You Should Be Honored

[Estil]

No, they WANT cigs/gin. There are only three needs: food, shelter, and Nintendo

[Estil]

*looks at ID*

"Oh my god! JOE SMITH?! WOW I am honored! Joe Smith here in my store! Imagine! I'm a huge fan!"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Smith_%28basketball%29

Was it this Joe Smith?

[Jester]

Christmas Day I got carded. In a bar that I used to work at, though not by a former coworker (I had never seen this girl before). For those who may be new here or unfamiliar with me, I am 43. And you know what I did when she asked me for my ID? I gave her my ID. You know what my 24 year old friend did when the same waitress asked her for her ID? She gave her her ID. Why? Because neither one of us is a raging doucehbag.

...he says in an angry voice, as he's pulling it out of his wallet, "You should be honored. It's not everyday I pull my ID out for an employee."

If you're buying an age-restricted item and an employee asks you for ID, trust me pal, you're pulling out your damn ID.

It's always the freshly 18s and 21s that think they don't need to be carded.

An encounter years ago between a snotty young woman in my restaurant and myself, after I've informed the group that I will need ID from anyone ordering alcoholic beverages:

HER: "*I* don't have my ID."
ME: "I'm sorry, ma'am, but under the law, I can't serve you an alcoholic beverage without proper identification."
HER: "Well I'M twenty three!"
ME: "Well then YOU should have your ID!"

Also, YES you have to take it out of your wallet. I know, they make the slots in the wallets a bit snug, but the ID HAS to come out. At CStore, we have to not only look at the front to be sure it's you and check the details, but we have to pass the barcode on the back under our scanner.

We don't have such scanners down here, but in out regularly-scheduled alcohol awareness seminars, we are told we must actually hold the ID in our hands, and that means having it out of the wallet. Not only does this avoid the potential for accusations of theft from someone whose wallet we've handled, but it gives us a chance to see the entire ID, including the back. At least one enterprising fellow made a very convincing ID that was inserted into the wallet, but it would not pass muster if removed from behind the plastic wallet window. Myself, I once came upon a fake that looked pretty convincing....until I turned it over and saw the phrase "Not a government issued ID."

For those who are wondering why such a phrase would be on a fake, it removes legal liability from the manufacturer of said ID, as making them without falsely identifying them as actual government documents makes it a free speech issue.

The girl at the checkout scanned me through with no issues and at the end, my friend said to the girl, "Would you have asked him for ID?" pointing at me. The girl scoffed and said, "No. You look over 18 to me."

A common mistake made by many people. "Oh, they look of age to me." I am not so comfortable with such "validation" of their age. Beyond my normal paranoia, it is considered standard policy to card anyone who looks THIRTY or less. (27 for smokes.) I went to high school with a guy who had a full thick beard; I dated a 25 year old who looked she still needed a hall pass. 'Nuff said.

Jeez, how difficult is it to send the overage guy with a written list of the beer you want?!

Precisely what we did in college. We'd hand our money and our list to our over 21 friend, he'd go down to the store, get everything on the list, plus a six or twelve pack for himself, depending on the size of the order and how much we had to bribe his annoyed ass to do it, and we'd get our beer, he'd get his, and the clerk had nothing to complain about, nor any reason to deny the sale. In answer to the question of how difficult was this? Not very. Merely required the slightest ability to plan ahead, which only requires the barest of thinking powers.....

Oh....I think I see the problem here.....

They do stings here from time to time, usually makes the newspaper the next day with the name of the cashier/bartender and location that "failed" the test. One article did give part of the procedure, basically they use an obvious underage person to go in without any id to make a purchase. If the clerk asks for it, they are to say they don't have one, and if the cashier/bartender goes ahead and makes the sale (or never asks for it in the first place) they are then ticketed by cops waiting outside.

They do similar here in Florida. One deviation is they may actually hand their actual ID to the employee, which says their actual (under 21) age. If the employee then completes the sale without doing the math, well, let's just say they should have done the math.

[Jay 2K Winger]

"Dodgson! Dodgson! We've got Dodgson here! ...see, nobody cares."

[Monterey Jack]

"Dodgson! Dodgson! We've got Dodgson here! ...see, nobody cares."

"Nice hat. What're you trying to look like, a secret agent?"

[Nemesis44UK]

It amazes me that in the USA, you are required to carry ID at all times. It reminds me of the Gestapo asking for your papers.

[sms001]

It amazes me that in the USA, you are required to carry ID at all times.

We aren't.

Some states do, and there is a spaghetti tangle of legal gobbledygook about how and why you may have to identify yourself to an officer, but there isn't a mandatory national ID policy.

[mathnerd]

.



Precisely what we did in college. We'd hand our money and our list to our over 21 friend, he'd go down to the store, get everything on the list, plus a six or twelve pack for himself, depending on the size of the order and how much we had to bribe his annoyed ass to do it, and we'd get our beer, he'd get his, and the clerk had nothing to complain about, nor any reason to deny the sale. In answer to the question of how difficult was this? Not very. Merely required the slightest ability to plan ahead, which only requires the barest of thinking powers.....

Heck, you don't even need to be underage to send a person to the store with a written list. If I recall correctly, I was just recently in a liquor store with a texted list of desired beers from a certain bartender I know.

Seriously though, that's pretty much the same thing we did when I was in high school. The high school dorms were at the top of the hill and the college dorms were at the bottom of the hill. We'd just send money and a list with one of the college students then sneak into the college dorms after curfew to imbibe.

[Hitokiri Akins]

They do similar here in Florida. One deviation is they may actually hand their actual ID to the employee, which says their actual (under 21) age. If the employee then completes the sale without doing the math, well, let's just say they should have done the math.

Like I said earlier, in Ohio, stores are required to swipe ids for age restricted items for the register to even allow the sale. You could be a bald headed, hair growing out of your ears 75 year old man, and you'd still have to have your id swiped, because THE SYSTEM WON'T ALLOW THE SALE.

Other states should probably start that, because that would cut off ALL argument.

[Estil]

I think Indiana a few years ago started requiring ID for ALL adult product sales of ALL ages, even grandma/grandpa.

[Racket_Man]

Like I said earlier, in Ohio, stores are required to swipe ids for age restricted items for the register to even allow the sale. You could be a bald headed, hair growing out of your ears 75 year old man, and you'd still have to have your id swiped, because THE SYSTEM WON'T ALLOW THE SALE.

Other states should probably start that, because that would cut off ALL argument.

The other thing to consider is that a company can decide to pull the "ID EVERYONE" for age restricted products.

when I was still at the gas station (like 7 years ago) I read an article in one of the trade mags about a C-store chain in the western US. Their internal policy was "Card/ID EVERYONE" for age restricted products ie. alcohol, tobacco, lottery, and other such items NO EXCEPTIONS. The policy was termination with ONE single violation. The article told of long time managers (like 10 - 15 year employees) getting terminated for a single violation of this policy.

The problem is SCs just do NOT get the ID thing whether government and/or company mandated. the rules is the rules is the rules. Don't like it tough

[sms001]

Their internal policy was "Card/ID EVERYONE" for age restricted products... NO EXCEPTIONS.

I wish everyone did this. The problem with 'Card everyone under XX age' is it's so subjective. I'm decent at it, since I'm old () and worked bars, c-stores, and restaurants. But a tweener is gonna card fewer than most under that policy, as everyone looks older than them, and great-grandpa is gonna card hard (and probably alienate some), as everyone looks young. The icing on this cake of fail is that it gives sucktomers a wedge of "OH! You think I look HOW old?" to argue from.

[Aethian]

I think Indiana a few years ago started requiring ID for ALL adult product sales of ALL ages, even grandma/grandpa.

Michigan did this too.

[Firecrackers Not Included]

My company still holds the "looks under 40" policy. Two or three years back we failed 2 third party company stings in a year and GM told us to card everyone after that as we were on the "list" of bad stores. I fully supported this. It only took a couple of months before some customers complained to corporate and it swung back around to our District Manager who told us to stop. Yeah, I'm so tired of playing the game. Let's just get over it and card everybody, please!

I suppose the age range of people used to getting carded is growing with time. So that means that my company will feel comfortable raising the I.D. bar to 50 in a few years, then 60 a few years after that? Then everyone will be more accepting of being carded by that point? Silly, I say.