Why is Aldi asking me if I'm over 18?

We're all for responsible selling of alcohol. But this seems a bit over-zealous.

OK, what's going on at Aldi? At our local store, every single person who buys alcohol, regardless of obvious age and stage in life, is asked whether he or she is over 18*.

We mean even the obviously pensionable. We mean even those of us with a couple of kids hanging off us whose grey roots really do need attention (ahem...). We mean men in flat caps and women in rollers and housecoats. Everyone.

We admit it took us a little while to cotton on and we made eejits of ourselves giggling and blushing at the very nice cashier and telling him he'd "made our day, hee hee". In fact, the only time we seemed under 18 was when we tittered like a baby.

But no, and sorry if you were giggling and blushing too, but we believe there's a policy at work here.

Aldi's stated policy is to check the age of a shopper with alcohol if he or she looks under 25, and they told us the chain has a 100% record in implementing that policy, as reflected in audits by the Responsible Retailers of Alcohol in Ireland (RRAI).

Well, we understand and applaud that. So is it just an extreme implementation of that policy that sees some Aldi stores out of the 160 around the country ask all and sundry whether they're of drink-buying age?

Aldi have told us they have no further comment, which leaves us hanging here, curious and secretly wondering if we do, in fact, look 24 and a half...

*Blackpool Retail Park, Cork