I'm at a neighborhood Walmart which is like a smaller supermarket, in self checkout and one of the items is beer. My wife is about 50 feet away near the exit sitting in a walker. I scan the beer and a worker comes checks my ID as always. She then says is that your wife? I have to check her ID too. My wife is 70 year old. I said are you serious? She says yes it's the rule. So I say if a guy came in here with a wife and 6 kids would you check all their IDs and she didn't know how to answer me. Anyway, I contacted Walmart and they gave me $15 off on my next online order and said they'd look into it. I'll buy cat food for my homeless cats.
You buy alcohol right? And they check your ID sometimes or always depending? Get this.
- Thread starter Juanmosey
- Start date
In Australia they only have to check ID if you look under 25. But you can't buy alcohol at the self checkouts.
I read a greatly amusing Amazon review of some razor blades a couple of years back from a UK customer, when all this mindless ID nonsense began to creep in.
The guy was a D-Day vet, the wrong side of 95. The witless child courier could not grasp basic empirical evidence and wanted to know if the chap was under 18 and asked for proof of age.
The vet saw him off with some choice words, and got the package.
LOL basically.
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I've had this happen once at a Jewel-Osco (grocery store) in IL. In my 19 years of legal drinking age, and thousands (maybe hundreds) of alcohol purchases it's only happened that one time. I was with someone else buying beer and they had to check both our ID's. And I've been with people before buying beer at the same store countless times and only the buyer got checked. and I've bought beer with people with me countless other time at stores in IL and only the buyer was checked.
IDK if it's an actual policy or law or what the deal is but it's happened to me exactly 1 time ever.
@Legion I'm pretty sure the rule here is if you don't look 40 they have to ask. I think it varies store to store though. Some places will ask every time all the time no if ands or butts. I've shopped at the country market next to my house for the past 7 years and they never have asked. I guess if you don't ask that first time it's kinda pointless the rest of the times.
IDK if it's an actual policy or law or what the deal is but it's happened to me exactly 1 time ever.
@Legion I'm pretty sure the rule here is if you don't look 40 they have to ask. I think it varies store to store though. Some places will ask every time all the time no if ands or butts. I've shopped at the country market next to my house for the past 7 years and they never have asked. I guess if you don't ask that first time it's kinda pointless the rest of the times.
I feel for you but I've also seen stores get loudly chewed out, big scene and everything where I was worried about the clerk being physically attacked, by couples who are obviously underage for not just selling them beer without ID at all, claiming they look older than 25 when they really don't. Seems ridiculous but I can understand why just IDing everyone as a matter of policy avoids stuff like that.
Now, why they got your wife involved when they could have just looked the other way, that's another issue. But I wouldn't be surprised if the clerk had a scene with someone whose wife/significant other was much younger, and so they're just trying to be consistent.
It's yet another issue whether being strict about ID is worth it, but there too I'm sure lawyers have stories as well.
Not alcohol, but cannabis. The law legalizing it also requires the seller to check the id of everyone buying, period. No room to argue that you look old enough. I don’t know about checking the IDs of anyone accompanying the purchaser.
What's interesting to me is the year I lived in Michigan not one time did they ask for my ID when buying alcohol. They do every time here in TN.
I live in community that is 55 years plus, our Walgreens, and all Walgreens check everyone ID. It is company policy. Clerk told me if he done they will fire him, I said really thought slaves must be sold.
First time I bought beer I was 14 and no ID required (drinking age was 19 at the time). The funniest ID request was my wife and I were pushing our oldest daughter (she was 18 months old at the time) around in a stroller at Taste of Chicago. I stayed with the stroller and she went over to buy a beer. The lady at the counter asked for ID, so the wife called me over since I had the stroller and the purse and our beer vendor started laughing and said she didn't need to show an ID.
- Thread starter
- #10
I wonder if I could sue Walmart for 10 mil, settle out of court for 1.8? Lawyers here advertise on TV like there's no tomorrow. "Hurt? Call Bert".
I sense the issue is not that the buyer was being checked for ID. That is well and good and proper. That's the law.
The issue is that the store took it upon themselves to check the ID of someone who was NOT purchasing alcohol.
That is none of their business, and is an infringement of privacy.
The law is that a person must be a certain age to purchase alcohol.
So, if a guy comes in and buys beer and his wife is present, they want to ID the wife - but if a guy comes in and buys beer but tells the six 15 year old kids to stay in the van out in the parking lot, it's just fine.
The store has no right to assume that there is unlawful intent in a purchase.
It is tantamount to a bringing your 10 year old son to a Car Dealership when you are buying a car, and having them ask him for ID, because you must be at least 16 to drive.
It is the height of stupidity, and is an example of some schmuck with no life of his own injecting his own sense of morality on someone else, not enforcement of a law.
The issue is that the store took it upon themselves to check the ID of someone who was NOT purchasing alcohol.
That is none of their business, and is an infringement of privacy.
The law is that a person must be a certain age to purchase alcohol.
So, if a guy comes in and buys beer and his wife is present, they want to ID the wife - but if a guy comes in and buys beer but tells the six 15 year old kids to stay in the van out in the parking lot, it's just fine.
The store has no right to assume that there is unlawful intent in a purchase.
It is tantamount to a bringing your 10 year old son to a Car Dealership when you are buying a car, and having them ask him for ID, because you must be at least 16 to drive.
It is the height of stupidity, and is an example of some schmuck with no life of his own injecting his own sense of morality on someone else, not enforcement of a law.
Obviously sounds like a mistake. I was first served in Philadelphia at age 13, 50+ years ago. No one cared back then and drinking and driving was not perceived as the end of the world. By the time I was 23 I got carded everywhere and drinking and driving has rightly become a very serious offense. Sometimes things change for the better.
Obviously sounds like a mistake. I was first served in Philadelphia at age 13, 50+ years ago. No one cared back then and drinking and driving was not perceived as the end of the world. By the time I was 23 I got carded everywhere and drinking and driving has rightly become a very serious offense. Sometimes things change for the better.
I was in a situation where I wanted to use cash to add money to a gift card at a Burger King.
The manager said that I needed to show ID for that.
I could not imagine which information on an ID could be of any use in that situation.
There is no age limit involved.
It doesn't really matter whether or not I'm a terrorist on the NO Fly list in that situation either,
and I said so.
The manager decided to make an exception in my case.
Since then, I have used cash to add money to that same gift card at that same Burger King without ID,
after that manager had been replaced.
The way things were when I was a kid
was that if you had time to run around with your friends after school,
then you also had time to go fetch cigarettes and beer for your folks.
Lockback
Dull yet interesting
My drivers license expired several months ago.You have three months after its expiration date to get a new one without having to go through a drivers test again, etc. I wasn't in any particular hurry, particularly knowing that I had to upgrade to the new 'Super Important TSA-Approved James Bond License' or whatever the bleep it is, where you have to bring 17 forms of ID and 3 stool samples. 
So I'm at the local Kroger, buying Mrs. Lockback non-alcohol beer, and they wouldn't sell it to me because my drivers license was expired and the computer reading the bar code said "Does Not Compute!".
I wasn't mad at the cashier, of course. It's not his fault. But I marched over to the Complaint Desk and they got it worked out. Meantime, I'm sure the people behind me in line weren't pleased with me but when you can't even buy NA beer and you're 71 freaking years old and it's because your dumb license has lapsed by a few days, I know once again we've reached Peak Stupidity.
So I'm at the local Kroger, buying Mrs. Lockback non-alcohol beer, and they wouldn't sell it to me because my drivers license was expired and the computer reading the bar code said "Does Not Compute!".
I wasn't mad at the cashier, of course. It's not his fault. But I marched over to the Complaint Desk and they got it worked out. Meantime, I'm sure the people behind me in line weren't pleased with me but when you can't even buy NA beer and you're 71 freaking years old and it's because your dumb license has lapsed by a few days, I know once again we've reached Peak Stupidity.
Obviously sounds like a mistake. I was first served in Philadelphia at age 13, 50+ years ago. No one cared back then and drinking and driving was not perceived as the end of the world. By the time I was 23 I got carded everywhere and drinking and driving has rightly become a very serious offense. Sometimes things change for the better.
Well the world has changed because of civil litigation, lawyers, and no one is responsible for their dumb, or stupid mistakes.
- Thread starter
- #17
It's New Mexico so yes it is stupidity.
Cashiers are also warned by management that they are being watched by cameras to make sure they are checking. I like when sometimes a cashier will just enter a date without asking for proof and if you schmooze them they will take years off your real age, makes me feel good for rest of the day.
Stupid yes, but minor compared to the stupidity of everything else these days. I worked at a liquor store in Florida full time in the mid 70s, and part-time nights/weekends at a NJ store in the 80s. When I was in my 20s and 30s, I was pretty good at guessing age. These days high school kids (some with full beards) look much older, so I understand stores wanting everyone carded. There's just too much to lose for the owner not to card everyone. We had a few problems at the NJ store, with underage kids claiming we sold it directly to them, after they got older customers to buy the booze. The local owner was friends with the local police so he dodged the bullet, but it could have easily gone the other way. Shortly before he sold the store, we began carding everyone. These days I generally visit the same store, so they don't ask for my ID, but I've been carded at other stores in my 60s & 70s. No big deal. It seems silly to card your wife, but not the fault of the cashier if it's store policy to card everyone with the purchaser.
I don't fault the cashier if it is store policy.
I fault the store if it is store policy. It certainly isn't law.
They deserve every lost sale, and they deserve to be publicly shamed for such blatant ignorance.
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