Mary Wright
10/28/12
English 1301
Essay # 3
Persuasive Essay
Many times in places where alcohol is sold, the server or cashier has to deal with problems with the customer. Some range from simple problems like when a customer is just in a sour mood; to the more difficult problems like when they have to judge the age of the customer for alcohol sales. Most of the time it is easy to judge the age, but there are times when it is hard to tell if the customer is over the age of forty so they can buy alcohol without being carded. The only way to solve this problem is to require that everyone, by law, is to be carded regardless of their appearance of age. When it comes to dealing with a law, many people feel that they are above the law and can get away with anything. Cashiers and servers have to deal with the customers who are just old enough to buy alcohol, and think they don’t have to be carded anymore; and the ones who are don’t look quite like they are forty and still have to card them. The law does require us to card anyone who appears to be under the age of forty. Most of the time the customers have their I.D.s, but there are many times where they “forgot”, sometimes they truly forget, and still hope we sell the alcohol to them, but legally we are not allowed to sell the alcohol to them if we ask for their I.D. A lot of the time making the decision of carding a person can make us very uncomfortable, and scared for our jobs. For example a few weeks ago I had two customers come to my check stand with a full buggy of beer, and both of them look to be about my age, so I asked for their I.D.s. One tried to tell me that they always come there to buy alcohol, none of my coworkers knew them, and they claimed that I could ask anyone who they were; which made me feel really uncomfortable. Eventually they claimed they forgot it and we should just sell it to them, stormed out, and got an older gentleman to buy it for them; which is just as illegal as selling directly to underage customers for cashiers and servers, I did not ring up the customer; we did however report the older gentleman’s to the authorities; which is the proper thing to do according to the TABC course. When selling alcohol, we have to remember many laws and their consequences, and how to judge a person’s age based solely on appearance. According to the TABC (Texas Alcohol Beverage Commission) course, which provided all the laws I know for this essay, the law requires any server or seller card anyone who appears to be under the age of forty, and if no I.D. is given or a fake I.D. is given usually it is an underage customer. The course also tells the consequences of not carding the right person due to misjudging or just not being a responsible worker. Just a few of the main consequences would be fines, jail time, job loss, and revoking the license to sell or serve alcohol, and driver’s license. Sometimes the establishment that allowed the transaction to happen will also get a fine and the manager be put in jail, and lose his job. The fines can be from $500-$4,000 for just the personal fines; the jail time up to sixty days, and the job loss would hinder one on finding another job. Being that this is breaking the law; it is considered to be a second degree misdemeanor it will remain on the permanent record forever, even if pled guilty. Some people feel that the seller or server should be able to tell the age of a person based solely on appearance, and that some people like the elderly should not have to be carded since they feel they are too old. Even though it is a good argument, it still could be theater makeup and costumes, if the minor was that desperate to buy it. I know some elderly are grumpy and don’t want to have to deal with it, and the law does say that if the minor misrepresents themselves to be older then the seller or sever would not get fined, but to get rid of that problem it would be easier to card everyone. If it is the law then the cashier would not have to worry about getting arrested. Sometimes there are elderly people who are obviously old enough, but if it is law to card everyone then there shouldn’t be a problem with it, especially if they are regulars. Many are just worried about the alcohol sales and how that would affect it. There really shouldn’t be a problem with it; if people really want the alcohol then they will still continue to go out and buy it regardless of the thought of being carded. Many places are just too worried about how they look if the law required them to card everyone, but if you think about it some people think the seatbelt, and the legal age to buy alcohol is too much; it really wouldn’t make much of a difference. People would eventually get used to it, and there would be less of a chance for underage drinkers to purchase alcohol. The cashiers and severs would feel safer and more comfortable with selling alcohol, and the managers would have less to worry about.

Work Cited
www.sellersever.com