Do you have to be a certain age to buy matches?

Answer 1

Apparently there's no actual age restriction on them, because they're safety matches - even though they would still produce a flame as normal, so could be misused. However its technically at the discretion of the cashier. I used to work in a supermarket and a kid (around 10/11 ish) tried to buy them, so naturally i said no unless he had ID. He went away and came back half an hour later with his mum, who had apparently sent him to go get them for cooking purposes. Obviously she wasn't happy about me telling the kid no so she spoke to the manager. The manager wasn't sure so he swiped them through the till and it didn't give an 'age check' prompt like it would be normal matches, cigarettes and alcohol, so he had to sell them. I thought fair enough, but what bothers me is that the mum should have naturally thought that her kid would be told no to buying matches and just gone to the shop herself. Clearly the kid would now know that he can buy them and so it opens up the possibility of him and his friends being able to buy them one day for the purpose of setting fires etc. It saddens me that its the parent who actually doesn't care about these things, but I'm the bad guy and in the wrong.

Answer 2

Yes! Because they think you will try

lighting stuff on fire.