I almost had a heart attack today!

[Andreamic]

A young man comes into my gas station/store today and askes me for a pack of smokes. I look at him for a second, and then ask him for his I.D. He dosen't have it. I tell him sorry, and he walks out.

This is unusual. Usually people get pissed that they don't have it, the left it at home/car/at friends. Boo hoo for you, law says once I ask, I have to see. End of story. No I.D., no smokes. But this guy just shrugged and said he didn't have it. Very odd.

I found out why soon enough.

A lady was standing in line a few min later, with an open binder with my city's logo on the paper. She was from the city, more importantly, the health section of the city, the one that makes sure that we don't sell smokes to kids under 19.

I passesd of course, but it scared the hell outta me. What if I had given him the smokes? That's a huge fine to me, and the store, and if we got caught again, we would lose our tobacco lisence. My manager was mad enough at teh lady from the city. This kid get's paid about 10 bucks an hour to get picked up, and dropped off at his house, and all he does is ask for smokes. And chances are he is realted to the lady from the city. And here I am making less then him, and if I get caught, I pay. That makes my job a little more stressful.

Oddly enough, about a week ago I had asked my manager when the last time we had a reading was. It was about 3 years ago. What are the odds I get it?

Thank god I am an I.D. nazi.

[Banrion]

There shouldn't be anything to worry about, if you are doing your job correctly, you will pass everytime.

I was a sting when I was in high school, and I wasn't related to any of the city officials, I just looked "borderline" enough that they figured if I got carded the store was doing a good job of carding everyone.

[Fera Festiva]

I agree with Banrion - if you card everyone, in theory you have no need to worry - but I also totally understand why you would worry, especially considering you could personally get fined.

I've never worked a job where I needed to ID for alcohol etc, but I've had plenty of mystery shoppers, and it always seemed to be the one time I couldn't find my nametag or that I had a cold so I wasn't smiling, or whatever, that they would come in and we'd be in trouble. And the worst outcome of that was that head office would tell us off - none of us actually lost anything. So I can totally see why you'd be worried.

Relax, though - you did fine this time.

[Barefootgirl]

Since you do your job properly, and card people, you've got nothing to worry about. Why was your boss mad at the woman from the city ? She was just doing her job, like you were just doing yours.

I wouldn't fret too much about the kid. I used to have that kid's job (though I never got paid for it, it was just a community service thing!), and i wasn't related to anyone at the council, it was just arranged via my school. Maybe the kid DOES get $10/hour for what he's doing, but i doubt he's working 40 hours a week, so he probably isn't actually earning more than you, either!

[blas]

I like "Cops in shops" better than the underage secret smoker shoppers...........although that idea backfires when a person of age (who just happens to be a smartass or "I'm a regular I SWEAR!" or someone who thinks no one should ID them because they turned 20 yesterday) doesn't have ID and the cop follows them outside. But oh well, just goes to teach you ALWAYS have your ID on you.

[draftermatt]

When my wife worked for a C-store she got that type of thing numerous times. In Maryland that's how they keep an eye on the stores.

If you do your job correctly you have nothing to worry about. And if your boss is mad then he should check the local laws, I can almost guarantee it's in there.