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Where are you based? I can purchase alcohol from Amazon UK with no obvious age checks. Deliveroo require that riders verify your age but in reality they just as
by basisword 4y ago
Where are you based? I can purchase alcohol from Amazon UK with no obvious age checks. Deliveroo require that riders verify your age but in reality they just ask you to type it in. And the major grocery stores deliver alcohol without any obvious checking too. I imagine teenage drinking is much easier these days thanks to the above :)
- conro1108 4y agoIn the Bay Area I’m also easily able to order alcohol on all the big delivery services, but they all seem pretty consistent about scanning your ID for age verification before they drop it off.
- mkoryak 4y agoAbout a month ago I had my groceries delivered from Wholefoods and the deliver driver carded me for some non-alcoholic beer I had purchased. I tried explaining to him that he didn't have to do that, but he wouldn't unload my groceries until I let him scan my ID.
- _yb2s 4y agoI had this a lot during the pandemic lockdown, for groceries and takeout… things that weren’t even liquid or food were mislabeled in some database as alcohol, requiring stressful social interaction when the whole point was no contact dropoff. Crazy how people aren’t allowed to use common sense but have to follow an apps instructions.
- 0xffff2 4y agoIt's really not that crazy. "allowed to use common sense" is a loophole you could drive a semi truck through.
- anigbrowl 4y agoGood, I don't want to live in an open-air prison where everything has to be approved by some administrator.
- 0xffff2 4y agoOkay, so advocate for repealing laws that age-restrict sales of alcohol, tobacco, etc. I don't think you'll find much support for your position, and until you do the company has a duty to do basic due diligence to not break the law.
- anigbrowl 4y agoFalse dichotomy. Basic due diligence can include asking the obviously young if they're old enough and does not need to be so heavily bureaucratized or strictly regulated. I suggest that restricting tobacco advertising and imposing high taxes on tobacco sales has done far more to limit youth consumption than any number of ID checks and retail license policing. Most other developed countries get by just fine with a much more relaxed attitude. Demanding identification and legal documentation for every little thing is excessive and imposes a compliance burden on everyone. It's fair in the sense of being non-discriminatory, but unfair in the sense that it creates a massive aggregate burden, reduces privacy, and institutes authoritarian presumptions.
- whats_a_quasar 4y agoThis happens to me at self-checkout at Safeway. I guess I can get somebody to come and check my ID, but seems unnecessary.
- taylodl 4y agoRight? Why can't you scan your ID and then be prompted what information to share with the system, like age? I scan my ID, the system asks to retrieve age information, it retrieves it, now I can proceed to scan my alcohol. No human interaction required. If the person manning the self-checkout operations thinks you look awfully young to be buying alcohol then they can always demand to see your ID. Simple.
- baristavibes 4y agoNo way to check you're actually the person on the ID this way
- kevin_thibedeau 4y agoLots of places have mandatory ID checks regardless of appearance.
- anigbrowl 4y agoStop complying with them. If they won't sell to you, take your business elsewhere and tell them why. If they whine about laws tell them to hire better lobbyists.
- kevin_thibedeau 4y agoEliminating the discretion of a cashier is not a bad thing. It harms no one and makes their job easier.
- anigbrowl 4y agoIt harms me by making me ask permission of strangers to eat and drink what I choose. I don't think telling people to operate as mindless robots makes their job easier.
- ghostpepper 4y agoWait they actually scan your ID? Or did you mean visually 'scan' it
- bragr 4y agoActually scan. I sometimes get beer via door dash, and they quickly verify your age by scanning the barcode on your ID. It pops up green so fast that at least some of the verification must be local to the phone, but I'm sure some data gets sent back. But I had to upload my ID to Door Dash the first time, so incremental scans don't really give them anything new.
- jen20 4y ago> I imagine teenage drinking is much easier these days thanks to the above When I was in (secondary) school in the UK, we could get served beer in the pub at lunchtime while wearing school uniform! Doesn't get much easier than that!
- dmje 4y agoWe waited for the French Exchange kids to be staying with us. They all looked about 25 when we were all 15. They were always happy to buy our booze for us :-)
- wkat4242 4y agoIn Holland beer and wine was allowed from 16 years of age and only spirits were 18+. Unfortunately a recent conservative government switched it all to 18+. I'm much older but I think 16 is old enough for a beer. I didn't when I were that age but I don't begrudge them their beer. And it's not like the law will stop it from happening anyway.
- crmd 4y agoPeople in the US seem to be at higher risk than Europeans of catastrophic problem drinking (where alcohol use leads to a loss of employment, housing, marriage / social connections, etc). I have seen this with several European friends who relocated to the US and found their relationship with alcohol turning dark. My personal theory is that life in the states may be on average more stressful than in Europe, perhaps due to lack of healthcare, at-will employment, etc., and this life pressure causes people here to be more at risk of self-medication problem drinking.
- TchoBeer 4y agoThis is true of western europe, but eastern europe is worse than the US in terms of drinking problems.
- throwaway60607 4y ago[flagged]
- ChrisRR 4y agoFrom your comments it seem you're in Germany where the legal drinking age is 16, so it's not surprising
- throwaway60607 4y agoNot in Germany, just nearby. The legal drinking age where I live is 18.
- loeg 4y agoEnforcement is much more strict in the states, generally. It does vary some state to state.
- xdennis 4y agoBut God forbid you try to buy a kitchen knife! It used to be that you had to show ID at delivery, but now Amazon requires adding ID before the purchase.
- jfk13 4y ago> I can purchase alcohol from Amazon UK with no obvious age checks Using your UK credit card? If so, that's an age check in itself.
- robin_reala 4y agoHere’s a common UK bank (well, building society technically) that has a Visa debit card for their kids account from 11 and up: https://www.nationwide.co.uk/current-accounts/flexone/ https://www.nationwide.co.uk/current-accounts/flexone/
- jfk13 4y agoYes, my kids had debit cards too. But not credit cards; those have a minimum age of 18.