Age Checks & Challenge 25

If your basket contains alcohol, tobacco, vapes or anything else age-restricted, we ask you to tick a box confirming you are 18 or over. This page explains what that tick is, what it is not, and what to expect at the door.

What you are confirming

That you are 18 or over, and that you understand a check will happen when the order arrives. It is your own statement, recorded with the order and timestamped.

It is not the age check itself. Ticking a box proves nothing on its own — anyone can tick a box. The check that counts happens at your door, in person, with the rider looking at you and, if needed, at your ID.

We deliberately do not run an online identity check, and we do not ask for your date of birth to place an order. Checking a document in person, at the moment the goods change hands, is a better check than any database lookup made minutes earlier by someone who may not be the person who opens the door.

What Challenge 25 means

If you look under 25, you will be asked for ID — even though the legal age is 18. The margin is deliberate. Guessing whether someone is 18 or 17 from their face is unreliable, so the trade works to 25 instead and asks anyone inside that band. Being asked is not an accusation, and it is not a comment on how old you look. Regular customers get asked too.

ID we can accept

It must have a photograph, your date of birth, and a holographic mark:

• UK photocard driving licence
• Passport
• A proof-of-age card carrying the PASS hologram
• Military ID card
• Biometric residence permit
• A PASS-accredited digital ID

We cannot accept a photograph of an ID on a phone, a bank card, a student card without a PASS hologram, or an ID that is damaged or looks altered. This is not our preference — a rider who accepts one of those has no defence if the sale turns out to be unlawful.

What we do with your ID

The rider looks at it, hands it straight back, and records only the outcome in their app. We do not photograph, scan, copy or keep your ID document. What we store is that a check was done, which method, by which rider, and when.

When a delivery is refused

Your rider will refuse to hand the order over if:

• you look under 25 and cannot produce acceptable ID;
• the ID shows you are under 18, or appears altered;
• you appear intoxicated — it is a criminal offence to serve alcohol to someone who is drunk; or
• the rider believes the order is really for someone under 18. This is called a proxy sale and it is an offence for the buyer as well as for us.

Riders have no authority to make an exception, and asking them to only puts them in a difficult position. If a delivery is refused, the order is cancelled and refunded in full, automatically, including any delivery fee. You do not need to contact us — see Refunds & Cancellations for how quickly the money arrives.

Someone else receiving the order

Whoever opens the door is the person who gets checked, not whoever paid. If you order age-restricted items, someone 18 or over needs to be there to receive them.

We will not leave age-restricted goods unattended, in a porch, or with a neighbour, and we will not hand them to a child to carry inside.

Repeated refusals

Refusals are recorded against your account, and the rider on a later delivery is told a previous order was refused so they know to check carefully. If it happens repeatedly we may decline to serve you.

Why we are strict about this

Selling age-restricted goods to someone underage is a criminal offence for the business and for the individual rider, and it puts the shop's licence at risk. A shop that loses its licence stops trading. That is why the check is not negotiable, and why we would rather refuse an order and refund you than get it wrong.