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My husband and I had a bad experience at Winco Foods. We just finished our grocery shopping and went to check out. I told the checker we also have a case of Budwieser beer. The checker told us she needs to see all of our I.Ds including our friends I.D who is only 20. Mind u hes not a minor, so we are not responsible for him and neither is the store. We ask him to wait outside to make it easier. We showed her our I.Ds.
Then she told us we couldent purchase the beer cause our friend did not provide I.D and is under 21! First off by California law, only the person purchasing the beer is required to show I.D. secondly what if u had a kid with u and wanted to purchase beer, do they need to see the kids I.D aswell! and then refuse u cause hes a minor!
My husband asked to speak to the supervisor, the checker said" fine but your wrong!" and called the supervisor.
The supervisor said by state law they have to check everyones I.D! WHAT! And its for our protection. Protection from what? We asked, were over 21 and have every right to purchase this beer!
My husband explained to them what state law was, they went silent, then the superviser said "fine then i REFUSE to sell u this beer I dont trust you using it!", " and i can call the police and have them explain it to you clearly!" Well I did't want to be there all night, so we purchased our grocerys, then with an angry vioce my husband said " were never coming here again!" they said fine then dont.
After we left we looked at the recept and noticed they charged us twice for the case of water! My husband said hes not goin in there again for fear he might hit somebody.
We finally went to Safeway to purchase beer for the BBQ, and they did it right they only wanted the I.D of the person buying the beer!
I will never go to any Winco again!
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
It was because you bought a case of hillbilly beer. Next time, if you buy a real beer, they will probably sell it to you.
my 2 year old daughter was harrased by a winco lancaster employee, he touched her forcefully and accused my little girl of stealing from the company, all becasue she had a piece of candy in her hand. my poor girl started crying and the man then argued with me about no sampling . he had no right to touch my little girl like that. this is sexual harassment. i hope winco management reads this and takes the matter into their hands. the employee works in the bulk foods section, lancaster . the manager did not give me his name. this happened on august 11. 09. employees should not touch customer's children . this is againt the law. my daughter and i were not sampling i was buying candy for her, she was crying so i gave a piece . she should not have been harrassed for it she is too young to know what she is doing. shame on winco and that employee
That's extremely common. Aside from the issue with the double-charge for water (an easy mistake but one I've never had happen at WinCo), I don't see what your issue was. Making a kid go outside while you buy beer looks fishy. If he's your kid, that's your legal right, and you wouldn't be sending him outside. If he's not your kid, either keep him with you or buy beer another time, but legally, yeah, they can refuse you service.
As for the issue with the employee touching the kid, yeah, that's very wrong. That's a genuine issue. Although I will point out that bulk candy (if it was a sampling issue, it was bulk) is priced by weight, so technically, you couldn't have purchased that candy. So yeah, it was stolen in a technical sense.
He was 20 years old...FAR from KID lol...
California Law requires all cashiers to sign an affidavit saying they understand the ABC Laws and Requirements. One of those requirements is the knowledge that if a group of persons is purchasing alcohol and it is apparent that some of the parties involved might be under the legal age then the cashier has the duty (and can be fined for infraction) to ask for IDs of all persons.
Very few minors actually attempt to purchase alcohol, usually they get a group together and use the one person who is 21 to get the drinks. The law is written specifically so retailers can refuse to sell in these situations.
I was a checker at Safeway, and (like Chris said), we were liable if a minor got a hold of alcohol sold from our store. So if there is a group of kids, one of which is over 21, we have the right to ID everyone in the group. Sometimes police officers have sting operations were they send in minors or groups of kids with one over 21, to purchase alcohol. If we sell it to them, they come back and arrest the checker, fine the store and they can take away the store's liquor license. So if a checker gives you problems about buying alcohol, remember, it's their job at stake and they don't want to take any chances. It's not worth selling beer to somebody if that means the checker will loose their job. Give WinCo a break. This situation happens at EVERY store, not just WinCo.
The same thing happened to my husband and I. My husband tried to buy a 6 pack of Blue Moon. The checker was very rude, refused to sell him the beer, and did not offer any explanation. After my husband paid for our groceries and the checker handed him the beer. He jumped in a different line where he then purchased the beer while I bagged the groceries. Being nearly 30 I appreciate the compliment (of looking younger) but I have little tolerance for hassle, rudeness, and excessive/ineffective policies that make shopping feel like a chore. This situation was both ridiculous and laughable. It was nothing more than a waste of time. California law does not prohibit the presence of a minor while purchasing alcohol. It only dictates that minors cannot purchase alcohol. When I asked (hypothetically) if I could buy beer in the presence of my 15 year-old daughter (I don't have children), they said that this was perfectly fine. It looks like we will be shopping at Vons until Winco changes their policy.
I can relate to your situation. Unfortunately, the only way to combat the problem is to write a letter to corporate and refuse to shop at Winco. Give another grocery store your money. I have never had this problem at high end grocery stores and I recognize that Winco does not have a wealthy customer base. The message that I get from Winco is that it should be harder for lower income individuals to purchase alcohol. Class discrimination anybody?
If I was not clear enough in my earlier post, I was the one who did not have and ID. There were no minors involved. I am almost 30. I do not look under 21. I was shopping with my husband of almost 4 years. He had the ID. He was making the purchases because I left everything at home including my debit.
Oh, and Stealth Pilot, stores are not liable for adults buying alcohol for minors. Check your facts.
in terms of pricing and availability, winco is the best grocery store i've ever had the pleasure of shopping at. i'm sure you're just angry because you didn't get your alcohol. they saw you had an underage friend and didn't want to get themselves in trouble. you really showed us that you don't understand what was going on when you sent your friend outside, as if him physically being there was preventing your purchase from going through. then your big shot husband acted like an attorney and made them straight up refuse your sale. i'm glad winco stood up to you instead of giving you what you wanted because you have the audacity to throw a tantrum, in front of all the other shoppers no doubt. i expected them to just give it to you to get you to shut up. frankly, i wouldn't trust you either and am glad i'll never see you at a winco.
Winco is awful, they promote violence and assault people. And I'm glad I'll never see YOU in Winco...I refuse to set foot there. You must work there because you are rude and snotty. That is part of the job description there. Must be Rude.
Just to help educate yourself... (couldent..twice!), yet I am not a miracle worker, this is the states requirements regarding alcohol sales:
You must Check photo ID of everyone appearing under age 27 who attempts to purchase FDA regulated products and verify the customer is of legal age to purchase. This is an each-and-every time requirement (even if you know the person to be of legal are.) If you "carded" them yesterday, you must "card" them again today!
http://www.wecard.org/state-summary/CA
California has no "real" laws. They may be written somewhere, but are not enforced. You don't need licenses or insurance, or registration. The state just recommends it. You can drink, smoke pot, and drive and as long as you don't get pulled over, it's OK. It's California. Not from here, that's OK too. Come on in... sign up for free benefits, and we'll give ya whatever you need. It's Cali, baby... everything is free.
with Love, Georgi Soros