Bars and liquor stores are well aware of the numerous attempts by minors to forge identification cards, and sometimes the cooperation of young cashiers who have incentives to look the other way when presented with such cards. Clear easy to follow rules make things simple.
My 30 year old nephew stopped in a trader joe’s with my then 15 year old daughter to buy me a bottle of wine as a hostess gift. He obviously had ID. The store still refused the sale, as my daughter didn’t have ID, and he was not old enough to be her father. Their policy is in groups everyone must have ID or a parent must be present. I guess the store has been burned by older friends buying alcohol for underage friends and siblings.
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Yes, those checking IDs at airport locations, hotels, and such should be trained and equipped to handle various IDs.
But some retail stores like CVS have some locations in areas with lots of people from out of state or country. A store next to Purdue will certainly encounter out of state and international students on a regular basis, so any ID checker should know that many kinds of ID may be presented.
Some posters mentioned Guam previously. Guam driver’s licenses do say “Guam USA” on them.
Anyone with New Mexico driver’s license or ID ever have similar encounters? New Mexico does not put “USA” on the driver’s license or ID, although it does on car license plates.
A store next to a college has lots of chance of fake ID’s.
Why? The bar doesn’t care if you get in or not. Same thing happened in my daughter’s college town in Fl and she went and got a new DL when she turned 21 even though she was moving in 6 months.
Honestly, the numbers on my license are tiny, and even if the bouncer has a flashlight, it’s pretty hard to read those things, especially in a dark doorway at 11 pm on a Friday night. Easier to just see that the license is horizontal.
I left my purse in a taxi going to the airport. I got it back before I had to go through TSA, but I had my Federal ID hanging on my neck and the TSA agent said that would have been ok. Really, it wasn’t. Federal IDs have no expiration date on them so they really aren’t enough to go through TSA. Some places will take anything, others are strict.
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All my kids got a horizontal license at 21, even though they weren’t expired.
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I highly doubt people who don’t know PR is in the US know what a passport card is or even exists.
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You don’t know what you don’t know. It’s hard to say what someone “should” know and often comes across as truly condescending.
I agree with those who blame employers who don’t set their employees up for success at their jobs.
I disagree with those who feel it necessary to call others stupid because they lack your vast knowledge.
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From CVS’ perspective, this was a success. It doesn’t need the potential criminal or civil liability of selling alcohol to minors, and there are thousands of minors near colleges trying to buy alcohol. Good to have a policy to refuse all sales unless it is absolutely clear to the cashier that the person is over age and not buying it for others. The profit margin on the bottle is small compared to the degree of risk.
The OP article has nothing to do with buying alcohol. The student was looking to buy cold medicine!
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Let’s do a quick review about the number of issues a store manager of a CVS has been dealing with:
1- endemic shoplifting. Baby formula locked up behind a case, razor blades (in some parts of the country).
2- Insane difficulty in staffing shifts, even in places where the starting wage is $17/hour.
3- Being forced to jerry-rig a drive-through/pick up spot, even in urban stores which do not have their own driveway or parking
4-Half the store being taken over by long waiting lines-- vaccines, covid tests (before the at-homes were widely available), reduced hours for the pharmacy and pressing into service retired nurses to administer vaccinations
5-Supply chain shortages-- so disgruntled customers
6- rapid inflation (which is now easing) so certain items cost a LOT more, leading to enraged customers. I saw someone shriek at the cashier about the price of eggs (this CVS has a case with eggs, milk and butter-- and yes, the prices are much higher than two years ago) as if the cashier sets the price of a grocery item?
So let’s give a moment of grace to the store manager who in the midst of keeping the wheels from falling off the bus, did not instruct a cashier on the in’s and out’s of Puerto Rican citizenship.
You guys are sure in a judgmental mood! I am more worried about elected lawmakers who don’t understand the female reproductive system than I am about a cashier who doesn’t understand the legal status of Puerto Rican citizens…
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Same problem. I agree it is a ridiculous rule, but CVS can get in serious trouble for selling to underage. Same risk.
Yes – our family members in New Mexico run into this issue regularly during domestic travel.
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Their standard license plate still says “New Mexico USA”
Early in the REAL ID process, NM said they would NOT participate, that they would issue driver’s licenses to undocumented people, so many state would not accept a NM DL for anything. Then NM flipped and went with the REAL ID program and I think even has enhanced licenses. But sometimes news travels slowly, and some still think NM is the rebel state it was.
NM, like lots of states, offers both Real ID and non Real ID driver’s licenses and IDs. The Real ID ones have the star like the one shown above and other states’ Real ID driver’s licenses and IDs.
Early on, there were right leaning (at the time) states like AZ that also did not want to do Real ID.
But the NM ID issue is that people see “New Mexico” and think it is some place outside of the US instead of a US state.
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After I moved to the US, I went back to visit my parents outside Toronto and went to my neighborhood pub. I had been drinking there since I was 16 but at 24 they would not accept my Virginia drivers license as ID. I had to drive home and get my passport.
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They do now offer both REal ID and an alternative but when Real ID first came out they refused and in fact encouraged undocumented people to go to NM to get a license. I live in Colorado and it was widely known that one could get a license there without much documentation. They also gave instate tuition to undocumented graduates of Colorado hs when Colorado wouldn’t.
Anyway, it was a big deal as news organizations were reporting that NM IDs wouldn’t work at TSA (yeah, back when REAL ID was going to actually be required by 2005), to get into a govt building, to get onto a military base, etc. People in Colorado certainly know that NM is a state, but many weren’t comfortable accepting the DLs as a good form of ID.
Do you mean 19?
He might, but I was drinking in bars in Wisconsin at 16, and often it was legal! (Your parents can buy drinks for you, or a spouse).
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