Just a Little One

[wagegoth]

Checking out last night at Lucky, there was a man with his two kids in front of us. He's busy on his cell phone, the whole time unloading his cart, mostly loaded with liquor. It's 9:00 pm, I'm thinking it's a little late to get the party going, but, whatever.

Checker tells him the total, he starts peeling off cash, still trying to hold his oh-so-important conversation (which I automatically tuned out). Lots of cash. I wasn't paying attention (see how much I try to ignore other people), so I don't know the total. I did notice that he had a few CCs or debit cards while digging through his cash.

He's still holding cash in his hand, but apparently he wants to pay the exact amount, so he starts asking his tween-age kids what cash they have. The checker says, "I'm sorry, I can't take payment from children." He keeps asking the kids. She keeps saying, "I'm sorry, I can't take payment from children." Lather, rinse, repeat about three more times.

Finally (thank you!), he puts his frikkin' phone down and actually listens to the checker. He pays the rest himself and finally leaves.

It didn't take too long, and my older son was with me, so we were chatting and hanging out, but I wondered what would have happened if there had been someone waiting behind this guy who was in a hurry to get to a party, or home with the booze?

[blas]

9:00 PM around here is when most liquor sales are done for the day. Very few stores will sell after 9:00 PM.

[king4aday]

9:00 PM around here is when most liquor sales are done for the day. Very few stores will sell after 9:00 PM.

thats because its against the law in WI for liquor stores to be open after 9 (unless the liquor store is attached to a bar...then they can stay open til midnight)

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Here it's 7pm. But in Myrtle Beach, I think they are open very late, which is odd, but I'm not complaining. I think the entire city has some sort of special liquor licence.

[wagegoth]

In California you can't sell alcohol between 2:00 am and 6:00 am, which means those beer goggles can get pretty thick. That would explain a lot of things.

[Shabo]

It may be a little late for a parent of two children, but certainly not too late for college students. Most of the time, college kids won't leave their dorms/apartments/whatever until 10:30 pm!

[Anakah]

I'm sure its a really dumb question but why does it matter where he gets the money? As long as he hands it to you thats okay right? At my job they've gotten me so confused about minors and violations that things that are normal no longer make sense.

For example. I work in a casino cage. It is now okay for children to accompany their parents while the parents are doing gaming transactions. Minors can also come up by themselves to get change or to cash traveler checks. Go figure, right?

Annoys me when the kids are screaming and I'm trying to count money out.

[Dreamstalker]

There's also the occurrence of a minor giving the adult the cash to buy booze (although I think in this case it was plain that's not what was transpiring). As long as it's crystal-clear the adult is buying the liquor for themselves, where does it matter where the money comes from?

(if the guy wanted to pay the exact amount, he just could have used plastic in the first place, kept the cash and made a note of how short the cash was, if buying for a group).

[wagegoth]

I would guess that on a store video it's going to look bad for the clerk. Who knows? What if the tapes are checked randomly? It's probably corporate policy to be "better safe than sorry" in that type of situation.

Think about all the posters on this board who can't or won't sell cigarettes or alcohol to anyone who has an underage person with them. They're being safe. My assumption is the clerk is making absolutely clear that in no way is she accepting any money from anyone underage for any items that can only be purchased by an adult. She certainly didn't refuse to sell the man the alcohol, she just would not accept money from the children, directly or indirectly, for it. This may be a strict interpretation of California law.

[Dreamstalker]

True, cameras can't make judgments about stuff like that, they only see what they see and so would corporate. Makes sense now.

[Primer]

Not quite as drastic, but I can take my parents into Sams Club or the PX with me, but neither one of them can actually pay for anything. I have to be the one to hand over the money to the clerk.

[Dreamstalker]

My grandparents used to take my dad and I to the PX when we visited, and they had to be the ones to actually pay for things. Most of the time I would give my grandfather the money for whatever I wanted before we got in line, but the clerks never seemed to have a problem if I forgot (usually, he'd pay with a check and I would just give him the money on the way out). Most of the workers at that PX knew him, so if I was the only one buying something it wasn't a problem as long as he was with me.