50 year old denied Alcohol purchase

My husband is 40 years old - last month he was denied a purchase of
beer at wal-mart - why? because our 14 year old daughter was with him.


Stupid. yes.

lesson - just don't buy alcohol at wal-mart.

they honestly take insane measures with the policy and it just isn't
worth the argument.

That being said - you really should NEVER let a minor touch alcohol
purchases while in a store. My younger ones love helping unload the
cart or put things in, but if for some reason I have a bottle of wine
or something, they know they are not allowed to touch those things.

I was at Walmart with my mom earlier this week to buy groceries. She
is in her 70's, & I am in my 40's. She gave me her Walmart card to pay
for the groceries when we got to the checkout lane, & she sat down on
a bench in the front of the store. One thing she wanted to buy was a
bottle of wine. I was the one who unloaded the groceris, including the
wine. The cashier asked me if I was the one paying for the groceries.
She told me that if I was the one paying for the groceries, I would
have to show her my id. I do not look my age,& so there are times when
I am carded. I just told the cashier that I was paying with my mom's
Walmart card. I did not make a fuss about the fact that the cashier
asked me to show her my id. So the cashier looked at my mom,& she told
me that she did not need to see her id.

You do understand that the reason the store is so anal-retentive about
this is because they can get hit with a very heavy fine by the state,
right? And that's the bare minimum. They could also lose their alcohol
license or possibly spend time in jail, depending on the offense.
Thus, a policy exists where minors may not touch any alcohol in the
store at all. There is no room for argument on this. They do their
best to follow the state law and you, as a customer, are obliged to
follow the policies they have set in place to ensure that compliance.

Give them grief about it and they have every right to toss you out.
You're not worth a $1000+ fine.

After trying to comprehend your complaint, I think it is wise that you
do not try to purchase anymore alcohol.

"train their employees to know that the can not expane the law. "



No training required for this. Well not employee training at least.


Customer training however has been completed. You now know that you
cannot let a minor touch your alcohol if you plan on purchasing it.


Calling them names however... I don't feel they deserve. The
associate shouldn't be punished for following store procedure.
Overriding this procedure is a great way to get fired.

And frankly I don't see why the associate should risk his or her job
just to complete an alcohol sale when a minor touched the booze.


Perhaps now is also a good time to conduct child-training and explain
to the child that he/she shouldn't touch adult products in the store.

but it's the best they can do given the circumstances. There are too
many ignorant people who have no problem buying alcohol for minors
that they had to make their sales rules more strict.

I learned a while ago not to purchase any kind of alcohol with my boys
in tow. It just looks funny and that's asking for trouble.

Besides, most places say unless you LOOK older than, say, 45, they
apply the rules stringently. (i.e. grey hair, walker and dentures!)
Maybe you are fortunate enough to look young!

They didn't treat anyone wrong, but if you stopped for a second to
really think about why they had to do it, you'd see that they didn't
really have an alternative.

At least you know now.

n/t

Ree T.,

Stores and other businesses reserve the right to refuse service to
anyone as long as it does not violate... race, age etc...parameters.

As I read it the 7 year old was unloading the cart and thus tounched
the bottle. That would be enough for me.

The other poster's issue about a most likely history that comes along
with this is obvious to me as well.

BillR.

From what I understand, it seems as though you were told you could not
purchase a bottle of alcohol because your 7-year-old child moved the
bottle from the carriage and onto the belt at the cash register. At
some point after that, you were banned from the store for a period of
24 hours. I feel as though there is a LOT of information missing from
this story. Being denied an alcohol purchase in and of itself does
not get someone kicked out of a store for 24 hours, so I suspect that
something else happened to precipitate that.

I read your complaint, but I could not understand it.