcome to the world of retail.

Honestly, grow up and accept the fact that (unfortunately) as a checkout operator in a supermarket you are automatically responsible for everything that has gone wrong in each customers day so far. People wont read, will assume the rules make exceptions for them and are otherwise there simply to cause them discomfort.

Coles could use some form of signposting that is both more visible and at eye-level, but even if they did, people wouldn’t pay attention.

I noticed at http://www.liquorland.com.au/shop_online2.htm that you can simultaneously buy groceries and alcohol online at the same time with the same payment at http://www.coles.com.au

IGAs have been selling alcohol and groceries in the same store for as long as I can remember and they never ask you to go to specific checkouts to buy it. Does this mean all their staff have done their responsible service of alcohol (RSA) or is the RSA not necessary for selling alcohol retail and Coles is trying it on? I was under the impression you only needed the RSA to work in a bar.

I agree the name is insulting and degrading to people who suffer from the disabilities alluded to here. I suggest it be changed or the user removed.

My perspective is a little different to the above. Despite a reasonable price differential I never ever buy my wines from Coles, Wollies or their affiliated grog shops.

The choices there are bland, mainstream, and there is absolutely no chance of good recommendations or advice.

Sure it may be convenient, but how many good local bottle shops have these bland corporate monstrosities put out of business?

How many good small wine makers will never get exposure as the do not produce in sufficient bulk for the giants?

Remember Porters Wine shed at Belco markets, it was everything a wine shop should be. Good advice, hot tips, good recommendation for wine with meals, all the advice you could wish for in fact.

Not there any more is it?

entirely agree with poptop and swami; or get a divorce from your parents if that’s the name they’ve given you.

i always understood ‘rsa’ to mean ‘republic of south africa’ – what does it mean here and if you’re asking non-coles employees, why use jargon we’re not going to understand? and next, get a life – complain to your management if you don’t think their ‘system’ is working. and coles suck anyway – shop at an iga to support local canberra businesses. and coles employ 3 year olds to man the check out, from this post, so that’s child labour, innit?

did you have a point?

I’ll second that, poptop. The nickname is offensive, nasty, inaccurate, ignorant and should be deregistered.

As for what happens at the checkout, I couldn’t care less about your ‘suffering’ AR because evidently your attitude towards others stinks anyway – which is no doubt why you’re working behind a checkout in Coles.

In NSW, the grog is always in a separate shop and it’s bloody annoying! I’d love to be able to buy everything in one transaction, especially with fees attached to each plastic transaction.

Why do checkout people need that silly RSA bit of paper? A bureaucratic process with no tangible benefit.

People in teh wrong line, happens with things other than grog too. Like the “cash only” lines, and the express lines with a limit of articles, but some dirtbag will always try it on. At Coles in Qbn the other week teh checkout operator firmly evicted such a slimeball from teh line before they got to the counter, and the slimeball tried arguing with her! She got plenty of support from the other customers in the line.

Going to another shop or queue is just another thing to do, so my preference is to be able to do it all at once. That said I do read the signs and don’t harrass checkout staff.

In passing, can I mention how unpleasant and unnecessary I find your RiotACT registration name?

Somebody tell me this post is a wind up

“Do people really care about purchasing alcohol together with their shopping?”

I think the correct question is ‘do people really care’. The answer is no. Dry your eyes princess