I can’t “prove” anything when you haven’t told me the name of the chain in question.
I can only state that the store I work in does not do that. At this time. Next year they might. My point is that sometimes when the employee says “the store doesn’t keep anything other than a date of birth” they might in fact be telling the truth.
Don’t blame you for not trusting that.
And I live in Indiana. For five months in 2010 we really did have to card everyone…
Being with a co-worker, I kept my cool, and explained to the young lady that New Mexico, was in fact, a state in the United States, since 1912. She wasn’t having any of it. It took a flash of the Wikipedia to her manager to get that rental car.
</True story>
Tripler
I have since switched to another Rental Car company.
I am sure you were - and I didn’t miss your post. I was answering a post that said " Also, IME, everywhere does this. All bars and pubs card everyone without making guesses. Where do you drink that’s so willing to risk their liquor license?" The answer is no place, because I didn’t drink anywhere where they would be risking their license by not proofing me. I did not drink in Indiana during the time that law was in effect - in fact I’ve never been to Indiana. If I drank in Indiana tomorrow, the establishment would apparently not be risking their license for not carding me. It may be that poster’s experience that everyone gets proofed everywhere , and that poster is apparently assuming that every establishment that doesn’t card everyone is risking their license - but that’s not been my experience , drinking in states that do not require everyone to be carded. In fact, that poster may have had that experience specifically because of where they drink or their apparent age. ( I said I haven’t been proofed in most places for 30 years, not that I haven’t been proofed since I was 21)
Remember that you are the product being monetized. Not the convenient app, not your location, you are the one being harvested for money.
You don’t even need to understand why. It is you, you are the intended product.
Making everyone show ID is the only sensible way to approach the situation. Anything else risks people wondering why someone who didn’t get carded got special treatment, and also risks providing a restricted substance to someone underage. Anyone who bitches about this is an idiot.
The amount of grey in my beard shows that I don’t need to be carded but I don’t whine when I buy alcohol. And I’ve been a cashier, and had to ask for ID many times. It’s not the end of the world. (Asking people for their Zip Code and/or phone number is far worse and much less defensible, and was something I also had to do as a cashier which I loathed doing.)
When places request my phone number, I decline. Best Buy tried telling me they couldn’t sell me (don’t even remember what it was) without a phone number.
Anyone else grow up with (area code) 555-1212 for time and temperature? My name? Tim E Temp.
I appear not to be the only one using T&T, too. The large grocer uses phone numbers for their preferred buyer stuff, where you earn points towards their affiliated gas station. I’ve had fantastic discounts.
Maybe I’m an asshole, (ok, I’m an asshole) but I’ve walked away from several purchases in my life when face with an ultimatum.
Perhaps it is a state thing. My sister and I (mid-40s) took our mother (mid 70s) out for wine tasting the other week. None of us look that young and the winery was not a place frequented by young 20-somethings who might be close to being underage. All 3 of us were carded. I cannot remember not being carded everywhere.
I have never had my card scanned, just looked at. Scanned is a different thing entirely. I also don’t give my phone number and zip code. They don’t need it.
I’m in my 50’s in a state that (no longer) requires universal carding and I still get carded from time to time buying booze. It’s no big deal to me. I’m a bit baffled why some people have a meltdown over it but hey, different people are different.
One of my local liquor stores has a sign on their door “We card everyone without exception. Please have your ID ready at checkout”. Invariably, there’s some old guy who gets to the register then has a fit over being carded. It says they’re going to do that on the freakin’ front door! Dude, what part of “everyone” and “without exception” are you having a problem understanding? Don’t like the policy? You don’t even have to go in the store, they’re not springing it on you at the last minute. And no, they don’t scan the license there (at least they didn’t as of the last time I was there), they just look at it.
Sorry Broomstick, I’m grabbing from your post, but it’s for purpose of illustration and your post was handy. There’s many similar.
The point is that ‘carding’ (as many refer to it as) for liquor is just one element of several. It’s not simply just the requesting of ID from someone clearly well past the age where it should be, or needs to be required. It’s this plus, requesting phone numbers, addresses, emails and whatever other bits of personal information they think they can get away with requesting.
It’s a small purchase. No one is buying a car or a home here. You want to drop your 5 or $20 onto the counter and get out of there. You don’t want a fu__ing extended warranty on a 5 dollar battery—a win win for the shop. They not only get your personal information, they also get a few extra bucks for a warranty that 90% of people will never take advantage of. These businesses are not your friends.
It’s the point, the principal. Where does it end? We’ve seen where it ends - it doesn’t. Facebook would crawl into bed with you to see if you had shit stains on your skivvies given the opportunity. Well, they sort of already do if you’re in the habit of having your phone bedside while using the Facebook app.
At some point one must take a stand and say enough is enough. And for many, that time arrived when as a 60 or 80 year old they get asked for ID. Something that hadn’t happened in their life for perhaps 40 years or more. So why now? Because we let them get away with it. Plain & simple. Along with the phone numbers & every other privacy infraction.
Another analogy might be when signing up to subscribe for something. Lets say a cell phone service, since it’s semi on topic. The sales person points out that going to the next more expensive service is actually a far better deal over the long haul.
Well that may be true, but there comes a limit. And on top of what one is already spending on car insurance, home insurance, cable TV, hydro, maybe Netflix or other such things. There comes a limit whereby one must draw the line and say, no more.
For some that final straw comes at different intervals. Maybe it’s the phone request, maybe it’s the ID request. The thing is, we should all be wary of the amount of personal information we dole out because there will come no end to the amount of wanting and needing until we’re all bled dry and exist as nothing more than puppets fulfilling the desires of the greedy that operate among us. There reaches a point where it has to stop. Which is what my analogy was about.
Home Depot has made a habit of asking if we want a receipt emailed to us. Really?! We all know why that would be don’t we. And it sure ain’t because we’re going to save the world by saving a scrap of paper. I notice other stores are starting with this tactic now as well. As stated, it doesn’t end.
I use an ad blocker on my computer, for obvious reasons. I get web sites requesting that I turn it off so they can show me ads. Dohhhh; why do they think I have the blocker in the first place. I prefer not seeing their site at all if given the choice of visiting and being inundated with advertising I have zero interest in. It’s a no brainer. I’ll find the same content elsewhere. I know it helps pay to keep the site running. I have no interest in helping them pay their bills, I have enough bills of my own to contend with.
Incidentally, although I have no figures, I would feel comfortable stating that the number of arrests for minors drinking or the selling of alcohol to underage people has not changed one iota since the policy of asking of 90 year olds for ID was instituted.
It’s nothing more than the further erosion of the rights of citizens.
You see it’s not the apples, it’s the oranges.
Except some people were exclusively griping about carding.
Yeah, I have no issue with showing my ID for booze or weed. I will not allow my ID to be scanned for booze, but I don’t argue if it gets scanned for weed because I had to submit a scan when I got my card. I’m not giving out my phone number unless I can see a benefit to me. I don’t give out my email, I’ll take the paper receipt please.
I have walked out and left booze or other items on the counter when clerks insist that I can’t complete the purchase without allowing them to fully harvest whatever information their overlords demand, but I don’t throw a fit or anything. I just tell them I’ve changed my mind and leave. There are many, many other businesses who want my money so I have a choice.
I give them a 976 number. Pretty much none of the cashiers have heard of them.
And so he should, because it’s a pants-on-head retarded policy to card people who are clearly decades over the legal age to buy booze, regardless of whether it’s clearly signposted or not.
Most of the big liquor stores here (Australia) have a “We ask for ID if you look under 25” policy (drinking age is 18) which I think is pretty reasonable.
No, what’s stupid is going into a store that has a clearly stated policy on the front door and then acting surprised and butt-hurt when it turns out they are serious about that store policy.
If you don’t like that policy you are welcome to go down the road to a different liquor that does not have that policy.
Most stores in my area have the “if you look under 40 we ask for ID” not because we want to be jerks but because that’s the law in our state. Which, if you think is ridiculous I might agree. When customers complain I tell them to take it up with the state representatives in Indianapolis, it’s out of the store’s control.
And here’s some of the idiocy I previously referred to.
Precisely.
Why is it “idiocy” to object to carding people who are decades over the legal age to buy alcohol, regardless of whether there’s a sign on the door about it or not?
Because people don’t walk around with a glowing number on their forehead showing their age.
Tell me, since this is a legal issue, exactly how old a person needs to “look” for it to be okay to serve them without checking? What objective way do you have to make that determination? To avoid paying fines, having a business shut down, or other criminal penalties?
They don’t need to; we’re just talking about a rough approximation here. You seriously can’t tell the difference between a 21yo and a 51yo?
Depends what the legal drinking age is. If it’s 16-18, then mid/late-20s is how old someone needs to “look” before it’s OK to serve them without checking. If it’s 21, then I’d go to 30s or older.
Using your eyes? I’m talking about people who are decades over the legal age to drink, not a few years. Anyone who appears to be about the same age as your parents is obviously old enough to buy alcohol.
Like I said, going “Yes, that person looks 30, I’m not going to ID them” works just fine in pretty much every other country on the planet with alcohol sales - even places like Malaysia where you’re not allowed to buy booze if you’re Muslim.
As an American who relocated to Europe a few years ago, I find this whole thread darkly amusing. Not in a patronizing ha-ha kind of way, but more like a gritted-teeth bitter-memory grin.
Case in point:
Under European law, this is explicitly illegal. If an organization collects your personal contact information for a specifically stated “legitimate interest” purpose, and then re-uses that data for another purpose for which you did not explicitly provide consent, they can get into serious trouble.
For example, Amazon was just notified by European data protection authorities of a material-breach finding which could put it on the hook for a nine-figure fine.
The GDPR is not perfect; it overreaches in a few areas and makes things harder than they need to be. (I’m neck-deep in compliance-policy development for my company.) But on this topic, I think this is exactly how things should work. And I’m so happy that, as a consumer, I don’t have to deal with it any more.