A few months ago, I went to a gas station convenience store. In front of me in line, a group of teenagers and one (slightly) older guy were buying alcohol. The older guy produced valid ID, but the sales clerk wouldn’t let him buy the booze because “there were underage people in his car”-- the clerk’s words.
Now, obviously, if they’d all stayed outside the clerk probably wouldn’t have known, but since the whole group was in line together, they were refused the sale unless EVERYBODY in the group could produce valid ID. They left empty-handed.
In the following weeks, I had several people tell me (anecdotally) about the same issue in other stores, so it’s not just a one-time thing with that one particular gas station.
Is this a common phenomenon? Is it legal? If it matters, I’m located in Humboldt County, California.
Just my $.02… I don’t think it’s strictly a legal issue, but rather one of liability. I’ve run into the same problem in Florida, and each time the clerk specifically said that it was the manager’s policy, not the law.
A few years ago when i was 17, (legal age is 18 in Australia), the clerk at our local grocery store refused to sell my mother a bottle of wine because i was with her.
I’d say it’s common. I went to the shop with my friend - she wanted some beers, but I was paying. She put them on the counter and was asked for ID. When I said that I was the one buying them, and I had ID, the guy wouldn’t serve us because *she *had put them on the counter, and she didn’t have ID.
For the record, we were both 24, and took it as a massive compliment, then shortly went to a different shop where I put it on the counter myself!
Some good friends of mine had this problem last week, they’re a married couple. She’s 24, but looks young, he’s 28. They were doing all of their grocery shopping for their Christmas celebrations, and had included a couple of bottles of wine. Because they were obviously together, she was asked to show her ID even though the husband was paying for the transaction and had his. She had left her purse at home, so no ID, and so they were refused the sale of the wine. This was in West Virginia.
That’s the law here in Queensland. Everyone in the group- including people sitting in a car outside that the staff believe are part of the same group- must produce ID to purchase alcohol.
The idea, obviously, is to stop alcohol being supplied to minors by older relatives or friends.
It’s problematic when we get parents obviously buying alcohol for their under-18 kids who are in the store with them, but in these cases we get the parent to swear that the alcohol is for them and it’s not going to their kids. Then we write the incident up in the Responsible Service of Alcohol Register, so we’re covered if Liquor Licensing decide to jump out and go “Aha! Gotcha!”
We have been known to refuse sales where the alcohol is obviously for the teenager, though (ie, we’ve seen them pointing the alcohol they want out, or the teenager is the one carrying the alcohol and Mum or Dad have just come in from the car to pay for it, or the parents try and use the son or daughter’s EFTPOS card to pay for it, or that sort of thing.)
I should mention that there’s generally no problems with (older) teenagers having a couple of drinks in a private, supervised environment, like having a glass of wine/beer with dinner at home or having a couple of drinks at a wedding or whatever, but unsupervised binge drinking is a problem in Australia and I agree completely with the RSA legislation’s aims.
(FTR, the drinking age here is 18.)
Basically, if you’re under 18, stay the hell out of liquor stores in Australia. Even if you’re with your parents, it’s still a pain in the ass for everyone concerned, IMHO.
Wow. I’ve never heard of such a thing. Heck, here in Texas, underage people can drink in a bar as long as they’re with either a parent or spouse who’s over 21. The parent or spouse has to buy the drink and serve it to the minor him- or herself.
In Milwaukee it’s becoming more popular to do that as well. If you live in a college town (Milwaukee, Eau Claire, Kenosha etc) you quickly learn that if any of your friends are underage (or overage but without an ID) you need to split up and use different registers long before you get anywhere near the cashier. Chef Troy Drinking with a spouse or parent is a compleatly different issue then buying alcohol at a store with your friends.
Totally a liability issue. If a clerk gets caught in any way providing liquor to minors they can end up personally responsible for fines (IIRC in California it is around $10,000) and the store will end up with huge fines. One mistake can ruin a life, so people are really super careful.
I’ve seen threads where clerks talk about having to deny alcohol and cigarettes to adults, because the clerk has reason to believe they are with a minor or intend to give it to minor. Once they see a minor your not getting the alcohol by sending the minors to the car. When they see you get out of a car with minors your not getting the alcohol.
Nothing illegal about it, by the way. Most stores retain the right to refuse service to pretty much anyone at anytime (other than for illegal reasons like racial discrimination, etc.). In other words, you don’t have the right to buy alcohol, regardless of your age.
I seriously doubt that it is the law of any jurisdiction that you can’t sell alcohol to someone who is accompanied by a person who doesn’t produce ID proving they are of drinking age. What, you can’t sell to a mother who has a baby with her? You can’t sell to a father with is five-year-old son with him? Nonsense. So, Martini Enfield, before I accept your assertion that that is the law in Queensland, I’d need to see some proof, like a citation to the law in question.
I don’t know about Queensland but I suspect they may have a law that is similar to the one we have in Sweden which prohibit the sale of alcohol if there is reason to assume that the person making the purchase intend to pass it on to someone who is underage.
I bring one or more of my kids into a liquor store(s) all the time, and I’ve never had a problem. They’re pretty young though, 8, 6, & 4, so I doubt the clerk thinks I’m buying beer or rye for them.
That’s true in Wisconsin too (last I checked, it’s been years since I lived there) but they’re still strict at liquor stores. At least in a bar, the bartender can cut people off, unlike if you’re taking alcohol elsewhere.
Some stores are stricter than others, too; my husband and I (both mid-30s) were unable to buy alcohol in a major supermarket chain in Wisconsin because due to their policy, they would not take an ID from another state. It’s not like we were producing some far-away state’s ID either, we live in Illinois, so I suspect they’d be likely to see a few of those, but no dice, not even talking to a manager did the trick.
Merchants have no obligation to sell to you, so many of them create and impose their own bullshit rules.
I was a college student with no car, living in a different state from the one from which my unused driver’s license was issued, and, having no interest in standing in long lines at DMV, hadn’t bothered to obtain a NYS license.
Nearest 7-11 type store would not sell me beer. “We don’t take that, it’s got to be a New York State driver’s license”.
“Umm, I’m not trying to drive a car. It’s valid proof of age.” (And I’m 30)
“New York State license only. NEXT!”
Personally, I don’t think merchants should have the right to refuse to sell to people. Either you’re in business or you’re not.
There’s a store in Kenosha that makes you sign a book stating that you won’t give your alcohol to a minor. Many years ago someone bought some beer, gave it to a minor (or maybe she was at a party). She ended up getting drunk, getting into a car accident and dying. The family sued the store where the alcohol was purchased even though it was a someone of age who purchased it. Again though, I think that’s part of living in a college town.
I got a little pissy* once for getting carded while in line with a friend of mine. The thing is we were buying a mixer for drinks, no alcohol involved.
*Ok, I was laughing a bit when he got carded, but then got annoyed when I was made to dig out my ID.
It’s not like we were producing some far-away state’s ID either, we live in Illinois, so I suspect they’d be likely to see a few of those, but no dice, not even talking to a manager did the trick.