Purchasing Beer! (Cookeville: sale, buying, live) - Tennessee (TN) - City-Data Forum

SCOUT19D · 01-09-2012, 05:50 PM

I have a question that i hope someone can help me with. I am fairly new to Tennessee and coming from Georgia where i have lived my whole life. I have had a few cases now where i am wanting some beer and decide to go to the store and my wife will get in the truck with me at the spur of the moment just to ride along. Once we get to the store and i get my beer and go to pay for it, they ask me for my ID which i gladly present and then they say they need to see hers as well?? Often times she doesnt bring her purse if she is just riding with me and they wont sale me the beer unless she has her ID as well. Even if she doesnt touch the beer at all and is just walking with me. [mod] see comment [/mod] Please someone help me with this and point me in the right direction. I have already confronted one store by contacting the manager and informing them of the situation in which she told me as long as my wife didnt touch the beer or carry it to the counter that they should have sold it to me. I need something to print out or a number to call so i can go to this other store and the other local ones within the same county to inform them. Im in Montgomery County Tennessee.

jchometeam · 01-09-2012, 06:11 PM

I dont know about your county, but in some parts of the state there have been problems with minors going into stores, picking out the alcohol that they want someone who is over 21 to buy, and just giving them the money to buy it.

There will likely be a proposed state law this year to outlaw anyone under 21 to go on the property (even the parking lot) to prevent this.

SCOUT19D · 01-09-2012, 06:20 PM

I dont see how a proposed state law would work. That would mean everyone under 21 couldnt go to a gas station.

DubbleT · 01-09-2012, 06:30 PM

Yes, company policy for us, we card all the people in a group buying beer if they look underage (underage being considered anyone under 40).
The store can be severely fined and possibly lose their license and/or the cashier and manager can lose their jobs for selling to someone buying for a minor.
Even if you enter the store together and split up before getting to the cash register we can and will refuse the sale. It's not worth the very real risk $$.
Wait until you get carded for buying cough syrup!

My daughter works for a grocery store with a more lenient policy, so I guess your best bet is to find a store that isn't so strict and stick with them for your beer runs. Or make sure your wife grabs her ID if she's of age.

SCOUT19D · 01-09-2012, 06:35 PM

So anyone who looks under age. So im a single parent who has kids and stopped at the store to get some beer. So now your saying i cant buy beer cause i have my kids with me? I think some people just need to use some damn common sense. And yes, she is more than of age. Not yet 40 but 36 is pretty dang close.

SCOUT19D · 01-09-2012, 06:49 PM

Thanks for everyones help. Just talked to the local police station and there is no such law. Its a store to store basis. They said that is should be a commone sense thing. Not trying to make a big deal out of it REMOVED INAPPROPRIATE LANGUAGE.

DubbleT · 01-09-2012, 06:51 PM

I understand you are upset but no need to be insulting, of course they aren't carding parents with 10 year olds. But yes, if you are with a 17yr old you are probably going to be asked for ID and possibly refused. How is the cashier supposed to know if that 17 yr old is your kid or some random kid that approached you in the parking lot?
Not to mention when you were eighteen you could tell someone thirty years old from somebody forty years old? It's kind of funny but our younger cashiers can't tell the ages of people much older than themselves, and our older cashiers seem to think everyone under thirty is just a baby.
Discerning someones age is not always that easy, and you do realize the cops are very fond of sting operations hoping to catch someone making a mistake? From the cashiers POV it is just too risky to make assumptions about someones age. It's a shame but basically it's a CYA situation for the cashiers.

SCOUT19D · 01-09-2012, 06:57 PM

Thats understandable. Its just annoying sometimes and i understand the whole CYA thing. Im in the military and have to deal with that a lot. Didnt mean to insult anyone. Thank you for the info.

2mares · 01-10-2012, 11:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DubbleT

Yes, company policy for us, we card all the people in a group buying beer if they look underage (underage being considered anyone under 40).
The store can be severely fined and possibly lose their license and/or the cashier and manager can lose their jobs for selling to someone buying for a minor.
Even if you enter the store together and split up before getting to the cash register we can and will refuse the sale. It's not worth the very real risk $$.
Wait until you get carded for buying cough syrup!

My daughter works for a grocery store with a more lenient policy, so I guess your best bet is to find a store that isn't so strict and stick with them for your beer runs. Or make sure your wife grabs her ID if she's of age.

I have never heard of such policy anywhere in Putnam or Cumberland counties. I do know that anyone under 21 cant physically touch alcohol. Ive bought beer in grocery stores and the cashier had to call someone to scan it and place it back in the cart. How ridiculous. What type of establishment do you work in, gas station, grocery, etc.?
I have been carded for buying cough syrup.

Times sure have changed. Of course 18 was legal age for alcohol consumption when I was young. Most times you could buy it and get in clubs at 16. I remember me and my cousin buying ciggs. from the corner market on her moms tab when we were about 14. We had to get menthols tho because that was what her mom smoked.

DubbleT · 01-10-2012, 04:43 PM

We have a couple of stores in Cookeville, so keep your ID with you!

Large chain, small stores, too paranoid to say more because they have policies about that too.

Our alcohol policy is only a company policy, and some store managers and district managers are maybe a little more lenient than others about their interpretation of it.
We have a lot of stings in our area (one of our own store employees picks up some extra cash working as a decoy for the local police dept doing that very thing!!) so our mgrs are maybe a little more gung-ho than in other areas.
If the OP is up by the Ft Campbell area I imagine they are pretty leery of selling to people without ID too. Probably tons of underage youngsters trying to get their older buddies to buy for them.
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I remember going to the corner gas station and picking up cigarettes for my parents too, from the vending machine outside, I think I was about seven, lol.Way back in the dark ages....