The ID Follies

[Smapti]

Background: TBGSITW's policy on carding customers is simple; we card everyone buying tobacco, alcohol (including NA beer and cooking wine) or lotto, regardless of how old they may be or whether they came through our line five minutes ago and we carded them then. If there's anyone else in their party who we suspect may be planning to drink it, handles it, or contributes to paying for the order, we card them to. If someone in your party suddenly wanders off before you get in line and we see it (or LP sees it on the eye in the sky and calls our checkstand to tell us about it), we tell them we need that person to present their ID too. If you don't have valid ID, no sale. The store manager has made it clear to all the lead clerks that he expects them to always take our side when it comes to disputes over ID; no checker will ever be disciplined for carding or for refusing to make a sale, nor will any decision to refuse sales over ID be overturned.

Me: Myself and I
SC: Customer
SCW: Customer's wife
LC: Lead clerk

Our story takes place early on a Saturday morning (probably around 830-ish). I'm working the checkstand, and LC has jumped in the checkstand next to mine to help bring down a rush. (Yeah, we get rushes at 8:30 on Saturday mornings. I don't know where they're coming from either.) SC and SCW, who booth look to be early-20s, get into my line with a cart of about $150 worth of groceries, probably a couple weeks' worth of food for the both of them, and SCW sets a six-pack of beer on the belt before she goes to the other end to start bagging. I scan their order through, coming to the beer at the very end.

Me: Can I see your IDs, please?
SC: Here you go. (shows his ID. I examine it and verify his age)
Me: And yours please, ma'am?
SCW: (looks up) Excuse me?
Me: I need to see your ID as well, ma'am.
SCW: I left my ID in the car.
Me: I can't approve this alcohol for sale unless I see your ID.
SC: (angrily) Are you serious?
Me: Yes, sir.
SC: That's my wife!
Me: I have to ID everyone, sir, that's the law.
SCW: I'll go get it. (leaves to get her ID)
SC: This is f***ing ridiculous. I want to talk to your manager.
Me: Sure. Hey, LC?
(LC, who as I mentioned is standing in the next checkstand over, turns around)
LC: What do you need, Smapti?
Me: This customer would like to speak to you.
LC: Can I help you?
SC: I already showed my ID and he's making my wife go to the car to get hers!
LC: That's the law.
SC:
(SCW comes back in at about this point with her ID.)
SCW: Here's my ID. (she shows it to me and I verify that she's over 21)
Me: Thank y...
SC: You know what? Forget it. We're leaving. Let's go.
(He turns and walks away. SCW starts to say something to him, but he keeps walking and so she follows and leaves with him.)
Me: (pondering the mentality of someone who would spend at least an hour shopping only to waste their time by walking out at the checkstand and going to a different store to waste another hour, spend more money, and get IDed again anyway) LC, I'm gonna need this order cancelled.

Bonus WTF: How to ask for directions in the store

The right way:

Cust. walks up to me while I'm stocking.

Cust.: Can you tell me where the seasoning packets for taco meat are?
Me: Aisle X, sir.
Cust.: Thanks.

The wrong way:

Cust. walks up to me while I'm stocking the dairy aisle.

Cust.: Have you seen any of that bagged Mexican cheese?
Me: It's at the very end of this aisle, middle shelf.
Cust.: OK.
(Cust. goes down the way I pointed. While I continue to stock, I see her browsing in that area. A minute later, she comes back over.)
Cust.: There's no Mexican cheese over there.
Me: I can help you find it, ma'am.
(I walk over with her to the exact area where she was browsing, where I had told her to go in the first place, and indicate the bagged Mexican cheese, on the middle shelf, as I said.) Here you go, ma'am.
Cust.: Oh.

The wronger than wrong way:

Stand 20 feet away from me, on the other side of two display cases, and shout "Steak? Steak? STEAK?" at me while I'm not even looking in your direction and have no reason to suspect that you're not on the phone or attempting to establish a line of communication with the display case.

Bonus points for the fact that this occurred in the meat department, and the steak was in fact closer to the customer than I was.

[PepperElf]

(pondering the mentality of someone who

Probably because he was still pissed and he thought he'd "stick it to you" by making you put everything back. etc. as if it's your fault that the law is the law.


Although I am curious about adults with their children.

"Steak? Steak? STEAK?"

"Oh you wanted steak? I thought you were calling for someone named steak!"

Or.. "This steak isn't real"

[Pixilated]

The ID folks: I hope his wife gave him serious what-for when they were somewhere private. Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face.

A local supermarket started the same practice: card everyone (a local convenience store has a very funny poster about it: an obviously past-retired-age man with the headline, "Even if you look like Steve, we still have to see your ID"). My mother used to buy her cigarettes at this supermarket and her jaw just about hit the floor when they asked her for ID ... she was in her 60s at the time. She grumbled about it later to me but at the time got out her ID and showed it and got her smokes. (Though that might have more to do with the fact that she wanted to get them cigarettes than anything else, LOL.)

Frankly, that's the safest way to ensure you don't miss anybody, even if it does annoy some of the obviously-over-legal-age people.

[Pagan]

Although I am curious about adults with their children.

I was wondering about that, too.

In NM, you can sell to an adult that has their kids with them. And, if you have a married couple purchasing alcohol and one is of-age, but the other is under-age, you can still sell to them.

[mathnerd]

Frankly, that's the safest way to ensure you don't miss anybody, even if it does annoy some of the obviously-over-legal-age people.

I don't know about the rest of the world, but the USA is so litigious that I really don't blame stores for carding everybody no matter how old they look. It would be too easy for a customer to cry discrimination and harassment, that it's just not worth the risk. Also, some states laws are written so that it's not good enough to just be of age, but the customer must have their ID physically with the for the sale to be legal, so in those states, even if you're of age, it's still illegal to make the sale until the cashier has physically seen the customer's ID.

The only time I've ever been annoyed when I've been asked for ID was when the (very rude) cashier refused to take my US Passport as a form of ID. I'd lost my driver's license and was using my passport for the weekend until the DMV opened up again on the following Monday. Now, there are two forms of passports. One is the full passport book that pretty much everybody recognizes as a passport. the other is a card that's the same size as a typical US driver's license. The passport card is only good for land or sea travel into specific countries, but it's a little bit easier to manage at the border crossing, and since at was living close to the Canadian border and regularly made day trips over there, I used the card. Anyway, this particular cashier was a few french fries short of a happy meal and I wound up having to call her manager over before she would accept the darn thing as valid ID.

[JetGirl]

If I can't find something I just say I can't find it. I do not say it isn't there. Seeing as how you work there, one would assume you know the general location of most things.

[Smapti]

Originally, our location's policy was that we didn't have to card on people who appeared to be over 30. That changed when one of our customer service people sold cigarettes to a lady who looked to be older, but 1) was 16, and 2) was part of a sting operation.

She lost her job and we and she both got fined. Fortunately, it's only a slap on the wrist in this state for a first violation on tobacco sales (I believe the fine was less than $100), but the stricter policy was put in place to ensure that it would also be our last offense. Some of the older customers get a bit snarky about it, but they can usually be defused with a bit of humor.

As far as adults with children, we're free to sell to an adult if the minor with them is obviously their child and we don't have reason to suspect they're buying for the kid. We do have to warn them to make sure the minor doesn't touch or handle the bottle in any way, because if they do we're then required to card them.

The only time I've ever been annoyed when I've been asked for ID was when the (very rude) cashier refused to take my US Passport as a form of ID.

We had something similar to this come up once when we'd only been open a few months. I had a customer offer me an ID from British Columbia. I'd never seen a BC ID before and wasn't sure if we were allowed to accept Canadian ID, so I paged the lead. Unfortunately, he'd never seen a Canadian ID either, and we had to page the store manager - and he hadn't ever seen one either so ultimately he compared it against the picture in a big book of IDs (that was apparently provided by one of our beer vendors). Fortunately, the customers were patient about it (and were even willing to just forgo the alcohol if it'd make things faster), but in the end we were able to sell to them.

[mathnerd]

See, I wouldn't have minded if the cashier was polite about not recognizing a US passport card as ID, and I would have happily waited for her to verify that it was legit. I would have been a little annoyed, as these cards are pretty common in that area, given that it was close enough to Winnipeg that I went there on day trips 3-4 times a month, but everybody has to be the new guy at some point in their lives, so I wouldn't have minded. It was the fact that she was rude about it an all but accused me of having made a fake ID that put her on my shi*t list.

[infinitemonkies]

a big book of IDs (that was apparently provided by one of our beer vendors).

I was going to mention that we had those way back when I worked in a sports bar. It had samples of DLs/state id for every US state and Canadian province, and passports for almost every country in the world. It also points out subtle verifications to look for on genuine ID that forgeries often miss.




Just curious, why ID on non-alcoholic beer?

[Smapti]

Just curious, why ID on non-alcoholic beer?

Non-alcoholic beer does contain some alcohol. Granted, it's usually about 0.5% ABV and you'd have to drink a whole case of it to get the same buzz as you would from one Bud Lite - but the state still taxes and regulates it as an alcoholic beverage, so you need to show ID to purchase it.

[smileyeagle1021]

If there's anyone else in their party who we suspect may be planning to drink it, handles it, or contributes to paying for the order, we card them too.

That is news to the Reno store... where the cashiers have complained that I'm wasting their time handing them both my husband and my ID... seriously, I'm helping them follow their own policy yet I'm the rude one

[VComps]

Probably because he was still pissed and he thought he'd "stick it to you" by making you put everything back. etc. as if it's your fault that the law is the law.

Although I am curious about adults with their children.


"Oh you wanted steak? I thought you were calling for someone named steak!"

Or.. "This steak isn't real"

The steak is a lie!

[BuffySummers]

Frankly, as a woman of a certain age, I'm tickled pink when I get carded, so I'm going to totally ignore the whole "we card everyone, period" thing, and pretend that it's still "we card anyone who looks 30 or younger."

The one time I tried to impulse buy some seasonal beer, and had left my ID and main credit card in my other purse, and got carded, I nearly fell over myself apologizing to the cashier for being a dumbass. Never crossed my mind to yell at her for making assumptions. . .

[taxguykarl]

Frankly, as a woman of a certain age, I'm tickled pink when I get carded

In my bartending days, that was my favorite ploy to kiss up for better tips.

[PatchO'Black]

*cues up the jazz version of Jester's hit song "Show ID".*