A lot of places are doing this now. It’s just plain dumb. 99% of the times I have a beer in an airport I get asked for I D. Not really proofed just asked for I D. No common sense.
I get asking for ID. The beer shops o go to never ask. One Whole Foods never asks, another does. Wegmans scans your ID. I won’t go to the Whole Foods that asks for ID because they ask even for non alcohol. I raised a stink over getting asked for ID for Sierra Nevada 0.0% Hop Water. If I had a can of non alcohol seltzer I won’t get asked. Manager had to come up and over ride or I would have walked out with out it. The cashier getting mouthy did not help the situation. Enjoy
I guess everyone has to draw a line somewhere... this is where I would draw mine. I'm pretty easy going when it comes to showing ID to prove I'm of legal legal drinking age, but if you're so ignorant about what you're selling that you still think it necessary to card me in order to buy a non alcoholic beverage, I don't want to have anything to do with you.
During the neo-Prohibitionist/MADD era of the 1980s-1990s, there were attempts to pass laws on state or municipal levels to prohibit NA sales to underage customers. Brewers and distributors stressed they were "adult beverages" and apparently sometimes encouraged retailers to enact such policies to stay on the good side of the anti-alcohol activists.
Looking at it that way, it makes a lot of sense and the likely and best reason that places should card you for NA purchases.
IMHO, it makes no sense. It's not illegal for an underage consumer to drink or purchase these beverages, so what purpose is served by carding them? My feeling is that it makes more sense to educate groups like MADD, rather than kowtowing to their distorted, imbecelic viewpoints.
We can disagree, but I think carding for these 'adult-like' beers helps to discourage youth drinking and helps MADD in their effort, regardless that it would be only 0.5% alcohol (or less).
I know there's not much chance of that, but that still is no reason to put up with their misinformed BS. "Yes missus MADD lady, this beverage is in fact made by a brewery. However, it has as much alcohol in it as Coca-Cola. A person could drink a case of it and his/her driving would not be impaired in any way. So no, despite your misguided viewpoint, we are not going to restrict this beverage to adults only. There is simply no justification for doing so. Have a nice day."
I confess I don't see how or why that would be. It seems to me that you're sending conflicting messages to young people, and that you're promoting a slippery slope. Should we card young people who want to buy tea or coffee? How about caffenated soft drinks? What about energy drinks like red bull? Personally, if I were a member of MADD, I wouldn't want there to be any confusion, and I'd want young people to have a clear understanding as to why they're not allowed to purchase alcoholic beverages until they're an adult. IMHO, restricting the purchase of certain beverages to adults, simply because they might appear to be "adult-like, does not accomplish that.
I suspect the answer for the carding for n/a beer is far simpler-the big box stores don’t want to spend large sums of money to recode point of sales systems to account for it. Given that the n/a beer is put in the beer aisle and comes from breweries or distributors it probably rolls up into the same internal coding as beer that triggers a card the consumer alert. Yes, it’s ridiculous to get carded for 0%abv hop water, but the self check out at big box stores triggering it means it is a coding issue and not the front line employees being douches.
Agreed. That's what I would assume as well. I strongly doubt that there was a conscious decision by store management to card customers buying brewery sourced n/a beverages.
Simple solution to the whole carding thing; move the legal drinking/smoking/gambling/brothel admittance age to 18 and leave carding up to the discretion of the cashier. I know this will never happen, but it only makes sense if someone is old enough to get sent to a war in some third world country that no one cares about, then said person should be old enough to drink/smoke/gamble/pay for sex. Seems like a good idea to me. Cheers
Seriously, this was the whole reason the voting age was dropped from 21 to 18. Now they've kicked the ages for almost everything fun up. You still get to die in a desert, though. At least there isn't a draft for it anymore. Years ago, back when I still played the lottery, I went into a gas station and bought a couple of easy picks and paid. Realized I was low on smokes and asked for a pack and was carded. I asked why I was carded for the cigarettes and not the lottery tickets, since you have to be 18 for either. Cashier got all shitty with me.
NA beverages are subject to three tier and most other alcohol laws, at least in Illinois. 0.0% Hop Water is not taxed subject to the 2% Illinois tax on food and non alcoholic beverages. It’s taxed at the full state, county and city sales tax rate (10.25% in Chicago). NA beverages may only be sold in segregated alcohol sections of large stores (over 2,500 sq feet), cannot be sold in sections with bottled/flavored water, and is subject to display and placement restrictions faced by alcohol beverages. It’s not a matter of big box stores being lazy (at least in Illinois). It’s part of legislation by legislators, in part seeking higher state and local tax revenue and forcing sales through beer distribution laws and regulations. Would say Distributors have more say in the matter than religious / MADD lobbying. 0.5% ABV and under beverages are not subject to Federal Excise Taxes on beer/alcohol, but are subject to Food & Drug Administration product labeling requirements. Alcohol Displays / Marketing: https://www.illinois.gov/news/press-release.27120.html Subject to Three Tier Distribution: https://www.alcohollawadvisor.com/2020/06/non-alcoholic-beer-regulation-101/ Illinois NA beverage sales to minors: https://lo2no.com/how-old-do-you-have-to-be-to-buy-non-alcoholic-beer/#:~:text=You can buy non alcoholic,the states' beer franchise laws. Would say a good number of Illinois retailers code all items subject to beer franchising laws as 21+. There may be local restrictions as well. Four states (Georgia, Idaho, New York and Tennessee) outright ban NA sales to under 21 customers.
There must be more to it than that. If this were to apply to all NA beverages, that would mean underage customers couldn't purchase bottled water, soda pop, flavored ice tea, etc. That seems improbable.
His post was in regard to NA beer and referred to NA beer as NA beverages. I don’t think anyone considers water to be a non alcoholic beverage anymore than a car is a non flying airplane…
I don't see much of this in MA for alcohol, only place I can think of is Sam Adams in downtown Boston. Most times I don't actually pay with my card anymore, and use my phone. I don't mind pulling out my ID, but I don't always have my wallet or ID on me since I walk to a lot of places. I suspect at some point our licenses will be on our phones and ultimately our wallets will be obsolete. Or a simple face scan or hand wave will verify your purpose and your age. Amazon One stores already have the hand wave payment so you don't even need your phone or wallet.
