how lenient stores should be about carding to buy alcahol

No, only if you appear to be below the age of like 35 ish.
I know a 16 year old kid who looks like an old man and is partially balding, only his voice gives it away. He smokes, drinks, etc b/c people think hes like 40

 

As someone who once sold alcohol you are damned if you do, damned if you don't. Rather than argue or whatever I made it my policy to card everyone no matter their appearance. Plus it's legally safer because you can be liable if you make a mistake and something bad results and then lose your license to sell.

 

It's annoying being carded (everyone thinks I'm 19 max), but Crypt-Keeper should have been nicer. I hope he gets carded for the rest of what's left of his life! :lol:

 

Even though there's no law requiring stores to card 100% of the time, it some store's policy to card everyone who comes through and I do mean everyone and its sometimes programmed in the system to prompt the cashier to enter a DOB when an alcoholic drink gets sold. It does suck but hey its policy and technology. Some stores will only card if you look below 40 and some will not card at all.

 

Some venues card everyone. At the rodeo here, everyone gets carded. I saw a man over 70 get carded. It's ridiculous but also a liability for some and may be part of their insurance requirement.

Most stores here only card if you look under a safe age like 30-40. I don't always get carded at 26. Usually, it's the gas stations that do. Not a TABC rule, but a way to diminish civil and criminal liability.

 

If a person looks like they're clearly past their 40s-50s, yeah, it seems kind of stupid, but I think I'd rather be damned for doing it than for not doing it. Someone here a while back who was underage managed to get away with buying alcohol, because the cashier didn't bother to check his ID, and now it doesn't matter whether you're 25 or 105, you get carded because they got in trouble for that. When I go to buy alcohol, the people who run the store know my face (the only place in town that sells liquor also sells everything else and I'm in there often, it's not because I'm a drunken bastard ) and I still get carded. I think in the vast majority of cases it's better to do it and deal with the bitching than to not do it and get in legal trouble.

 

Any business can make any policy they wish to on top of what the law says. Liquor licenses are not cheap and are limited in number depending on the city or state you live in. Losing it could mean losing your business entirely depending on what it is.

Plus people go out and check on that very fact. My dad would take a pair of high school students around to places that sell smokes and alcohol. A plain cloths police officer road with them, if the cashier sold the kids either item, they got a monster fine.

I'm not a great judge of age so I had the secretary at a place I used to work make me a fancy sign that read "Bartender cards everyone shorter than the bartender." I'm 6' 4" and most people found it funny. It was even better when I worked with a really short girl, she got a sign reading "Bartender cards everyone taller than bartender."

 

Although it may be a bit ridiculous to get carded if you are obviously middle aged or older, that person completely overreacted because he could just assume the place has a stringent "card everyone" rule and chop it up to needless bureaucracy (rather than assume they actually believe him to be underage).

That said, I'm 24 and can pass for a high schooler; it will be a while before I am no longer carded -_-

 

It may seem really obvious to a customer who wants to buy but they're not always aware of what the store employee has to deal with. Like say I don't card someone who's bald and gray and looks like Yoda, but the next person is borderline. Now what do I do? When I was selling sometimes people would be like, "Oh, you must think I'm young!" and act all flattered and sometimes people would say, "Can't you tell I'm old enough?" and be angry. So I carded every single customer to be consistent and fair and also to protect my license in the case I slipped up and misjudged that borderline person and they went and got themselves ticketed violating an open container law and went, "Well, AmyBee sold it to me!"

Trust me, I would have been in a LOT more trouble than the underage drinker. Not just fired but in real legal trouble. I'd rather have Yoda angry at me than the state.

Also, another thing... where I'm from the cops LOVE to slip underage people into places selling alcohol just to see what happens.

People can get all bent out of shape about it and I remember thinking it was weird, too, until I was the person on the other side of the counter.

 

That's what I never got. People get really mad if you offer them the Senior Citizen discount when they aren't old enough. So glad I don't bar tend or work in customer service anymore, just no pleasing people.

 

Yikes that guy could have been nicer. Yeah I've been through training programs in several stores and each one has their own policy. Most of the time it's a "if you look over" rule but there are stores that card literally every person. The store doesn't want to get in trouble and neither does a random employee just doing his or her job. I get the frustration of being carded, I am 27 and still am confused for being in high school. However I would rather them be safe and card everyone rather than let a kid or teen buy alcohol. If the guy looked really old that's weird but probably store policy. I feel bad for the store clerk.

 

The hassle of it was literally not worth the money so I quit. They begged me not to and I was like, "No thanks."

 

A lot of places card everyone. There are a few places I don't get carded (though that's probably a testament to my frequency of buying alcohol :rolle but any negligent behaviour from a licensed venue carries sufficiently severe penalties that I understand why they would seem a little ridiculously vigilant, if they have a no exceptions policy.

 

It takes two seconds to whip out an ID. That old man was an asshole.

 

I can't imagine berating someone who's trying to serve you like he did no matter if the ID took all day. Outrageous bad behavior from the generation supposedly more respectful of others.

Those "we card everyone under xx" rules do require judgment on the part of the cashier, but ultimately it's a convenience to them, not the customer. He's lucky he wasn't refused service for being insufferable.

 

Who cares if you get carded? It takes all of 2 seconds to pull out your damn ID and hand it to the cashier. Give me a break.

 

Guy sounds like a jackass. Both my husband and I are almost always carded when we buy liquor by the bottle. I'm 45 and he's 50. We look young for our ages but I'm under no illusions that anyone could possibly think that either of us is under 21.:lol: