At the time the store I worked at opened, we were only allowed by law to sell beer and wine - liquor could only be sold at state-owned mini-marts. A few years back, there was a vote to change the law, and we got to sell liquor. And, being on the graveyard shift, it's been the bane of my existence ever since.
Our liquor shelves are located in the customer service alcove, which, after 10 PM, is locked with a big metal gate. Between then and cutoff time, if someone wants liquor, the cashier has to page a supervisor (read: me) to get it out of the cage for them. Common sense would dictate that the transaction proceed something like this;
1) Customer tells cashier what they want
2) Cashier pages me
3) Cashier tells me the customer's request
4) I get it for them
5) They pay cashier
6) Everyone goes on with their lives happily
Unfortunately, it's far more often (especially on the weekends, and especially during the last hour before cutoff) that it goes like this;
1) Customer tells the cashier they want "a bottle"
2) Cashier asks what bottle
3) Customer doesn't know and leaves the line to go stare through the bars of the cage
4) Cashier pages me hoping they'll have made up their mind in the time it takes me to make it to the front (which can be 1-2 minutes considering how big our store is)
5) I get there and the customer has wandered off
6) I go back to work
7) Cashier pages me again a minute or two later when the customer returns
8) I arrive to find them still staring through the cage
9) I ask what I can get for them
10) They either respond "Uhhhh..." or make a vague request like "Vodka" or "something brown"
11) I ask for specifics
12) They ask if they can go in the cage and look
13) I tell them no, the cage is employees-only after 10 PM
14) They say they can't see anything and that it wasn't like this "last time"
15) I state that this is how we've done it every night since we started liquor sales and ask if I can help them make a decision
16) After about 30 seconds, they start asking for prices on either the very cheapest bottles ("Autocrat", "Wealthy & Elusive", etc.) or the most expensive bottles ("Silver Swan", "Boss", O'Shaugnessy, etc.)
17) I rattle off the prices from memory, including sales tax, because I've had this conversation so many times and done the math in my head so many times that I can tell you without even looking at the tag what the post-tax price is on most of our more popular items
18) They insist that the tag reads a much lower price (even though a few minutes ago they insisted they couldn't see anything through the cage)
19) I explain how our state's liquor tax works (20.5% sales tax, plus a volume tax of $3.77 per liter)
20) They ask for a pint of "Autocrat"
21) I tell them we don't sell that in pints - we have fifths and half-gallons, the only pints and minis we have are for top-shelf brands "Silver Swan" and "Imperial Circlet" and so forth
22) They start conversing among themselves about their tastes, and may or may not have to make a phone call
23) I look at the clock and remind them that we need a decision soon
24) They finally settle on a mid-shelf bottle like "Definit"
25) I tell them I'll bring it to the cashier
26) They try to hand me ID and/or cash through the gate
27) I tell them the cashier will handle that
28) They're shocked that they have to stand in line and ask if they can use self-checkout
29) Self-checkout is closed
30) They hang their heads in defeat and go stand in line
31) Everyone walks away feeling like they wasted their time and my boss asks me why I'm taking such a long time getting my area stocked
And that's assuming that, once they finally get to the "providing currency in exchange for goods" part of the transaction, they actually have money, they have their IDs ready to present, and they haven't spent so much time dicking around that it's past 2 AM and we now can't legally sell it to them (and no, it doesn't matter how long you've been in line or when you walked through the door, and yes you can speak to my boss and he'll tell you the exact same thing I just did, thanks for playing.)
Honestly, the easiest liquor sales to handle are the broke-ass alcoholics - they know right off the bat that they want a fifth of "Autocrat" 100 proof, they know to the penny whether they can afford it or not, and they don't waste a second of anyone's time in asking for it, paying for it, and leaving with it.
Our liquor shelves are located in the customer service alcove, which, after 10 PM, is locked with a big metal gate. Between then and cutoff time, if someone wants liquor, the cashier has to page a supervisor (read: me) to get it out of the cage for them. Common sense would dictate that the transaction proceed something like this;
1) Customer tells cashier what they want
2) Cashier pages me
3) Cashier tells me the customer's request
4) I get it for them
5) They pay cashier
6) Everyone goes on with their lives happily
Unfortunately, it's far more often (especially on the weekends, and especially during the last hour before cutoff) that it goes like this;
1) Customer tells the cashier they want "a bottle"
2) Cashier asks what bottle
3) Customer doesn't know and leaves the line to go stare through the bars of the cage
4) Cashier pages me hoping they'll have made up their mind in the time it takes me to make it to the front (which can be 1-2 minutes considering how big our store is)
5) I get there and the customer has wandered off
6) I go back to work
7) Cashier pages me again a minute or two later when the customer returns
8) I arrive to find them still staring through the cage
9) I ask what I can get for them
10) They either respond "Uhhhh..." or make a vague request like "Vodka" or "something brown"
11) I ask for specifics
12) They ask if they can go in the cage and look
13) I tell them no, the cage is employees-only after 10 PM
14) They say they can't see anything and that it wasn't like this "last time"
15) I state that this is how we've done it every night since we started liquor sales and ask if I can help them make a decision
16) After about 30 seconds, they start asking for prices on either the very cheapest bottles ("Autocrat", "Wealthy & Elusive", etc.) or the most expensive bottles ("Silver Swan", "Boss", O'Shaugnessy, etc.)
17) I rattle off the prices from memory, including sales tax, because I've had this conversation so many times and done the math in my head so many times that I can tell you without even looking at the tag what the post-tax price is on most of our more popular items
18) They insist that the tag reads a much lower price (even though a few minutes ago they insisted they couldn't see anything through the cage)
19) I explain how our state's liquor tax works (20.5% sales tax, plus a volume tax of $3.77 per liter)
20) They ask for a pint of "Autocrat"
21) I tell them we don't sell that in pints - we have fifths and half-gallons, the only pints and minis we have are for top-shelf brands "Silver Swan" and "Imperial Circlet" and so forth
22) They start conversing among themselves about their tastes, and may or may not have to make a phone call
23) I look at the clock and remind them that we need a decision soon
24) They finally settle on a mid-shelf bottle like "Definit"
25) I tell them I'll bring it to the cashier
26) They try to hand me ID and/or cash through the gate
27) I tell them the cashier will handle that
28) They're shocked that they have to stand in line and ask if they can use self-checkout
29) Self-checkout is closed
30) They hang their heads in defeat and go stand in line
31) Everyone walks away feeling like they wasted their time and my boss asks me why I'm taking such a long time getting my area stocked
And that's assuming that, once they finally get to the "providing currency in exchange for goods" part of the transaction, they actually have money, they have their IDs ready to present, and they haven't spent so much time dicking around that it's past 2 AM and we now can't legally sell it to them (and no, it doesn't matter how long you've been in line or when you walked through the door, and yes you can speak to my boss and he'll tell you the exact same thing I just did, thanks for playing.)
Honestly, the easiest liquor sales to handle are the broke-ass alcoholics - they know right off the bat that they want a fifth of "Autocrat" 100 proof, they know to the penny whether they can afford it or not, and they don't waste a second of anyone's time in asking for it, paying for it, and leaving with it.
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