carding? Just buying beer

most likely just an employee who's worried about getting caught by the management fornot carding someone who looks under 40 (it's sad and lame I know)

I work in retail, so I think I can provide an adequate answer for this. First, many stores have systems in place that won't allow the sale to continue without putting in an actual birth date. The information isn't collected, its just in place to protect the business. If a cashier sells alcohol to a minor they are subject to a $500 personal fine, and arrest, and will be terminated immediately. And the store is also subject to fines going up to $25,000 and the loss of their liscense to sell liquor. There's no person's business that's worth that cashier's job and the fines imposed. So it's nothing personal, you just can't be too careful, especially if you've already been stung once or twice before.

"David" wrote in news:ohutd.4672$ snipped-for-privacy@newsread3.news.pas.earthlink.net:

Yes, yes, the government is involved in a massive conspiracy to collect personal information about beer drinkers. If you warp your license in tinfoil, then they can't get to you.

Sheesh. If a clerk sells booze to a minor, they have to pay a huge fine. They're covering their asses however they can.

I think we all know that.

As noted before, the problem is chains saying that they have to card EVERYBODY, even the matronly grandmother buying her bottle of gin.

Interestingly, I can probably count the actual number of times I've been carded on the fingers of one hand. This is probably because: 1) I didn't even try to buy underaged; 2) the places I buy beer/wine/etc. from don't cater to underaged buyers; and 3) I'm never buying the cheap stuff.

Hell at your age you should be flattered. I know I am.

_Randal

On Wed, 8 Dec 2004 09:59:30 -0600, Randal wrote (in article ):

At 30 I was flattered At 40 I was annoyed At 50 I was baffled At 60 I found it thoroughly un-necessary, and I always forgot my wallet At 70 I only get carded for cigarettes

You know I never buy the cheap stuff either. A bomber of Stone Ruination, a DFH 90 minute IPA, and a Rogue Shakespeare stout and still I get carded. It must be something else about you...

_Randal

I'm 37 and our local chain - Pick'nSave cards EVERYBODY - you can be 80 and they will card you. Yes, it is friggin stupid - even when I go in there a couple/three times a week - the same idiot cards me each and every time. Don't support them if you don't like it - find a liquor store where once they know you they don't card you... But then - you have your wallet out to pay - how hard is it to flash your ID?

No what's worse is one time I was visiting a friend out of town just after college, went into a grocery store with him where he also bought some beer (or tried), and they asked for my I.D.! I left it at the house, so they wouldn't sell to him, because I might be a minor. But the guy in the line next to us had his 5 year old with him and they didn't card the 5 year old! Who writes these stupid discriminatory laws? What does me being old enough or not have to do with a legal adults right to legally purchase alcohol. People are really sticking their noses where I cant see how it belongs. Once somebody understands the law, how easy is it to sidestep it if necessary. Just go in line behind them with a candy bar and say you don't know them,or oops screwed up, next store, this time leave the minor in the car.. Duh! Stupid laws, stupid people who write them. I'm still pissed over that one.

Now days I just have it out. Most clerks get a hard time about it, and I never harass them, there doing the job, same as we would. They appreciate it when they don't have to ask or fight. Ought to just be a law just to show it. Clear expectations make all the difference, that's all I'm saying.

Mike

Exactly. If you know you're buying alcohol before you go into the store, how hard is it to have your ID ready? Its not like its a big surprise that you might be carded. As someone who works in retail, we do appreciate it when people simply show it. There's no reason to get all pissy and throw a fit and ruin someone's day just because you're too lazy to flash your ID. You don't get pissy with the cop when he asks to see it, don't get pissy with your cashier. It doesn't help anyone and no one ends up feeling better and it doesn't change any policies because you felt like being a little bitch.

college, went into a grocery store with him where he also bought some beer (or tried), and they asked for my I.D.! I left it at the house, so they wouldn't sell to him, because I might be a minor. But the guy in the line next to us had his 5 year old with him and they didn't card the 5 year old! Who writes these stupid discriminatory laws?

If you don't make any exceptions ever, you don't get stung ever. If you owned a business and it ended up costing you $10,000 plus the loss of your liqour liscense plus the loss of an employee because someone decided someone looked old enough and happened to be wrong, wouldn't you tell your employees not to make exceptions? That would be my idea of common sense.

Well, you're right... kind of... I have no problem being carded everytime I go in, but carding someone who is _obviously_ over 60 is just plain foolish... is it not? And if the 60+ year old man didn't have his license should they not sell to him??? Here they would not... that, in my opinion, is not common sense.

The problem with this, it seems to me, is the same with "zero tolerance" it takes away the ability as well as the opportunity to think.

I don't think its foolish, I think its good business. Who's to say exactly where the line is that you stop carding? You might as well avoid crossing the line by not having a line to cross. If you lose your liqour liscense you lose your way to put food on the table if you're a liqour store owner. It's illegal to sell to a minor, and if you have a problem with being carded to help keep minors from drinking then I consider that foolish. Chances are you DROVE to the store in a car, and would have to have your liscense upon request anyway if you were pulled over or there happened to be a liscense check set up on a road you were traveling. If you seriously consider it inconvenient to show your liscense, you need to re-organize your wallet.

As for whether or not I would sell to a person who appeared to be 60 years old, if I was the owner and I was checking out the customer, yes, I would sell to him without ID. Yet I would still instruct my employees not to simply because you can't trust someone else's judgement 100% of the time, so you might as well just take the thought process out of it and instruct them to not make exceptions. You can't trust your income on someone else's idea of common sense.

Around here (downstate Illinois) many businesses carry a sign saying they will card anyone who looks like they're under 30 years old. I can't recall getting carded in the past five years. (In fact, the only place I got carded in recent memory was at the GABF.)

it was in vancouver i walked into bclcb i was almost 30, maybe 28 he wanted my ID so i kissed him and the security guard, because it was a day before my birthdayy

you can never go back