You have nothing better to do!

[ironcheffan]

In West Virginia, there is a law preventing the sale of alcohol before 1 pm on Sundays.

When I worked at the local grocery store on Sunday mornings, we would frequently have to inform customers of this when they would bring up their cases of Budweiser at 9 am, having conveniently ignored the multiple signs notifying them of the rule (there were a lot of beer returns on Sunday mornings). Most were cool about it, and if it was close to 1, they would hang out in order to make the purchase.

One such Sunday, a woman came through my line with a bottle[s] of wine, and I had to invoke the law. Well this was totally ridiculous to her, and she ended up concluding that "you have nothing better to do" and stalked out of the store.

I guess she thought we had something against her, and didn't realize that the store didn't make the law, the legislature did, and it was probably made several decades, if not a couple of centuries ago.

I'm sorry, but if you're that paranoid about alcohol, you should probably think about AA, or just wait til it's legal to buy it, or petition the government to change the law, because there's nothing we can do it.

[SonOfSpam]

So she thought you had nothing better to do than ensure the safety of dozens of pedestrians from all the asshats who could be potentially driving around drunk at 9:30 in the morning? What a moron! Who drinks wine at that time of the morning anyways?

[JuniorMintz]

Sounds like someone who should seriously consider stockpiling the stuff...

[singem1]

She may have been purchasing the wine for something going on later in the day, but to conclude that you had "nothing better to do" was a bit ridiculous. Yup, you have nothing better to do than following the law so you don't lose your job, huh?

[Banrion]

Who drinks wine at that time of the morning anyways?

Any religion that practices communion!

[Barefootgirl]

Who drinks wine at that time of the morning anyways?

Someone who's going to lunch with friends and has quite a drive to get there? I must have missed the bit where the OP said she was trying to drink it there and then. Do you buy all your food moments before you eat it, or do you ever buy things to store for later preparation?

The lady was unnecessarily rude, sure, but to imply she must be an alcoholic because she was trying to buy a bottle of wine at lunchtime on a Sunday is a little extreme.

[habitofbeingright]

Any religion that practices communion!

I hate to be dufficult (no wait i do rather enjoy it) but really only Christianity follows communion. Several demonations within it drink grape juice. Such as the Southern Baptist Convention. I grew up in the Bible Belt (My county had 72 Southern Baptist Churches and only 4 Catholic) One of my Catholic friends was able to take communion with wine at age 9. randomness i know
God Bless Yall

[kerrisan]

You cannnot override the machine. There is NO POSSIBLE WAY to ring up alcohol before 12 on Sunday (in Texas).

Funny story though . . . I had a guy come up at 11:55 one Sunday with a bottle of wine and the makings for spaghetti and garlic toast . . . he was so cool about it:

Customer: *checks REGISTER'S time (instead of his own watch . . . yay!)* Aww, man, 5 minutes!
Me: I'll ring your stuff up slowly . . .
C: *chuckles* Okay. *watches clock the whole time . . . watches me finish before 12* Oh no, I don't mean to hold everybody up . . .
M: Yeah, I'm sorry, I wish I could manually do it . . .

Pretty soon my whole line (4 people in great moods, I might add ) was watching the register's clock for noon. It was just so amusing and a funny way to start my shift!

[Ryu]

almost all Christian Churches use grape juice instead of wine

[kerrisan]

I was so surprised when the Lutheran Church I now go to used *gasp* wine, and nothing but wine! The Baptist and Catholic Churches used grape juice, and the Presbyterian Church did both.

Can you tell I wandered/looked for the right church home for a while?

But I'd think that if somebody was buying wine for Communion they would do it AT LEAST the Saturday before the service instead of an hour before . . . I dunno, waiting until the last minute is kind of like asking for trouble.

[habitofbeingright]

I was so surprised when the Lutheran Church I now go to used *gasp* wine, and nothing but wine! The Baptist and Catholic Churches used grape juice, and the Presbyterian Church did both.

Can you tell I wandered/looked for the right church home for a while?

But I'd think that if somebody was buying wine for Communion they would do it AT LEAST the Saturday before the service instead of an hour before . . . I dunno, waiting until the last minute is kind of like asking for trouble.

Yet another random thought
In my state of South Carolina we have what are called "blue laws"
These laws state that from 12 am to 1:30 pm on Sundays the only retail open is gas, grocery,and resturants. Up til a few monthes ago the only aclohol allowed was in resturants. The manager on duty at Wally World under "extreme circumstances" was allowed to sell prohibated idems before 1 30. A guy at my church tried to buy something on a father's day for the sermon (stuff to give away to the oldest, youngest father etc).
He couldn't do it but we think if we had a check with the church letterhead he might have, oh well

[MadMike]

She would really hate it in PA. Up until recently, you could not buy it on a Sunday at all. The state government still has a stranglehold on alcohol sales. Beer can only be sold at beverage distributors, which were not allowed to open on Sunday. Other liquor is only sold in state-run liquor stores, which were also closed on Sundays.

Recently, the state decided to finally start slowly moving into the 20th century (nevermind that it's now the 21st century), and expand some liquor stores into Sunday hours, and later allowed the beverage distributors to do the same.

Of course, you still can't buy either one in supermarkets or convenience stores like you can in other states. I guess that will finally be allowed sometime in the year 3000...

[dragonflygrrl]

Every Sunday that I worked at the gas station, I would get some asshat in my face yelling at me that I had to sell him his twelve pack of Old Milwaukee or he would [insert idle threat here]. One guy was like, "Do you get some kind of pleasure from dictating morals to your customers?" No, for all I care you could buy all the beer we have and drink till you croak, but I don't make the rules.

What always got me was that this wasn't some newfangled rule that just got made up. You haven't been able to buy alcohol on a Sunday morning in that town ever, since it was established in like 1815, but still the people that live there can't figure out that if you are out of beer on Saturday afternoon, you should probably pick some up that evening. Sad, really.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Don't even get me started on blue laws.

[One-Fang]

So she thought you had nothing better to do than ensure the safety of dozens of pedestrians from all the asshats who could be potentially driving around drunk at 9:30 in the morning? What a moron! Who drinks wine at that time of the morning anyways?

Yeah, because the only way anyone could possibly be drunk on a Sunday morning is by buying the alcohol that morning from a retail establishment.

The law isn't about safety. It's about religion. Which is not say the SC isn't still a particularly stupid person.