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College Idiots: The Alcohol Edition~Long

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  • College Idiots: The Alcohol Edition~Long

    BG: I work and live in a college town. Good ole Sam Walton has some rules in his store that we mere employees must follow. If you look to be under a certain age and you're buying alcohol or tobacco I have to card you. That includes everyone in your group too..if one person in your group doesn't have ID, then I cannot and will not sell to you. The college kids know this...and they're jerks about it! These stories have happened over the past two weeks..with the most recent being last night but at least it had a bit of manager awesomeness. FTR There are signs posted on ALL of the registers informing customers of our carding policy.

    Sucky Customer1~ A guy came up to buy alcohol and I asked him for ID. He happily produced his ID and bought the alcohol. The suck comes in here.. There were a couple of young looking girls lurking about a few registers down. I had no reason to think they were with this guy...he walked out alone. HOWEVER when they finally came up to the register to purchase their stuff....he came waltzing back in and paid for their stuff -.- Yay...Thana might have just unknowingly made a 3rd party sale.

    Sucky Customer 2~ Single guy comes up to my register with a bottle of wine, I card him, make the sale and everything is happy. Until a friend of mine who's hubby works at the store informs me that the dude I just sold alcohol to, the one I thought was alone..walked out of the store with his girlfriend..who had been in the game room and was underage -.- Something my friend wouldn't have known if the girlfriend hadn't been talking about how she only had to wait another year before she was legally able to buy alcohol.

    Sucky Customer 3~ Last night I was the only cashier on register and my walkie-talkie wasn't working. This isn't uncommon for 3rd shift...so naturally I get a line which I take care of an then I get three guys who come into my line right ahead of a huge order: 1 with a case of beer, another with a bottle of whiskey and a third with a Pepsi. The guy with the Pepsi hands over money to the guys with the alcohol right in front of me. Oh and the one with the beer wanted tobacco which meant I had to go to another register. I let my customer with the huge order know I was changing register really fast to sell tobacco and thankfully they were cool with it.

    So I run down to the tobacco register..and only the guy with the beer follows me. I ask him what he wants and proceed to tell him I need his buddies ID's too. He's asking why..I explain to him that it's to prevent alcohol and tobacco from being sold to minors and I need to make sure that they're all of age. He huffs and puffs but calls his friends over... The dude with the Pepsi is making cracks about my carding him for Pepsi and I told him what I told his friend. The one with the bottle of whiskey said "that's a stupid policy. We're all of age why can't you just take our word for it?"

    At this point I was short on patience with them and I kind of snapped "It's not my personal policy it's the store's policy which complies with federal law in regards to not making underage sales. I don't feel like risking a 5k fine and jail time simply because people want to drink. I enjoy my life too much. Have a good night." After they left and I got back to my customer with the large order and apologized....one of my managers came up and I let her know what I said and why I said it just in case one of them decided to make a complaint. She looked at me and said "They have no reason to complain. Policy is posted at all registers if they don't like it tough. I'm surprised you didn't deny them. If they come through again and give you hassle, call me up here and I'll deal with them."

    Wow that was kind of long...but it felt good to get out!

  • #2
    People need to pull up their big boy pants and stop whining when staff follows the policy--and the law!

    Sounds like a good manager to be working under, though.

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    • #3
      I hate it when people want you to take their word for it that they're such and such age---these people never have ID and usually come in a group also. My store doesn't ID for booze/tobacco, but because we're a porn store. They don't get that it's also against the law. I told my store manager that I want to take some of our large floppy toys to their stupid noggin.

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      • #4
        ID stories have plenty of attitude, but I think that last type has the most: when they ARE of age, and DO have their ID on them, and STILL raise a stink. Why why why? Nine times out of ten, they are getting out their wallet anyway!!! (As if avoiding that herculean effort were an excuse.)

        Not to 'Fail To See The Suck' here or anything, but what's the policy on being "in a group?" Whether the girls got access to the alcohol purchased by the guys in the first two stories here (And I think we can all safely assume they did.), it seems like you and the store were pretty well shielded from liability in that they weren't interacting in any noticeable way until after the sale. I understand the reasoning behind the policy, but wonder how far out of your way you have to go to enforce it.

        (And being from a college town myself, welcome aboard, I'm sure you'll have plenty of SC's to regale us with, Thana. )

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        • #5
          "Why can't you just take our word for it?" Well, Duuuhhhh, genius...

          Don't you want to just stand there and say, "You think about that for minute"..? Except they probably don't have the brains to do it.
          When you start at zero, everything's progress.

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          • #6
            Quoth sms001 View Post
            it seems like you and the store were pretty well shielded from liability in that they weren't interacting in any noticeable way until after the sale.
            Don't put money on that. My friend was arrested for sale to a minor. The guy was 20.5 years old and had a very convincing fake. In fact the quality of the fake was the only thing that kept her from jail time.

            She *still* had three years probation and had to pay a serious fine (her store covered that thankfully) which annoyed the hell out all of us. The courts deemed that the fake was of significant quality as to pass all of the ways that the clerks could verify it. It even had the hologram.

            Turns out that a batch of the blank cards had been stolen and were used to make quality fakes. Hence the hologram. And yet she *still* got nailed to the fucking wall by the legal system for something she could not control.

            Package stores in that state have lobbied for a scanner that would allow them to scan the bar code and verify it with the DMV to ensure that this would not happen again (my friend was not the only one nailed to the wall that year) but the state refused to allow that to happen.

            A lot of convenience stores that sold alcohol let their liquor licenses lapse and stopped selling beer as a result.

            So don't count on immunity from liability. In this "Zero-Tolerance" society...they'll crucify whomever they want.
            I never lost my faith in humanity. Can't lose what you never had right?

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            • #7
              The policy on being in a group is anyone we see walking into the store together, people who appear to be together,(as in Amanda and Ally are making separate purchases, walked in at different times and drove to the store separately. Amanda is in front of Ally and is buying alcohol whereas Ally is not. They seem to know each other and strike up a conversation appearing to be together just making different transactions. As a cashier I have no way of knowing that they walked in at different times/drove separately so I have to assume they're together and card them both), people who come to the register together and are obviously a group..even if only one person is buying something, people we see handing another person money..even if it's for like a candy bar..if the person they handed money to is buying alcohol..we have to card both of them. Even if the person buying alcohol is the only one..and somebody comes up and talks to them..we're told to assume they're together. Now if two people are in line and are making separate transactions and are both buying alcohol..we normally don't card them together 'cause we'll end up carding them separately.

              From the way it was put to us in training and considering everything is on camera...if they were to get into trouble and booze was discovered and they were underage...they would be able to trace the sale back to myself and my store. Granted by the time I realized they were actually with people that had purchased alcohol, I had already made the sale and completed the transaction and in a perfect world the cameras would be able to prove I had no knowledge they were together...but Wally likes to put quite a bit of responsibility on the employees without directly putting it there. IE if I had seen the people lurking about..according to Wally, I should have asked the dudes if they were with anyone else.

              Sadly the majority of the kids have figured this part out and will enter the store around times we're incredibly busy (thus distracted) walk around for a bit then split up. Sometimes the cashiers get lucky in that another employee sees them together/over hears them talking about splitting up. Not always though.

              Comment


              • #8
                One of the most ridiculous encounters (not an SC, just ridiculous) I had while checking was with a mom who had a whole cart full of groceries, just your basic weekly stuff, and happened to have a bottle of wine in there as well. Her tab came out to just over the cash she had, and she asked her son who was with her (about 9 years old) for a quarter he had. As soon as she took that quarter, I was legally bound to deny the alcohol sale....

                She was frustrated, but I was very grateful that she put the blame where it belonged (on the legal technicalities) and not on me.

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                • #9
                  Thanks for the rundown Thana. I knew we were getting pretty ridiculous in this country, but had no idea it went that far. Sorry you have to be so omniscient in such a sticky situation.

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                  • #10
                    In NYS, the clerk is responsible for any third-party sale that they cannot reasonably prevent. This puts us in a bit of a quandary, because in any given group of 22 year olds, there's likely to be one 20 year old. Which means we have to train our customers to leave their underage friends where we cannot see them.

                    I've denied many a sale where one person in the group does not have ID, or where one person in the group is underage, even if it's a younger sibling or they say "I'm not drinking." Because people lie, and I'm not risking huge fines and the loss of my store's license for a $20 sale.

                    We have a scanner. I use it religiously, especially if I think there's even the tiniest possibility of a fake. Haven't caught one yet, though I have caught several stings, and passed every one with flying colours. It's also the only time the Boss doesn't have an issue with people storming off angry.

                    Another advantage to IDing - I may have caught a stolen card because the kid's name on the ID didn't match the card name.

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                    • #11
                      Quoth Ashaela View Post
                      Her tab came out to just over the cash she had, and she asked her son who was with her (about 9 years old) for a quarter he had. As soon as she took that quarter, I was legally bound to deny the alcohol sale....
                      Sounds like you had a catch-22 situation. With the alcohol, she needs to borrow a quarter from her (clearly underage) son, meaning you have to deny the sale. Without the alcohol, she has enough cash for her purchases, so she doesn't need to borrow the quarter, so it's OK to sell her the booze. Of course, if she had decided to not purchase ONE ITEM (since she only needed to borrow a quarter), she wouldn't have needed to borrow the quarter, and you could have sold her the booze.

                      Since college is an institution of higher learning, I thought you had to be SMART to go there. Smart way of handling 3rd party sales? The one person in the dorm/group of friends who is of age takes orders and collects money AWAY FROM THE STORE. "Designated buyer" goes to the store ALONE, gets carded, and buys the booze. They go back to the dorm/meeting place where the store staff can't see what's going on, and distribute the hooch.
                      Any fool can piss on the floor. It takes a talented SC to shit on the ceiling.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Now wolfie, you should know better then to assign logic to SC's. Logic and SC's are bitter enemies
                        Engaged to the amazing Marmalady. She is my Silver Dragon, shining as bright as the sun. I her Black Dragon (though good honestly), dark as night..fierce and strong.

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                        • #13
                          I probably should have reported this guy, but that's in hind sight and over 10 years ago. I was 25 at time. I was also wearing my high school letter jacket, because the cat who hated everyone decided my normal jacket was a perfectly fine place for a nap and a hairball. My hubby, who was 24 at the time, looked admittedly, 35. I did not. (From what another liquor store's employee told me around that time, I looked 15 and thought my sister who was three years younger than me looked older. >.>)

                          We came in together, picked out our drinks of choice together and came up to the register together. The guy at the counter just glared at me. And glared. And glared. I got the hint and handed the booze off to the hubby, while right in front of him. Only then did he stop glaring and finish the sale. And he carded neither of us.

                          I should have reported it. I knew that there was something wrong, because the Mart of Wall that I worked had a strict "card the group policy," not just because of federal laws, but because of state and city laws/ordinances to get a license!

                          SC wise... Oh, the Mart of Wall was again, strict on that group carding! If you came up to the register together, you all got carded. Period.

                          I do wish they'd left in the feature where you had to scan the ID card into the register to buy restricted items. At least then the cashier could argue, "Unfortunately, I can't complete the transaction without an ID," even if it requires the carding of EVERYONE.
                          If I make no sense, I apologize. I'm constantly interrupted by an actual toddler.

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                          • #14
                            Quoth Mongo Skruddgemire View Post
                            Don't put money on that. My friend was arrested for sale to a minor. The guy was 20.5 years old and had a very convincing fake. In fact the quality of the fake was the only thing that kept her from jail time.

                            She *still* had three years probation and had to pay a serious fine (her store covered that thankfully) which annoyed the hell out all of us. The courts deemed that the fake was of significant quality as to pass all of the ways that the clerks could verify it. It even had the hologram.
                            I'm sorry; this is fucking retarded.

                            I totally understand we don't want to be selling alcohol to minors, but to ruin a person's life over somebody who's six months away from being legal anyway and managed to cobble together a very high-quality fake ID?

                            And then make it difficult for other sellers to identify a similarly-realistic fake?

                            Somebody, probably many somebodies, weren't thinking when they wrote that particular law.

                            By any chance, was this a sting? If so, that's double douche-tastic on the part of the local authorities. Total revenue grab.
                            Knowledge is power. Power corrupts. Study hard. Be evil.

                            "I never said I wasn't a horrible person."--Me, almost daily

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                            • #15
                              Hate to break it to people, but those scanners are worthless. They are only as good as the state database, which is often times out of date or incomplete or even just plain wrong. With California IDs we are puting our gaming license on the line (well, other than the gaming board knows how stupid California is) because all state IDs that aren't drivers licenses have "under 21" coded into the magnetic stripe, no matter how old the person is (I've gotten that message when I've swiped the card of a World War 2 vet), Oregon's cards are too thick to use in a scanner designed for Nevada cards, and I've had my Nevada ID for three months now and it still isn't in the scanner database (I just verified it right now with my scanner at work), and not all states even allow other states to access their information to be able to have a database for the scanner to access.
                              So all the scanner does is add another layer of problems that can be pinned on you.
                              If you wish to find meaning, listen to the music not the song

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