Because state law is the clerk’s fault? 
Clerks can be arrested and personally responsible for huge financial penalties if they sell to minors. And there are frequent sting operations where police try to trip people up. Why would you even think of making some poor clerk’s life more difficult because he wants to do what it takes to keep his job and not get in trouble with the law?
Good thing I didn’t try that when I was in Wisconsin. I’m Canadian.
I don’t understand. Why didn’t she just show her ID? What kind of 24-year-old doesn’t carry ID?
It’s a chain (or maybe store-by-store, I think they claimed it was for their chain) policy, not state law or anything. We’ve bought alcohol from some other chain groceries and various liquor stores in Wisconsin, but don’t go to this place (Piggly Wiggly) if we need alcohol.
At that time, we left the alcohol (and groceries, for that matter) and ended up in a nearby liquor store that has an amazing selection. The owners know us even though we only go there a few times a year, recommend beer that we might like, and generally act like we are very welcome customers and that our out-of-state IDs are not an inconvenience to them.
They’re not refusing to sell to minors, they’re refusing to sell to people who are of legal age. A man who’s with his wife who’s also of legal age, but doesn’t happen to have her ID. A woman who’s with her own daughter.
I’ve had to do this, as a clerk. I assure you, unless we’re in a terrible mood, we hate it as much as you do. We don’t generally want confrontation. And if you don’t make it obvious, I’ll let you go. But don’t take a group of 16-year-olds back to the beer, have a fricking pow-wow, and send the 21-year-old up to the counter…
Joe
Have seen this and been part of it too, in FL. Actually I can go one step worse. I was in a liquor store for my 21st birthday trying to buy PLASTIC CHAMPAGNE FLUTES. No liquor at all, just plastic glasses because my older brother had bought a bottle of champagne for the occasion. Clerk wouldn’t sell them to me because one of my friends was 1 month short of 21 (and I even explained he was on antibiotics and honestly wouldn’t be doing any drinking of the liquor we weren’t buying!!)
As someone else said, stores generally have and reserve the right to refuse service. State laws, I believe, are written to give even MORE discretion, and indeed responsibility, to clerks when it comes to selling alcohol.
Bolding mine.
That’s the problem. It doesn’t matter if it’s his 30 year old wife. If she can’t prove it, she might as well be is 20 year old next door neighbor. On top of that if the store/city/county/state/whatever has a law or policy forbidding clerks to sell to a group of people when not all of them are 21 years old, then that’s that. There’s not much point in fighting it.
ETA, in your example it’s really no different then the person buying the alcohol not having their ID. In some stores in Wisconsin, they card EVERY SINGLE PERSON, EVERY TIME. If you were a 75 year old man, walked into a store, purchased some beer with your ID, set it down in your car (with your wallet) and walked back in to the same cashier for some cigarettes and didn’t have your ID this time, you’d get turned down.
I’ve seen it happen in North Carolina. I’m with even sven and wheresgeorge04. It’s a minor annoyance, but it’s not the check-out person’s fault.
So what if it is my 20 year old neighbor? I’m in my 40s, and I’m responsible for my own actions. She’s an adult also. I don’t need some store clerk accusing me of being about to commit a crime.
If a store wants to have a “card everyone all the time policy”, they can. If I want to have a “if you refuse to sell alcohol to me, a legal adult with valid ID, I won’t patronize your store” policy, I can. I don’t see why I’m somehow obligated to buy other things there, or to help them restock their shelves.
Finally, he statement you made that I bolded is simply false. It’s false because they know that the person purchasing the alcohol (me) is old enough, because I show them my ID.
It’s certainly not my fault.
Hapened to me in Virginia. I was 19, buying beer. At that time Virginia had just changed the legal age for beer and wine from 18 to 21, but those that were 18 before the law changed were grandfathered in. So I was legally purchasing beer, but with a friend who was 18 and legally barred from the purchase. The clerk knew me from (many) previous purchases and rang up the sale. Outside the 7-11 we were stopped by two men who produced shields identifying them as agents of the Virginia ABC and demanded to see my ID. I produced it. Then they asked for my friend’s ID, and when they saw he was under age, dragged us both back inside and wrote the clerk a ticket for selling without verifying age. I told the clerk that I would be happy to come and testify on his behalf that I had purchased from him many times before and he knew me on site, but I never heard anything more from him…
Random story:
We went to a restaurant in Ontario with a couple of friends when we were all 20+ (legal age is 19), and got carded when we ordered beer. We each pull out our driver’s licenses and hand them over:
Friend A: Ontario license
Friend B: New York State license
Husband: Current format of Québec permanent driver’s license
Me: Older format of Québec permanent driver’s license
Waiter: 
He ended up consulting with his manager for about 15 minutes, while they flipped through a 3-ring binder which must have had samples of ID from various states and provinces. Eventually they served us our beer and thanked us for the education session!
ETA: Québec licenses don’t actually say “Date of Birth” on them - you have to know that the birthdate is part of the License number. In the case of Tintin (Current format), the birthday is December 17, 1966. This also confused several waiters and liquor store clerks while we were living in Southern Ontario!
That’s the law in Wisconsin, too (and yes, it is still the law) but that does not mean an establishment has to let a minor drink, or even let them in just because they are with their parent or spouse. Businesses have the right to refuse service.
Questions like these are why I hate being a cashier. I don’t make the laws OR store policy, but I will be fired, fined and possibly jailed for violating them. I live in Washington state and I have seen clerks go to jail over this. Sorry, but people that think that their desire to purchase alcohol any time and anywhere beats my need to have a job are idiots. Complain to management, work to change your state laws, but leave the salesclerks out of it!
The problem here is often compounded by the fact that people are often unclear about exactly what the law is, what the store policy is, and what is urban legend: even the people working at the store, managers and clerks alike, may be unclear on this. If both the laws and policies were clearly stated up front, it’d be much easier to deal with.
Anyone have any idea why they were denied buying plastic champagne glasses? The others I can see the reasoning behind, but this one has me completely stumped, especially since there was no alcohol involved.
So you’re suggesting that if I, as a person old enough to buy alcohol and with ID to prove same, walk into a liquor store but am prevented from making a purchase because I’m with my wife, who is also old enough but didn’t bring her purse with her, it becomes MY responsibility to put the alcohol back on the shelves? If a clerk won’t sell to me, I’m not going to get into a pissing match with him, but unless they have a large flashing sign at the entrance that says “WARNING! ALL persons entering this store must provide valid ID on request before a purchase can be made!! Even if you’re not the one actually buying the alcohol!” I don’t think restocking the shelves becomes my responsibility.
I was in Dominicks (a grocery store in Chicago owned by Safeway) and the person in front of me was buying beer and the lady cashier said “Sorry I can’t sell you that, because of the young man.” He was like “That’s my son.” And she explained store policy is that when an underage person is with someone they don’t sell them liquor.
So the guy said “If I had my son wait outside though, you’d have sold it to me?” And she says “Yes,” So he says “OK go wait outside.” And the cashier says “Sorry too late I already saw you.”
The guy was pretty disgusted but left without buying anything.
I asked the cashier about it and she said it wasn’t a law but a STORE policy and that they send around people to test them, so they have to be extra careful or they will lose their jobs
I imagine that if it hadn’t been a $250+ grocery order to cook a meal for 20+ people for a holiday, she would’ve thrown a strop. It was easier to let them put the wine back, take the groceries and go get the wine someplace cheaper, later.
And actually, at the second place, my friend got some hassle because she’s very visibly pregnant, but at least they didn’t refuse to sell it to her.:smack:
My WAG, they are probably purchased by the liquor department and when they are sold the liquor department gets the money for them. Now, that wouldn’t normally be a big deal BUT if the store uses a barcode scanner to ring things up and the glasses are coded as ‘liquor’ or ‘wine’ or something along those lines, then the cashier has to ask for an ID. It’s not really up to the cashier to make a judgement call about the actual item.
Also, you can put the policy up on the wall, clear as day, it won’t stop people from arguing with the cashier over it.