Well, obvious to us anyway. I have a family member who is both dyslexic and has some processing issues, and I can imagine her being very careful about it.
Here in Illinois, or at least Cook County, I’ve noticed that there are some places that will always ask for ID and scan it for tobacco products (a number of gas stations I go to scan it, despite me getting close to 50 in years), some places just read off the card without scanning, and others (7-Eleven) where they take a look at me (usually the owners) and go, yeah, he’s over 21, and sell it.
Having worked in ekedolphin’s position, if a customer did this, I’d just shrug and wish them a good day, and not sell them the age-restricted product they want; they must be trying to conceal a fake ID if they don’t want to hand it over, it wouldn’t have been worth it to me to get a fine and lose my job just because they don’t want to provide identification. Around here, at least, it is very prominently displayed on all entrances and at the counters that EVERYBODY must provide ID if purchasing tobacco (no alcohol sales outside of dedicated liquor stores in my area).
ekedolphin, I used to work in a similar store (Common Cents, a regional chain); I did the overnight shifts (11pm-7am). Cigarettes were a bit to learn, Smapti gives a great rundown above, including the holdover jargon from the older naming conventions. It is a lot at first, but you’ll get it all figured out within the first couple of weeks. Depending on your duties, you’ll usually come to recognize the “schedule” of busyness, and can expect to keep yourself occupied with task A, B, and C during the customer lulls.
I’ve been there, asking for ID to confirm identity. I like to make it easy on the customer with their ID behind a see through compartment in their wallet. Sometimes those ID will not budge despite a death grip trying to pull it out. So they just hold open their wallet for me so I can see their ID. I wouldn’t expect to take their wallet out of their hands and I would never shrug and blow them off. Obviously ymmv.
Probably not, but it WILL cost the person their job, and could cost the store any number of licenses.
The same thing is true for alcoholic beverages, and lottery tickets.
Holy crap, who told you that?
Here in Indiana the penalty for a FIRST time offense when screwing up with the alcohol ID laws is a $5,000 fine and up to 6 months in jail. Not theoretical - a couple months ago one of my co-workers screwed up during a police sting and they handed a notice of a court date right on the spot just after they told her she’d mishandled the situation.
That’s actually the best-case scenario. In this state if it’s found out you sold alcohol to someone underage and they later got into an accident (or worse yet, died or killed someone else) you’re looking at a multi-year felony conviction.
Really, really do not mess up on the age/ID laws for alcohol, tobacco, or anything else of that nature.
In my state - absolutely that can happen to you.
Those self-checkout machines are a terrible judge of age, just sayin’.
There were a couple of Meijers clerks that screwed up the alcohol ID laws. One result (which rumor has it may have been mandated by a court) is that the new rule in Meijers is to card anyone who looks under 50. Go ahead, ask next time you’re in Meijers.
As someone in retail I, too , scrutinize ID’s at times. I have occasionally encountered altered/fake ones which, needless to say, are not valid for sales purposes regardless of the age of the holder. Some places won’t sell to you unless you allow them to scan the back of your license, and they can legally require that. They are under no obligation to sell alcohol to any one particular person and have a lot of latitude to refuse sales.
My employer has instructed us not to sell to anyone who refuses to allow us to hold/examine the license, even if they show us the dates. That’s considered “suspicious behavior” under company rules, even if you, personally, are on the level because it’s one way people with fake IDs avoid having them examined and found out.
So, I’m sorry if you find that troubling or annoying or offensive, but it’s because of Bad People we have to put up with crap like this.
Still not as bad as when the Wal-Marts in my area stopped selling alcohol to anyone with someone underage in tow. As in - parent wants to buy beer with diapers and is refused because they also have their baby with them. Carding entire families going shopping on the weekend. No one was happy about it, but the clerks weren’t willing to get fired for selling alcohol to people.
When I was 19 the drinking age was 21 in California but it was trivially easy to buy booze. Some bars and stores were strict, but we’d quickly learn which ones would sell to us or would take the shittiest fake. Right after I turned 20, the laws changed and the clerk/bartender would get a fine and it became impossible. Now it’s really not worth the hassle.
I think I read about that, I remember wondering how many poor Wal-Mart clerks got cans of beer chucked at their faces.
I’ve seen people my age get irate about having to show ID and all I can think is how stupid they are. Getting carded isn’t a new thing and you are supposed to have your driver license with you whenever you are operating a motor vehicle. I am smart enough to keep my ID in the same place as I keep my payment method (some people might call that place a wallet and/or pocket) so it has never bothered me.
Back to the OP, try to find out where all the cameras are and where to best stand so the cameras can see your hands when you are handling money. This can help you avoid being accused of a theft you didn’t do.
Actually haven’t been carded at a stand alone liquor store in a long time. Too intimidating for teenagers to enter I’m thinking.
Oh wow. In my state it’s legal for parents to buy alcohol for their kids, or to give booze to their kids. So unless the clerk thought it was someone else’s baby in the cart, there’d be no reason to object to that sale.
(A friend used to make his own wine, and share it in group settings that i attended with my son. My friend would ask my underage son if he wanted to taste the wine, and if my son said, “yes”, the friend would hand the cup of wine to me, and I’d hand it to my son, so that none of us were breaking any laws.)
First of all, that’s their bad for not telling you, and I’m sure the manager was shocked to discover that he hired someone who can do the math on money rather than just count the quantity of coins. So pat on the back for this. However, when setting up “new” drawer, they count quantity of each because, they need to be sure that a cashier doesn’t run out of quarters or dimes and have to give people change all in nickels. And there, you learned something.
For cigarettes, you might want to take pictures, and study them on your own time so that you know which brand is where quickly. Same with the items in the aisles.
Best of luck to you.
Lots of things are misdemeanors, but unless it’s particularly egregious, I can’t imagine a judge sentencing a store clerk to actual jail time over failure to card someone for smokes.
Especially in those jurisdictions where people can shoplift up to $900 worth of goods, from the very same store, and not even be prosecuted.
Unless, of course, the employer said “do it this way or get a different job”, because some rules in retail are like that. Which I strongly suspect was the case for Wal-Mart because other stores in the same state were not so draconian.
Currently, in my store, we have a different problem caused by corporate dictate. If an item does not have the bar code tag on it (certain items of produce excepted) we can NOT sell it to you. I have people shouting at me “BUT IT’S $5.99!!!” Sorry, we can no longer ring things up by price, or by weight (again, certain produce items excepted). If it’s the very last item of its kind in the store and no one can find a bar code for it we can’t sell it. Ditto if the system for some reason doesn’t recognized the bar code as valid. We can’t sell it. First offense is a written warning. Keep doing it you lose your job. Sorry, yell all you want, I need my paycheck. I may or may not agree it’s a stupid rule but it doesn’t matter. And YES, the company will know if I “just do it anyway” because the registers require a biometric ID to use and all transactions are videotaped. And that’s assuming the cashier knows how to bypass the current set up to do such a thing (only a few of us do, but I ain’t 'fessing up to it 'cause, like I said, I need my paycheck).
Please don’t yell at the staff if you think a store policy is stupid. It’s not our fault.
Yes, but there’s no reason for the store to SET a policy like that if it’s legal to buy booze for your kids. Store policies aren’t random, they are meant to protect the store from some legitimate hazard.
Like, “item must have a bar code” makes all kinds of sense. You don’t want customers peeling off the bar codes to cheat on prices. And “must card everyone” is a much simpler (and safer) rule than “card people who look young”.
I think all this advice is scarier than what the OP was hoping for.
Many business people are irrationally scared of “crazy lawsuits” or “runaway prosecutors”. And so create supposedly protective policies way out of proportion to the actual threat.
And as we’ve seen in this thread, some states are majorly (I’d say irrationally) afraid of The Horrors of Booze and its Demonic Effect on Helpless Children and so have draconian no-slack laws grossly disproportionate to mitigating that threat. Which draconian laws ordinary store clerks violate at their extreme peril.
Sure.
As it happens, in my state it is, in fact, illegal for parents to buy booze for their kids or serve their kids alcohol. But even so, every other store besides Wal-Mart was willing to sell alcohol to parents, trusting them to not get stupid.
I did much better today, on Day 2. I feel very positive about my contributions. Even did a spot of cooking.