To Card or Not to Card...

Life at Trader Joe's is never dull. When I first started people thought I was a bit strange for not drinking the free, delicious coffee or tasting the wine. I don't smoke or cuss like a sailor. One day during a much beloved ten-minute break with one of my co-workers, church came up. She's Catholic, and I'm LDS. A look of realization flitted across her face, "Oh, now it makes so much more sense!"

That being said, I'm a bit clueless when it comes to certain items in our store--mainly our colossal wine section. The "wine guys" always encourage me to try the wine, which I politely decline. The other day one of them asked if I didn't drink for religious reasons or by choice. "Both," I said. He then asked if I was Muslim. Um, no. Mormon.

I'm glad that people are starting to know that I am a member the church, because it makes things far less awkward.

But back to the clueless part. Last night was my first night working with the closing crew. They are an awesome group of guys. About 15 til 10pm we had a huddle outside the front entrance of the store to discuss how the store is running, what can be improved, and various other announcements. Of the 15 or so people there, all but 3 of us lit up. I was shocked, to say the least. And it was really hard for me to concentrate on what was being said. My eyes were stinging, and I was hoping that I didn't end up smelling like I'd smoked the cancer sticks.

Anyways, the main topic of discussion was an incident that had occurred earlier that evening. I woman had gone to pay for some alcohol and was asked for her ID. She "obviously" looked like she was over 35 (could it be from smoking?), but she couldn't produce an ID. So a big debate ensued. Should we sell alcohol to someone who cannot produce an ID, even though they may look like they are older? Or is that breaking some sort of law? Our manager told us that we cannot sell alcohol to someone who can't identify themselves. Enough said. That makes perfect sense right?

Nope, guess again. One of the wine guys gets all up in a huff (because he had helped this woman pick out the wine) saying that it was wrong for us not to sell her alcohol. "Show me the law!" he passionately cried. He was incredibly upset and believed that this customer will never come back to Trader Joe's because she was embarrassed and that she should never had been put in that situation. He went as far to say that the cashier who carded her was stupid and that we shouldn't card people who look like they're in their 30s. This man was so argumentative that he was practically yelling at our manager. Emotions were escalating. Bad move. Then everyone else starting chiming in about how the wine guy was wrong and started talking about sting operations and being sent to prison, and all the intricacies of carding. And I'm pretty sure some of them were talking from personal experience while in their youth.

Twenty minutes later, when everyone had their nicotine fix (and three of us had gotten the black lung), when the carding situation was finally settled (we have every right to card a customer and to refuse to sell them alcohol if they don't have their ID) I got to go home. I never would have imagined that I would ever participate in a conversation concerning the proper techniques and etiquette for carding. Like I said, never a dull moment.

And might I add, that I don't mind being clueless, at least in that regard. It makes life easier.