Some do. But doing so sort of “singles you out” I would assume. Having the “cover” of juice as an option (or as the only option) allows full participation in the traditional “meal”.
To answer the question, triggers are complicated. Someone who is newly sober or not really committed to sobriety could be more likely to lapse in environment where alcohol is free, easily available, and no one is going to know that you grabbed a drink. I’ve heard several tales of people relapsing on airplanes or business trips, even after year of sobriety.
On the other hand, if alcoholics in were helplessly triggered every time they saw alcohol, no one would ever stay sober.
On another topic, I attend a Catholic church and it’s quite common for people not to take the wine at Communion, for no other reason than that they don’t want to drink out of the communal cup. The priest is a recovering alcoholic and he has opted to get around it by just dipping the edge of the host in the wine for his own consumption.
Yeah, this. I can go on a business trip with an in-room bar and have no issue. People can drink around me, there can be free flow wine at the table, and I don’t feel any urge. It usually comes when I’m at home alone and bored. We have alcohol in the house, but I’m past the point where that’s much of a risk now.
Sober close to 26 years. Married to a non-alcoholic 17 years. We have liquor in the house. My wife sometimes has a drink when we’re out to dinner. There’s alcohol as some family gatherings.
When it comes to ice cream or chocolate I have little will power. But even with alcohol close at hand, I haven’t had a sip since 1988.
I also have been nicotine free for eleven years, but I’m seldom exposed to smoke. When I smoked I was the only one of my family or close friends who did.
Neither have I, and I’m in the same state as Trinopus–now, in fact, even the same county unless his location is incorrect.
People new to recovery can do whatever they want to do. If they think they might be triggered by seeing samples in a grocery store, they should shop with a friend. If they think they might be triggered by going into a bar, they should either avoid the bar or, if they want to see a band, go with a friend.
AA defines “recovering” as “living life on life’s terms”. We live in a culture where people drink alcohol, they do so publicly, and some people enjoy sampling to see if there’s anything new they’d like. But hiding in a meeting or at home because they might be triggered doesn’t accomplish anything except teaching someone how to hide and to white-knuckle. It doesn’t teach any life skills in successfully living in the presence of alcohol, and it deprives the alcoholic of the opportunity to learn to say no.
That being said, some people have problems with alcohol samples in supermarkets. Some are probably sober alcoholics who don’t want to be triggered, some are probably people who are opposed to alcohol use for religious or health reasons, and some are probably parents who don’t think alcohol should be used in front of children. Not offering samples because a relatively small number of people are against it would be like not offering bakery samples because some people are diabetic or on a diet. And that’s just silly.
One Thanksgiving time about 25 years ago, we were planning the family dinner. We were discussing not having beer because a cousin was coming for dinner from his half-way house. This cousin was battling his way back from the very brink of nowhere. The grandmother whose house dinner was going to be held has an order of protection against him, that’s how bad he had gotten before he went into program.
When he found out that we had banned the traditional beer and coquito from dinner he responded, “They tell you in program you’re gonna have to live in the real world and it’s not much of a recovery if you can’t live in it.”
He was both touched and a little disappointed there was no alcohol at dinner. He finally sent an aunt to go buy some beer for everybody. He’s been drug and alcohol-free ever since.
I don’t have a problem with alcohol samples per se. But because it’s alcohol and some people have legitimate issues with it, I would prefer there would be some limits. I would like samples to be limited to the inside part of the alcohol section rather than scattered all throughout the store. That way if someone is avoiding alcohol for personal, religious, or other reasons they can easily avoid the sample stations.
I don’t see food samples the same way because food is everywhere in the grocery store. The whole place is filled with temptation, so a food sample station isn’t really going to make any difference. But someone who is avoiding alcohol should still be able to shop at a grocery store without having to deal with alcohol in sections like produce, cereal, dairy, etc.
I live in Pennsylvania, which has really wonky alcohol laws. Wegman’s is the only supermarket in my area to sell alcohol, and they only sell beer. The beer is sequestered into its own corner and only a few registers will scan the UPC codes. They have samples periodically, but it’s not an issue because you have to go looking for it. Obviously, they promote it, but the only way to get there is to go to the beer section. My experience in other states like Texas is that they have sections dedicated to the display and sale of alcohol, and that’s where they offer samples. If they don’t sell alcohol with milk, for example, then it doesn’t make sense to offer samples of alcoholic beverages in the dairy section. That’s just simple marketing. Add in the market’s need to control samples to those people legally able to drink (21 in pretty much all jurisdictions), and you’ve got a supermarket that has a sampling table in one corner of the store that you have to go to on purpose.
And my analogy still stands. It doesn’t matter if the samples are in the bakery department, the deli department, the produce department, the dairy department or anywhere else. Not offering samples because someone is diabetic, keeps kosher, hates vegetables, is lactose intolerant or simply has a stick up their ass is silly. Not offering samples of beer because some people are offended or are alcoholics is similarly silly.
The bolded statement is not the case here. The alcohol samples are scattered throughout the whole store. Of 6 sample stations, 2 may be adjacent to the alcohol section. Those aren’t actual within the boundaries of the alcohol section. Rather, they’re in the aisle surrounding the section. The other stations are in high traffic areas in other areas of the store. The products in those other sections have nothing to do with alcohol. Rather, two major aisles intersect and lots of people converge there. It’s pretty much impossible to shop for groceries and avoid being offered samples of alcohol.
Been in recovery a long time. Been alive a lot longer.
I have never seen, or even heard of free samples of any alcoholic beverage.
Well, certainly you’ve heard of it: we’ve been talking about it in this thread!
FWIW, I’ve seen it, but only once.
As I said, that’s my experience. Of course, I don’t live in Texas and when I go down to visit family, I tend not to go to the supermarket. The few times I have been had the booze samples in the liquor section, but this may also have been the floor plan of the store; it was at a newer HEB store where the floor plan of half the store is more open. YMMV. :shrug: