Right, so you’re a bartender and you have the job of throwing out the empty bottles. You’re about to fling them in the recycling when a fella sidles up to you and asks if he can maybe have a few of the empty bottles of the expensive vodkas and whiskies, for a, cough “personal collection”.
Do you let him have them or throw them in the recycling?
If you’re scratching your head, counterfeits at auctions are a big problem. Fill them with cheap shit then sell them as the expensive shit = profit.
I refuse to give the customer the bottle to protect me and my employer from any accusations of selling customers alcohol for off premise consumption.
Soak the bottles in hot water for an hour before discarding them sans label - if he’s too cheap to buy the bottle, I ain’t helping his fraud/deceit - it is not unknown for those who want to impress friends to re-fill name-brand bottles with cheap stuff and then make a show of pouring them the “good stuff”.
As tightly regulated as alcohol is in my state, I’d be suspicious that the guy’s working for the Liquor Control Board and they’re trying to catch us violating some obscure rule that I’m not familiar with. He wouldn’t be getting any bottles from me.
I presume we are not licensed to sell empty bottles, and I will not expose the business to any liabilities.
I’d refuse. Pretty sure my boss is already running the scam.
IME, all glass gets broken before it leaves the building so it takes up much less room in the trash can.
But even if not, not gonna happen with me.
I did a brief stint at a bookstore in my college days and would frequently have someone asking me if they could have the stripped books. (Stripped books are the ones we pulled the covers off of to return to the publisher for credit. I’m pretty sure it’s actually illegal to sell a stripped book and not just a matter of company policy.)
I’d assume the bar owner has a policy on this. I’d find out what that policy is, and follow it.
The hotels I used to work at, the bartenders/staff would fight over who got to take home the empty Louis XIII decanters. Given they were, at the time, hand blown by Baccarat, this wasn’t surprising.
This. Not worth losing your license for.
ETA: Projammer you are right, it is illegal to sell stripped books.
I would give him the bottles
I’d assume he just wants to show off and act like he can buy the fancy stuff
I want to help him trick rich pretentious people
i don’t know anything about laws regarding this and the spoiler box in the op didn’t occur to me
As a private drinker, I used to leave my bottles beside the trash dumpster, because I knew that people would climb right inside it to fish them out. I figured I’d save them the trouble.
But as a store owner or employee, no way. I’m following the regs, very strictly. Suppose he cuts his hand on a broken bottle and decides to sue? I’m not giving him one inch of rope to hang me with.
Who buys vodka/whiskey at auction? What makes those bottles more special than something you could just buy in a store?
My sister used to work at a very expensive high end restaurant/bar and she would bring home the empty cool or unusual bottles not to scam but to use as decoration. Patron bottles look like something a wizard would store potion in lol.
I pass a bar on my way home usually and they have a trash pile out on the curb, if there is anything unusual or cool I’ll pick it up for decorative purposes.
Not everyone wanting empty bottles is a scammer.
Here in NYC, all liquor (beer and wine also) sold in a bar is supposed to be purchased from an authorized distributor. There are 3 or 4 major ones, each licensed for specific brands. This monopoly added to stiff taxes makes heading over the bridge to New Jersey and purchasing stuff there seem very attractive.
Every bar I’ve eve worked at as done this to a lesser or greater extent. Buy a few bottles a week from the distributor for appearance sake but when they’re empty, refill them from the large, cheaper bottles kept out of sight. This doesn’t include the places that’ll substitute inferior products in place of expensive brands, which is also quite common.
So, to sum up, anywhere I’d be working, it’d be unlikely that any liquor bottles would be making it to the recycling bin intact in any case.
What law?
‘Sold on the condition that’ … means that you could loose your job, and your employer could loose his store, but that’s not the same as “illegal” ???
The bookstore saved on shipped cost by returning only the cover in order to be refunded for the unsold book. In return, the store is supposed to destroy the unsold book. Accepting the refund, and then allowing the book to circulate, is stealing from the publisher and the author. And that’s most certainly illegal.
Then what’s the point of setting a bear trap inside the dumpster?
There is nothing we sell at my bar that would be worth anything at an auction.
Is that why that stuff costs $2300 at Costco?