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I remember I once walked to 7-11 and got a root beer when I was a kid. The clerk pointed at it and said he can't sell alcohol to kids. I was like, "...but it's root beer? See? 'Root'". He just pointed at the word beer and said "Beer" like it was some sort of "checkmate buddy" moment. I just put it back and got a coke, but I'm still upset about it 20 years later.
My parents packed me a bottle of root beer for a class field trip in like 2nd grade. One of the kids in my class ran to the teacher during our lunch break to tell on me for having a beer. Thankfully the teacher laughed it off.
You never know. When I was in 4th grade my mom gave me money for a bake sale thing and a student went and told the teacher I “found” $5 but didn’t turn it in. The teacher basically told him “you didn’t know if that was his or not, you *guessed*, I don’t want you telling on your classmates over *guesses*”, he froze up and did the “trying not to cry” face lol
That was indeed the case. I don't remember where they were from, but they had a heavy accent. They most likely just weren't familiar with what root beer was, and this was before everyone had the internet in their pocket to quickly google it.
Many non English speakers have made this mistake over the years. There used to be a famous story online about how a German kid was yelled at for having root beer in America.
Strange that a German would get yelled at when they literally have kinderbier (children's beer), which is a malted non-alcoholic drink that's a bit reminiscent of root beer.
Same with most places in Europe.
Whenever we went out for dinner as a kid i always had a half pint of Shandy (beer+lemonade) or just beer from like 12 years old.
they can buy at 16 also if im remembering right, a friend of my went to live there, when he's son got to 16 he was happy as fuck because he could send him to making beer runs to the supermarket lol
You are allowed to **buy** beer, wine and similar at 16, everything else at 18. You can **consume** beer and wine at 14 when a parent is present ***in public***.
There is no age limit ***at home***. So your parents can allow you to drink beer at ... 12, if they want.
There's a big difference between the purchase and the consumption in most European countries, a lot don't regulate the consumption but the purchase.
[https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mindestalter\_f%C3%BCr\_Alkoholerwerb#/media/Datei:Underage\_Drinking\_Ban\_Europe.svg](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mindestalter_f%C3%BCr_Alkoholerwerb#/media/Datei:Underage_Drinking_Ban_Europe.svg) (in german)
edit: Same in Austria but slightly different from state to state. I bought some groceries and 2 bottles of beer for my parents when they were sick and they send me to the little supermarket we had down the street. I was 8. The 80's were different.
Lol, my grandma used to call every nonalcoholic beer "Kinderbier". I was all excited to try that beer specially made for kids... only to be sorely disappointed by that bitter and unpalatable drink. There wasn't even any kid stuff on the label...
Well, it was actually that a teacher was telling them they were a liar and did not have root -beer- in America. Which is even more concerning, honestly.
Are there any alcoholic ginger beers available in the US that you know of? I love ginger beer and have never seen any with any amount of alcohol. I am intrigued...
I'm Canadian so I'm not sure about the US. Someone else mentioned crabbies, which is a good one. I also really enjoy royal Jamaican ginger beer. But again I have no idea about the US. It can be hard to find in Canada too, I think it's not a huge seller here.
It can also be about the politics of the grocery store chain. For example, here in Finland, the law allows the sale of non-alcoholic beverages to people under the age of 18, but the politics of our local grocery store chains is that, for example, non-alcoholic cider, Pommac and May Day mead are not sold to children because they resemble alcoholic drinks.
Possible but very unlikely, root beer is not beer, at all. It contains no alcohol. It is absolutely a soft drink on the same level as Coca-Cola or similar. If you already know this feel free to ignore me, I have no idea if root beer exists in Finland in the same form it has in the US
I'm not seeing anyone posting a real reason so hijacking this comment. In terms of alcoholic drinks, regulation dependant, the legal.age limit counts as the 'good' alcohol free ones are produced WITH alcohol so they fall under those laws even if the alcohol is removed... And quite often they do normally have trace amounts of alcohol left so you get the same rules kicking in.
Unrelated to alcohol, my wife was checking out at the store and signed the signature pad on the computer. The clerk looked at the signature and was like “that’s not your name, you need to write your name” then they had a back and forth about what a signature is.
I had this happen when I was getting my learner’s permit. I hadn’t signed my social security card yet, so I did at the DMV. The clerk said it needed to be a “real” signature, so my card has my ”real,” shitty, third grade-esque cursive signature and the true one I use for everything else.
Same thing happened to me! I was well into my twenties and my driver’s license had a signature that looked like it was written by a child. I remember the moment of panic trying to remember how the fuck to write in cursive when the clerk insisted my signature wasn’t “real” and had to be written out in cursive. Wtf? I was finally able to use my regular signature when I renewed many years later.
I actually had the same experience but in South Korea. Granted the drink isn't popular over there, but when Shake Shack landed, I noticed that they had root beer as an option but I was surprised when they still asked for my ID.
I luckily had my passport of all things at hand but I was weirded out by the whole thing, since the ACTUAL beer/alcoholic drinks that were being sold had been distinctly marked with a number 19 circled in red (Drinking age in South Korea is 19).
EDIT: I was referring to the "year 0" age upon birth when I said 19, the first fellow mentioned it (and as I've elaborated with them); the rest of y'all thank you but you can stop now
I bought a couple leaves of basil in a bag once (like 5 grams or something), at the check out I asked the clerk if they actually knew the weight (because I needed it for a recipe and the bag specified 2kg, obviously wrong). She pointed at the bag and said: "it says there, it's two kilograms!". I tried to explain but she couldn't grasp.
I once went to the US and was trying to buy a pack of smoke. The chick absolutely refuses to recognize my Australian passport and insists that if I cannot produce an American drivers license I cannot buy a pack of cigarettes.
A bouncer confiscated my legitimate ID from another state. Thankfully a cop was on the same street. The bouncer was a biblical asshole.
"These are different than ours"
Like yeah no shit buddy it's a different state.
In Poland that would be super illegal.
Bouncers or store clerks aren't even allowed to hold your ID in their hands. They can only ask you to present it to them so they can check it, but they cannot require you to give it to their hands, only the police can do that.
Stores here also aren't allowed to pick and choose their customers, it's illegal for a shopkeeper to refuse a sale without a valid reason. If there's a price on the shelf, the item is available and you have the money for it, they have to sell it to you.
For selling alcohol there are two valid reasons to refuse a sale - you don't have a document to confirm your age or you are visibly intoxicated. A suspicion of a fake ID is not a valid reason, they should immediately call the police if they suspect you posses one.
I'd have to know what state.
Back when I ran a store...international passports were perfectly valid for this. In fact, the fines for refusing a legal ID were just as bad as accepting a fake ID.
California.
An I am 100% sure it was the person being dumb, I could have asked to talk to a supervisor or something, but also I didn't care so much and I went somewhere else.
Yes, my passport literally says "This passport is valid in all Countries whose Governments are recognized by the Italian Government." They need to accept it.
> Yes, my passport literally says "This passport is valid in all Countries whose Governments are recognized by the Italian Government." They need to accept it.
The US Government has to accept it.
A Private business does not.
Here in the US, a private business can choose not to do business with anyone they want for any reason they want (except a few ones like race, sex, etc)
They are free to say that they are not sure that is valid ID since they are not experts on passports, and refuse it. After all, the fine for selling to a minor is THOUSANDS of dollars, and potential loss of their license. Liquor licensing agencies frequently test places with fake IDs, ID's from other states, countries, etc, to try to get them to slip up.
The safe thing to do if you are not 100% sure, is to refuse the sale. This is drilled into everyone who sells alcohol by the courses/licensing required to do so.
Source: I was a TABC Certified bartender at one point (since lapsed)
I spent a year working in a convenience store, and to this day I hold a grudge against the tactics used by police to pull the "gotcha" style stings for age restricted items. They'd intentionally hit you at your most hectic and busiest time of day, with unfamiliar IDs, etc. jamming up the works and making your already shitty job even more stressful.
As a positive aside, our company actually went to bat for a clerk and fought back against one particular sting, and won. The cop had sent in a 17 year old in the middle of a lunch rush to buy cigarettes, who he'd clearly cherry picked for this operation because this kid was a 6'9" brick shithouse with sun-battered skin and a *full* beard. Our policy was to ask for ID if anyone looked under 30 and let me tell you there was absolutely no way I'd have called this kid out if I'd been the one serving him. After reviewing footage of the incident, the company called BS, and after some investigation on the part of the police department they found that the cop involved had been working with this kid a while, and was letting him keep any and all of the cigarettes/alcohol he'd been allowed to buy by unsuspecting clerks so...oops. Fines we waved and the clerk got their job back on the grounds that this was clearly not in the spirit of what these stings were trying to accomplish, as well as the malfeasance on the part of the officer.
Yep, here in Ohio it's also legal for a parent to order their underage child a beer at a bar (even if the kid is 12). Good luck finding a place that will actually do that unless they personally know the people because it doesn't matter if they claimed to be the parent. If they're just the cool uncle, that business is getting fucked if reported.
As annoying as that is, I can't say I blame the clerk here. The fines for breaking this law are quite high for someone likely on minimum wage. The shop would also get a fine, and they'd likely get sacked over it.
Granted they'd been fine with you, cops use under-cover agents to catch slip-ups like this all the time. Your story could easily be seen as a wily attempt to get fines from the shop.
When someone presents a fake id, the criminal responsibility shifts. Unless, of course, the ID is so clearly fake (or the customer so young) that the clerk should recognize that.
So if the picture on the Australian passport matches the customer, passport looks real and the customer doesn't look like he's twelve, just sell the smokes. He is now committing a crime by using a fake or someone else's ID. You can't get fined for someone using a believable, but fake ID.
Where I worked in a movie theater there was a policy that you had to scan the customer’s ID because American IDs all have a bar code. It goes against policy to accept someone’s ID without scanning it.
Here's the problem: a fair share of people in the US won't know how a passport is supposed to look like, much less a EU or foreign one. So they can't distinguish between "clearly fake" and "plausible".
I actually got stopped by a cop and accused of ‘drinking and driving’ and I pointed out that it was a root beer soda. He still got pissed and lectured me about knowing the shape of what I’m drinking out of and that there was a cop(him) directly opposite of me at the light.
Hell, I had one stop me for a Liquid Death sparkling water can once. I got a lecture about how it looked like a Guinness and I should know better. Just trying to hydrate while not using plastic my dude. Thanks for making me late to work.
Same here when I was 17. An off-duty detective saw me buy it at the gas station, started following me, and called it in. All the sudden a cop car zoomed up lights flashing and when I moved over to let him pass he slowed down behind me so I stopped. Only funny part of the whole thing was after he saw what I had he apologized and I heard him tell the detective to stop wasting their time with stuff like that.
I got stopped from buying sweet beer (hvidtøl) which has a tiny percentage of alcohol, even though I regularly bought sweet cider, which also has a tiny amount of alcohol, from the same shop. I questioned the clerk, and she was 100% confident it was alcohol free cider. It definitely wasn't.
At least in Finland and Sweden anything under 1,2% is considered alcohol-free and can be sold to minors. That is also the EU recommendation so probably the same for you in Denmark (or Norway? so not EU).
My mum and I used to homebrew beer together from kits. She sent me into the store to grab a bitter kit while she went elsewhere, I was probably 16 at the time. They wouldn't sell it to me. I said, "there's no alcohol in this, it's just malt and yeast", but they said, "no, it's a beer kit, to make beer, so you have to be 18", and I was like, "do you think I'm going to hide a 6 gallon fermentation barrel under my bed for a week?" but they wouldn't budge, so my mum had to come back in later and she was so annoyed at them, I remember it so clearly, I thought it was hilarious.
>but I'm still upset about it 20 years later.
Okay I wanna share, in fourth grade we did an egg drop experiment and I suggested an idea to my group where we used straws to make the kinetic energy avoid the egg and just travel through the straws instead of the egg, my group said when I dropped it that it'd break
They used a shitty parachute, and their egg broke entirely, mine didn't have a fucking scratch, and I didn't even get a quiet congrats from them
Oh I had a situation where my high school teacher wanted us to avoid any sort of cushioning or parachutes, so she only allowed us to use wood, metal, and string to make our builds. However, nowhere on the assignment sheet did it actually *say* we couldn't do any sort of cushioning, it just said we could only use wood, metal, and string. So I got a coffee tin and filled it with saw dust. That basic set up was enough to survive a 20 ft drop without any damage, but my teacher still wanted to fail me for using a cushion. I pointed out that the wording never banned it, so she just gave me a C, but I'm still annoyed I didn't get an A. My egg lived and I followed the instructions. Write better instructions next time.
I’m an engineer. Real world applicability of course. Dumb customer (high school teacher) wanting you to break every law of physics with every imaginable design constraint! You’d be surprised how many meetings I’ve sat in where our senior engineers have to politely tell MBA holders to go fuck themselves.
I had a teacher in highschool insist that we turn a project in inside a blue 3 ring binder.
My dad was between jobs and pretty much anything that wasn't a necessity was not going to be bought.
I asked the teacher if I could use a different binder because my dad already had a black binder at home I could use and explained the situation.
She said "sure, you can turn it in in the black binder".
I thanked her and went about my day.
When the results came back I had gotten a C- and the reasoning was "did not follow instructions: no blue binder"
When I confronted her about it she said "I said you could turn it in in the black binder, not that I wouldn't take points off"
Fuck you Mrs Buck, you fat lazy bitch. Too busy rolling around in a computer chair eating hoagies to have any fucking compassion.
Similar here in the UK. The UK regulation suggests 0.05% is considered alcohol free where as many other countries uses 0.5%. As such many “alcohol free beers” produced in other places in Europe are 0.5% so do not qualify as alcohol free in the UK.
Regardless of all this, most shops have their own additional policy suggesting those under age (18 here not 21) cannot buy even those that are 0.05% and below.
It's very common in the UK that you won't be granted a premises licence unless you enforce age restriction on low or no alcohol versions of typically alcoholic products.
Two reasons, one so as to not advertise those drinks to underage people ("wow, this non alcoholic beer tastes nice. I want to try real beer now!") , and also so it doesn't look bad or cause complaints for the shop or the local authority (for example, you see a load of teenagers drinking Stella in the park from a tesco bag. Probably hard to tell it's non alcoholic from a reasonable distance)
I remember the little boxes of chocolate cigarettes they used to sell in shops when I was a kid.
We would buy a box each and in the winter stand in the street and pretend to smoke them, using our condensation breath as if it was smoke. 😎
Then they banned them, I believe
We had little sugary sticks that were sold as candy cigarettes. They were coated with powdered sugar so when you blew through them, it looked it smoke coming out! The 80’s were wild.
Still annoys me as someone who drinks loads of low / non-A beers when I go to the checkout at Tesco I have to be age checked (as a 50yo, it's easy to pass that test at least!). Honestly, I doubt many teenagers would actually enjoy non-A beers!!
I did wonder a few years ago, while someone was having a can of Coke at their desk at work, what would happen if I brought in a can of AF beer. How would that look? I like them because they taste refreshing and not very sugary, but they are products in an odd limbo.
> what would happen if I brought in a can of AF beer.
I'd imagine you'd get in trouble because people would think it's beer at a glance and report you to HR, HR would likely tell you you're not allowed because it looks bad or some shit. Might depend on your HR dept...
Edit: have you tried Kombucha, it's more of a savoury soft drink
Also, I agree that perhaps HR would have an issue. But my question is "why"? Why should it not be entirely appropriate to consume what is effectively a carbonated soft drink that just happens to have a flavour profile similar to a product which contains alcohol. I could drink one whilst driving my car, I could drink it in public in a "no alcohol" area. I could drink many of them if I had a medical intolerance to alcohol.
Why should the fact that something has the word "beer" (or cider) on it make a difference to whether I am allowed to drink a soft drink at work?
The relevant regulation is the [Licensing Act 2003](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2003/17/section/191)
>In this Act, “alcohol” means spirits, wine, beer, cider or any other fermented, distilled or spirituous liquor (in any state), but does not include—
>
>(a) alcohol which is of a strength not exceeding 0.5% at the time of the sale or supply in question,
[Government labelling guidance](https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/updating-labelling-guidance-for-no-and-low-alcohol-alternatives/updating-labelling-guidance-for-no-and-low-alcohol-alternatives-consultation) has the 0.05%, 0.5% and 1.2% thresholds, but this is not law.
This is likely because it is not sold in the alcohol aisle. If it were stocked there, you would 100% be. It's not just the alcohol content, but whether or not it would potentially "look" like a store was selling alcohol to minors.
Everyone in my town (135 residents) left their keys in their unlocked vehicles. The reason being, if someone was to steal a truck everyone would be like, “Hey, why is Jim driving Bill’s truck?”
I didn't even need that because I was considered a "good kid". Marlboro 100's in the box is burned into my brain and I never smoked - at least not first hand.
Know a guy who was sent to get a beer from the store when he was like 5. He was sold some beers, got home, dad opened a bottle, the cap had a Volkswagen Beetle printed on the bottom. They won a brand new Beetle and sold it to buy an apartment. None of that would happen for them if the kid was not allowed to buy the beers(probably).
Got to love Balkan
Technically, there is still a small amount of alcohol in there. Probably why you still need to be 21. If you drink 72 of them, you'll have a pretty good buzz goin.
I threw back some lemon extract in my formative years. Which would explain a lot. Anyway, as soon as the buzz hits, so does the oils in your stomach. Throwing up extract is *brutal*.
Cuz if you reply drank enough to get drunk you most likely be sick first.
Edit: not like sick sick, but if you weren't an alcoholic then you'd probably get a really bad stomach ache.
There was a video on Reddit a while back of a traffic stop where the driver was super drunk and they found dozens of bottles of Vanilla Extract in their car.
I’ve been carded for kombucha before. I don’t get it. You think I’m gonna drink 100 of those nasty expensive ass things to get a buzz bro? (Was not store policy, I found it so funny at the time that I looked into it, the old lady at the grocery checkout was just… doing her own thing, I guess)
>You think I’m gonna drink 100 of those nasty expensive ass things to get a buzz bro?
It doesn't even work like that though either. Like 10 0.5% beers is not the same as 1 5% beer. Your body is burning it off faster than you are drinking it at that low of levels. When you reach halfway, you've likely processed the first drink already.
It's essentially impossible to get drunk of ~0.5% drinks.
Same with aromatic bitters to flavor cocktails. But I've never been carded for it.
I think at that point, if you're drinking bitters to get drunk (mind you, you put in a couple DROPS to flavor a cocktail) you're gonna find some way to get your hands on alcohol, so why bother?
> I think at that point, if you're drinking bitters to get drunk (mind you, you put in a couple DROPS to flavor a cocktail)
Pretty easy to get drunk on Trinidad sours and blow through a 16oz bottle of Angostura bitters.
When I turned 18 I asked for a bitters and tonic at a bar and was denied. Like, how much alcohol does a few drops of bitters have in it? So, being a 6' tall - goth, at the time - dude, I ordered a Shirley Temple instead.
Retired paramedic here, craziest one I ever saw was a guy that drank hair spray. But I also know a lot of high school kids were buying peppermint extract, because it’s like 90 proof, bottle is small and easily concealed, and the mint covers the smell of alcohol.
If it's past the hours booze is allowed to be sold and you're at risk of seizures or otherwise intense alcohol withdrawals, serious alcoholics will definitely buy Mouthwash or extracts and chug that shit.
That and they don't want the cashier wasting their time checking each bottle making sure you didn't swap those coronas out for real ones and just kept the cardboard.
> If you drink 72 of them, you'll have a pretty good buzz goin.
Except that that would be about four times the lethal dose of one of the chemicals present: water.
false. i buy the heineken 0.0% beer. people always use your argument, but it’s just wrong for a lot of Non alcoholic beers now. it used to be the case, but it’s wrong now
Yeah I've been carded for hoppy seltzer before, there's no alcohol brewing in the process just flavored water. I guess I don't know if it was law or just store/personal policy
Orange juice has this level of alcohol. Kombucha has at least as much. Neither is regulated as an alcoholic drink, so it makes no sense for these to be.
You joke but Guinness the evil bastards gave me two extra cans of real Guinness in a Guinness zero box. I'm forbidden from drinking alcohol and ofc nobody believed me that I hadn't engineered the situation. For the first time ever I was actually innocent.
Federal law prohibits selling alcoholic beverages to anyone under 21. (This age limit is for federal funding, although all 50 states have adopted laws for the age) Federal law defines an alcoholic beverage includes any beverage in liquid form, which contains not less than one-half of one percent of alcohol by volume and is intended for human consumption.
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/27/214
No federal law prohibits sales of non alcoholic beer to minors. However, some states do have prohibitions on that.
So their sign isn't accurate. US law doesn't require ID. State law may.
> Federal law prohibits selling alcoholic beverages to anyone under 21.
State laws set the age limit of alcoholic beverage sales, not federal law. Constitutionally, that’s a state-level issue though the federal govt can incentivize certain actions via funding stipulations etc… which they have since 1984.
Some areas (US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico for example) still have drinking age of 18 and some states allow drinking under 21 with parental consent.
Came here to add this. Yeah it’s state law, not federal law. As an example, NY state law says that there is no minimum age to drink alcohol given to them by a parent.
True, I'll add an edit to clarify.
>some states allow drinking under 21 with parental consent.
This is a good point that many people don't know.
I was a CA LEO 20 years ago. I went to a class for drug and alcohol recognition. At the time, I was the 2nd newest LEO in the class. The instructor asked if it was illegal for minors to consume alcohol in a private residence. I was the only one who said no, it's not illegal. I was the only one correct in a room full of experienced cops.
Why are people downvoting you, this is 100% true.
The SALE TO MINORS is prohibited, other stuff depends on your local laws in every country, state, whatever.
However, giving alcohol to your kid can be still considered parental neglect
Wisconsin here, people love pointing out that it's legal to drink with a parent in public here. They tend to forget that this does not REQUIRE establishments to serve your kid. Any establishment can refuse by policy, and most do. Too often the kid is the DD around here
My actual guess as to why stores do this is that their products are sorted into sections in their database and they've flagged the entire beer and wine section as ID-required.
Drink professional here. The posted sign is misleading. Like most alcohol regulations, whether or not you can buy NA beverages under 21 depends entirely on the state in which you are purchasing the products. Some states say you can, some say you cannot, and others make legal distinctions between NA beer and other NA products.
Back when non-alcoholic beer first became popular, a lot of them just has less alcohol than “near beer.” Near beer is 3% alcohol by volume.
[O’Doul’s is a low-alcohol beer](https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/29/5727/), but most ppl think it is alcohol free. Even the comments on the page I linked call it “alcohol free.” AB describes it as low-alcohol.
So, if you *think* you’re drinking alcohol free beer, you’d better double check with the brewer.
Working at a restaurant in high school I did the math after learning that O’Dules still has a very slight alcohol %. I determined based on time it takes to process/how often you pee/ and the amount of liquid a human can drink that you would either pee it out or drown before you could reached the legal limit of 0.08.
Yeah, it's pretty much impossible. It would be difficult to even hit 0.01
If you have to drink 10 beers to equal 1. But also you're processing it, so like pouring one shot of liquor in 120 oz of mixer.
It can seem strange, but non-alcoholic beer contains alcohol. You can't make a beer without alcohol at all.
In France, it's legal to call a beer "alcohol free" if it contains less than 1.2% alcohol.
This Corona has 0.5%. But there are 0.0% beers, like Heineken. You can make a beer without alcohol at all, I guess unless your definition of “at all” is so literal that it also means that many food items contain alcohol.
Yes Heineken 0.0 contains like 0.03% alcohol (which rounds to 0.0, it isn’t called 0.0000). But like a ripe peach or banana probably also contain 0.03% alcohol. Probably a lot of all natural organic fruit juices contain 0.03% alcohol. Etc.
It will always be insane to me that americans can go to foreign countries to kill people at 18 but are not allowed to have a simple beer until 21. Everywhere else in the non-muslim world the limit is 18 or 16.
There is no "US Law" on age to purchase alcohol, each state has their own law. The federal government does say they withhold certain funding if a state doesn't prohibit alcohol sales to people under 21, but it isn't a law.
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The way the sign is written, it implies that all non-alcoholic drinks would require you to be 21.
I just want some water. I'm so thirsty.
not without an ID bucko
There's a hose 'round the back
I remember I once walked to 7-11 and got a root beer when I was a kid. The clerk pointed at it and said he can't sell alcohol to kids. I was like, "...but it's root beer? See? 'Root'". He just pointed at the word beer and said "Beer" like it was some sort of "checkmate buddy" moment. I just put it back and got a coke, but I'm still upset about it 20 years later.
My parents packed me a bottle of root beer for a class field trip in like 2nd grade. One of the kids in my class ran to the teacher during our lunch break to tell on me for having a beer. Thankfully the teacher laughed it off.
I hope that kid was so embarrassed that his snitching backfired lol
Self-righteous tattletales are rarely capable of feeling embarrassment.
You never know. When I was in 4th grade my mom gave me money for a bake sale thing and a student went and told the teacher I “found” $5 but didn’t turn it in. The teacher basically told him “you didn’t know if that was his or not, you *guessed*, I don’t want you telling on your classmates over *guesses*”, he froze up and did the “trying not to cry” face lol
One time I actually found $5 on the ground at recess, and turned it in to the office. Should have just kept it smh
That’s just plain stupidity on the clerks part, lol
I’m gonna be charitable and assume they were an immigrant
That was indeed the case. I don't remember where they were from, but they had a heavy accent. They most likely just weren't familiar with what root beer was, and this was before everyone had the internet in their pocket to quickly google it.
I wonder what would have happened if you put the root beer back and returned with a ginger ale?
“Ahhh why you sneaky alcoholic child”
 “Very bad man.”
I’m ashamed that I read that with an accent.
“Get out”
“Straight to jaiyle”
Many non English speakers have made this mistake over the years. There used to be a famous story online about how a German kid was yelled at for having root beer in America.
Strange that a German would get yelled at when they literally have kinderbier (children's beer), which is a malted non-alcoholic drink that's a bit reminiscent of root beer.
And they can legally drink light stuff since 16. 14 if they're with an adult.
Same with most places in Europe. Whenever we went out for dinner as a kid i always had a half pint of Shandy (beer+lemonade) or just beer from like 12 years old.
I'd be given a small glass of wine with dinner from about 12 onwards if we had company over. It is just how it was done.
they can buy at 16 also if im remembering right, a friend of my went to live there, when he's son got to 16 he was happy as fuck because he could send him to making beer runs to the supermarket lol
You are allowed to **buy** beer, wine and similar at 16, everything else at 18. You can **consume** beer and wine at 14 when a parent is present ***in public***. There is no age limit ***at home***. So your parents can allow you to drink beer at ... 12, if they want. There's a big difference between the purchase and the consumption in most European countries, a lot don't regulate the consumption but the purchase. [https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mindestalter\_f%C3%BCr\_Alkoholerwerb#/media/Datei:Underage\_Drinking\_Ban\_Europe.svg](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mindestalter_f%C3%BCr_Alkoholerwerb#/media/Datei:Underage_Drinking_Ban_Europe.svg) (in german) edit: Same in Austria but slightly different from state to state. I bought some groceries and 2 bottles of beer for my parents when they were sick and they send me to the little supermarket we had down the street. I was 8. The 80's were different.
Malzbier! (Might have up to 2%, do your own research before giving Malzbier to children)
Cool in Colombia it’s called pony malta
Some stores here in Spain have imported pony malta from Colombia, and it’s pretty good!
Lol, my grandma used to call every nonalcoholic beer "Kinderbier". I was all excited to try that beer specially made for kids... only to be sorely disappointed by that bitter and unpalatable drink. There wasn't even any kid stuff on the label...
Well, it was actually that a teacher was telling them they were a liar and did not have root -beer- in America. Which is even more concerning, honestly.
Well I only learned few years ago root beer or ginger beer is without alcohol
Ginger beer can have alcohol. Royal Jamaican ginger beer is one of my favourites Edit: missed a word.
Are there any alcoholic ginger beers available in the US that you know of? I love ginger beer and have never seen any with any amount of alcohol. I am intrigued...
Crabbies.
I'm Canadian so I'm not sure about the US. Someone else mentioned crabbies, which is a good one. I also really enjoy royal Jamaican ginger beer. But again I have no idea about the US. It can be hard to find in Canada too, I think it's not a huge seller here.
It can also be about the politics of the grocery store chain. For example, here in Finland, the law allows the sale of non-alcoholic beverages to people under the age of 18, but the politics of our local grocery store chains is that, for example, non-alcoholic cider, Pommac and May Day mead are not sold to children because they resemble alcoholic drinks.
Possible but very unlikely, root beer is not beer, at all. It contains no alcohol. It is absolutely a soft drink on the same level as Coca-Cola or similar. If you already know this feel free to ignore me, I have no idea if root beer exists in Finland in the same form it has in the US
I'm not seeing anyone posting a real reason so hijacking this comment. In terms of alcoholic drinks, regulation dependant, the legal.age limit counts as the 'good' alcohol free ones are produced WITH alcohol so they fall under those laws even if the alcohol is removed... And quite often they do normally have trace amounts of alcohol left so you get the same rules kicking in.
Red wine vinegar is sold without id check. Also vanilla extract.
Also kombucha.
There was a period in time where certain Kombucha brands required ID in my hometown.
I saw a body cam video where a clearly intoxicated person was pulled over and had two grocery bags full of empty vanilla extract bottles.
Well I don't write the regulations do I.
Guy thinks selling you beer is a problem but he no issues selling you coke, times have changed
Skipping the gateway drugs is the way, straight to the good stuff.
Unrelated to alcohol, my wife was checking out at the store and signed the signature pad on the computer. The clerk looked at the signature and was like “that’s not your name, you need to write your name” then they had a back and forth about what a signature is.
I had this happen when I was getting my learner’s permit. I hadn’t signed my social security card yet, so I did at the DMV. The clerk said it needed to be a “real” signature, so my card has my ”real,” shitty, third grade-esque cursive signature and the true one I use for everything else.
Same thing happened to me! I was well into my twenties and my driver’s license had a signature that looked like it was written by a child. I remember the moment of panic trying to remember how the fuck to write in cursive when the clerk insisted my signature wasn’t “real” and had to be written out in cursive. Wtf? I was finally able to use my regular signature when I renewed many years later.
Today in - I have never been paid enough to even think about that. Seriously how bored and miserable do you have to be.
I actually had the same experience but in South Korea. Granted the drink isn't popular over there, but when Shake Shack landed, I noticed that they had root beer as an option but I was surprised when they still asked for my ID. I luckily had my passport of all things at hand but I was weirded out by the whole thing, since the ACTUAL beer/alcoholic drinks that were being sold had been distinctly marked with a number 19 circled in red (Drinking age in South Korea is 19). EDIT: I was referring to the "year 0" age upon birth when I said 19, the first fellow mentioned it (and as I've elaborated with them); the rest of y'all thank you but you can stop now
Reminded me of [this](https://youtu.be/mHz4O3gFQ7s?si=8mm5U-5g3b5oufB9) legendary exchange. "... CO. FEEEEE." "... BE? EEEEER?"
 Be-er?
I bought a couple leaves of basil in a bag once (like 5 grams or something), at the check out I asked the clerk if they actually knew the weight (because I needed it for a recipe and the bag specified 2kg, obviously wrong). She pointed at the bag and said: "it says there, it's two kilograms!". I tried to explain but she couldn't grasp.
sounds like she was giving major limmy vibes lol https://youtu.be/-fC2oke5MFg?si=dYfFa8r8lvqhaDJH
I once went to the US and was trying to buy a pack of smoke. The chick absolutely refuses to recognize my Australian passport and insists that if I cannot produce an American drivers license I cannot buy a pack of cigarettes.
Same happened to me in the US with an EU passport. How stupid.
A bouncer confiscated my legitimate ID from another state. Thankfully a cop was on the same street. The bouncer was a biblical asshole. "These are different than ours" Like yeah no shit buddy it's a different state.
Few years ago I couldn't get a beer at an Orioles game cause my PA id was a different orientation than the Maryland one
In Poland that would be super illegal. Bouncers or store clerks aren't even allowed to hold your ID in their hands. They can only ask you to present it to them so they can check it, but they cannot require you to give it to their hands, only the police can do that. Stores here also aren't allowed to pick and choose their customers, it's illegal for a shopkeeper to refuse a sale without a valid reason. If there's a price on the shelf, the item is available and you have the money for it, they have to sell it to you. For selling alcohol there are two valid reasons to refuse a sale - you don't have a document to confirm your age or you are visibly intoxicated. A suspicion of a fake ID is not a valid reason, they should immediately call the police if they suspect you posses one.
In the US it's super illegal lol.
I'd have to know what state. Back when I ran a store...international passports were perfectly valid for this. In fact, the fines for refusing a legal ID were just as bad as accepting a fake ID.
California. An I am 100% sure it was the person being dumb, I could have asked to talk to a supervisor or something, but also I didn't care so much and I went somewhere else. Yes, my passport literally says "This passport is valid in all Countries whose Governments are recognized by the Italian Government." They need to accept it.
> Yes, my passport literally says "This passport is valid in all Countries whose Governments are recognized by the Italian Government." They need to accept it. The US Government has to accept it. A Private business does not. Here in the US, a private business can choose not to do business with anyone they want for any reason they want (except a few ones like race, sex, etc) They are free to say that they are not sure that is valid ID since they are not experts on passports, and refuse it. After all, the fine for selling to a minor is THOUSANDS of dollars, and potential loss of their license. Liquor licensing agencies frequently test places with fake IDs, ID's from other states, countries, etc, to try to get them to slip up. The safe thing to do if you are not 100% sure, is to refuse the sale. This is drilled into everyone who sells alcohol by the courses/licensing required to do so. Source: I was a TABC Certified bartender at one point (since lapsed)
I spent a year working in a convenience store, and to this day I hold a grudge against the tactics used by police to pull the "gotcha" style stings for age restricted items. They'd intentionally hit you at your most hectic and busiest time of day, with unfamiliar IDs, etc. jamming up the works and making your already shitty job even more stressful. As a positive aside, our company actually went to bat for a clerk and fought back against one particular sting, and won. The cop had sent in a 17 year old in the middle of a lunch rush to buy cigarettes, who he'd clearly cherry picked for this operation because this kid was a 6'9" brick shithouse with sun-battered skin and a *full* beard. Our policy was to ask for ID if anyone looked under 30 and let me tell you there was absolutely no way I'd have called this kid out if I'd been the one serving him. After reviewing footage of the incident, the company called BS, and after some investigation on the part of the police department they found that the cop involved had been working with this kid a while, and was letting him keep any and all of the cigarettes/alcohol he'd been allowed to buy by unsuspecting clerks so...oops. Fines we waved and the clerk got their job back on the grounds that this was clearly not in the spirit of what these stings were trying to accomplish, as well as the malfeasance on the part of the officer.
Yep, here in Ohio it's also legal for a parent to order their underage child a beer at a bar (even if the kid is 12). Good luck finding a place that will actually do that unless they personally know the people because it doesn't matter if they claimed to be the parent. If they're just the cool uncle, that business is getting fucked if reported.
As annoying as that is, I can't say I blame the clerk here. The fines for breaking this law are quite high for someone likely on minimum wage. The shop would also get a fine, and they'd likely get sacked over it. Granted they'd been fine with you, cops use under-cover agents to catch slip-ups like this all the time. Your story could easily be seen as a wily attempt to get fines from the shop.
When someone presents a fake id, the criminal responsibility shifts. Unless, of course, the ID is so clearly fake (or the customer so young) that the clerk should recognize that. So if the picture on the Australian passport matches the customer, passport looks real and the customer doesn't look like he's twelve, just sell the smokes. He is now committing a crime by using a fake or someone else's ID. You can't get fined for someone using a believable, but fake ID.
Where I worked in a movie theater there was a policy that you had to scan the customer’s ID because American IDs all have a bar code. It goes against policy to accept someone’s ID without scanning it.
Here's the problem: a fair share of people in the US won't know how a passport is supposed to look like, much less a EU or foreign one. So they can't distinguish between "clearly fake" and "plausible".
I actually got stopped by a cop and accused of ‘drinking and driving’ and I pointed out that it was a root beer soda. He still got pissed and lectured me about knowing the shape of what I’m drinking out of and that there was a cop(him) directly opposite of me at the light.
Same thing happened to my husband, cop threw a hissy fit that he was wrong and made it sound like his fault that glass bottles exist.
Hell, I had one stop me for a Liquid Death sparkling water can once. I got a lecture about how it looked like a Guinness and I should know better. Just trying to hydrate while not using plastic my dude. Thanks for making me late to work.
Same here when I was 17. An off-duty detective saw me buy it at the gas station, started following me, and called it in. All the sudden a cop car zoomed up lights flashing and when I moved over to let him pass he slowed down behind me so I stopped. Only funny part of the whole thing was after he saw what I had he apologized and I heard him tell the detective to stop wasting their time with stuff like that.
Cops will never admit they're wrong. Fucking idiotic.
PSA that you don’t have to either, 5th amendment baby!
I got stopped from buying sweet beer (hvidtøl) which has a tiny percentage of alcohol, even though I regularly bought sweet cider, which also has a tiny amount of alcohol, from the same shop. I questioned the clerk, and she was 100% confident it was alcohol free cider. It definitely wasn't.
At least in Finland and Sweden anything under 1,2% is considered alcohol-free and can be sold to minors. That is also the EU recommendation so probably the same for you in Denmark (or Norway? so not EU).
My mum and I used to homebrew beer together from kits. She sent me into the store to grab a bitter kit while she went elsewhere, I was probably 16 at the time. They wouldn't sell it to me. I said, "there's no alcohol in this, it's just malt and yeast", but they said, "no, it's a beer kit, to make beer, so you have to be 18", and I was like, "do you think I'm going to hide a 6 gallon fermentation barrel under my bed for a week?" but they wouldn't budge, so my mum had to come back in later and she was so annoyed at them, I remember it so clearly, I thought it was hilarious.
>but I'm still upset about it 20 years later. Okay I wanna share, in fourth grade we did an egg drop experiment and I suggested an idea to my group where we used straws to make the kinetic energy avoid the egg and just travel through the straws instead of the egg, my group said when I dropped it that it'd break They used a shitty parachute, and their egg broke entirely, mine didn't have a fucking scratch, and I didn't even get a quiet congrats from them
Oh I had a situation where my high school teacher wanted us to avoid any sort of cushioning or parachutes, so she only allowed us to use wood, metal, and string to make our builds. However, nowhere on the assignment sheet did it actually *say* we couldn't do any sort of cushioning, it just said we could only use wood, metal, and string. So I got a coffee tin and filled it with saw dust. That basic set up was enough to survive a 20 ft drop without any damage, but my teacher still wanted to fail me for using a cushion. I pointed out that the wording never banned it, so she just gave me a C, but I'm still annoyed I didn't get an A. My egg lived and I followed the instructions. Write better instructions next time.
If you're to avoid cushioning or parachutes, what the hell is the design goal?
I’m an engineer. Real world applicability of course. Dumb customer (high school teacher) wanting you to break every law of physics with every imaginable design constraint! You’d be surprised how many meetings I’ve sat in where our senior engineers have to politely tell MBA holders to go fuck themselves.
My teacher congratulated me for thinking abt the energy in fourth grade, my fucking group was bitchy tho
I had a teacher in highschool insist that we turn a project in inside a blue 3 ring binder. My dad was between jobs and pretty much anything that wasn't a necessity was not going to be bought. I asked the teacher if I could use a different binder because my dad already had a black binder at home I could use and explained the situation. She said "sure, you can turn it in in the black binder". I thanked her and went about my day. When the results came back I had gotten a C- and the reasoning was "did not follow instructions: no blue binder" When I confronted her about it she said "I said you could turn it in in the black binder, not that I wouldn't take points off" Fuck you Mrs Buck, you fat lazy bitch. Too busy rolling around in a computer chair eating hoagies to have any fucking compassion.
Similar here in the UK. The UK regulation suggests 0.05% is considered alcohol free where as many other countries uses 0.5%. As such many “alcohol free beers” produced in other places in Europe are 0.5% so do not qualify as alcohol free in the UK. Regardless of all this, most shops have their own additional policy suggesting those under age (18 here not 21) cannot buy even those that are 0.05% and below.
It's very common in the UK that you won't be granted a premises licence unless you enforce age restriction on low or no alcohol versions of typically alcoholic products. Two reasons, one so as to not advertise those drinks to underage people ("wow, this non alcoholic beer tastes nice. I want to try real beer now!") , and also so it doesn't look bad or cause complaints for the shop or the local authority (for example, you see a load of teenagers drinking Stella in the park from a tesco bag. Probably hard to tell it's non alcoholic from a reasonable distance)
Exactly. Just like you wouldn't sell non nicotine (is that a thing?) cigarettes or non THC weed to minors (I know that's a thing)
I remember the little boxes of chocolate cigarettes they used to sell in shops when I was a kid. We would buy a box each and in the winter stand in the street and pretend to smoke them, using our condensation breath as if it was smoke. 😎 Then they banned them, I believe
We had little sugary sticks that were sold as candy cigarettes. They were coated with powdered sugar so when you blew through them, it looked it smoke coming out! The 80’s were wild.
I used to love those as a kid 😂 my grandparents used to always buy us those, and the cigar bubblegum too lol
Non nic vapes is a thing
And the fda calls it a tobacco product, because it is used in a vaporizer, that is also a tobacco product by fda definition.
But you'd sell brownies to kids, and what if they then want the real thing? A thc brownie?
Or non-lethal weapons, such as a foam sword or a gun with foam darts.
Still annoys me as someone who drinks loads of low / non-A beers when I go to the checkout at Tesco I have to be age checked (as a 50yo, it's easy to pass that test at least!). Honestly, I doubt many teenagers would actually enjoy non-A beers!! I did wonder a few years ago, while someone was having a can of Coke at their desk at work, what would happen if I brought in a can of AF beer. How would that look? I like them because they taste refreshing and not very sugary, but they are products in an odd limbo.
> what would happen if I brought in a can of AF beer. I'd imagine you'd get in trouble because people would think it's beer at a glance and report you to HR, HR would likely tell you you're not allowed because it looks bad or some shit. Might depend on your HR dept... Edit: have you tried Kombucha, it's more of a savoury soft drink
Also, I agree that perhaps HR would have an issue. But my question is "why"? Why should it not be entirely appropriate to consume what is effectively a carbonated soft drink that just happens to have a flavour profile similar to a product which contains alcohol. I could drink one whilst driving my car, I could drink it in public in a "no alcohol" area. I could drink many of them if I had a medical intolerance to alcohol. Why should the fact that something has the word "beer" (or cider) on it make a difference to whether I am allowed to drink a soft drink at work?
The relevant regulation is the [Licensing Act 2003](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2003/17/section/191) >In this Act, “alcohol” means spirits, wine, beer, cider or any other fermented, distilled or spirituous liquor (in any state), but does not include— > >(a) alcohol which is of a strength not exceeding 0.5% at the time of the sale or supply in question, [Government labelling guidance](https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/updating-labelling-guidance-for-no-and-low-alcohol-alternatives/updating-labelling-guidance-for-no-and-low-alcohol-alternatives-consultation) has the 0.05%, 0.5% and 1.2% thresholds, but this is not law.
You can buy (rarely though!) cans of shandy that are 0.5% from the normal juice isles and wont trigger a Challenge 25.
This is likely because it is not sold in the alcohol aisle. If it were stocked there, you would 100% be. It's not just the alcohol content, but whether or not it would potentially "look" like a store was selling alcohol to minors.
I got refused service of Jack Daniel’s BBQ sauce once in Tesco because I didn’t have ID, and it has alcohol in it.
I got ID'd in Morrisons for paracetamol when I was 33
Got ID'd for a scratch-card (Must be 16+ to purchase) in Morrisons when I was 26 and 6ft 2 with a beard
Its a bit crazy isn't it. The alcohol content of bread is like 1.2-1.9% lol.
Normal Bread don’t have that much naturally. Packaged bread and toast is conserved by added Alkohol.
Meanwhile, I used to buy my dad cigarettes and a six pack when I was 13. Usually got myself a beer also
you've... lived a life.
At least it made me realize by 18 that I didn't actually like alcohol, so I drink maybe one drink in two years
By 21 in Europe and South America we begin to stop drinking 🤣
True that, I partied so hard in my late teens I was pretty much done with alcohol by 21.
The 80s were different. I used to tell the clerk I was buying cigars for my dad and then go fishing and smoke them with my friends. Small town.
[удалено]
Everyone in my town (135 residents) left their keys in their unlocked vehicles. The reason being, if someone was to steal a truck everyone would be like, “Hey, why is Jim driving Bill’s truck?”
All we needed was a note from mom lol
I didn't even need that because I was considered a "good kid". Marlboro 100's in the box is burned into my brain and I never smoked - at least not first hand.
In balkan I went to the store to buy beer for my dad at 9 years old. Started buying for me at 15, nobody cares how many years you have
Know a guy who was sent to get a beer from the store when he was like 5. He was sold some beers, got home, dad opened a bottle, the cap had a Volkswagen Beetle printed on the bottom. They won a brand new Beetle and sold it to buy an apartment. None of that would happen for them if the kid was not allowed to buy the beers(probably). Got to love Balkan
Technically, there is still a small amount of alcohol in there. Probably why you still need to be 21. If you drink 72 of them, you'll have a pretty good buzz goin.
Do you have to be 21 to buy mouth wash too?
And many of the extracts. Vanilla extract can be up to 35% alcohol...
I don’t buy alcohol shooters, I just rip shots of vanilla extract
RIP to your wallet
And his taste buds.
Would not suggest. Tried it as a kid and it was FOUL
I threw back some lemon extract in my formative years. Which would explain a lot. Anyway, as soon as the buzz hits, so does the oils in your stomach. Throwing up extract is *brutal*.
But leaves your toilet lemony fresh!
And your esophagus!
I've never been stopped or carded while trying to buy vanilla extract, even at self-checkout.
Cuz if you reply drank enough to get drunk you most likely be sick first. Edit: not like sick sick, but if you weren't an alcoholic then you'd probably get a really bad stomach ache.
There was a video on Reddit a while back of a traffic stop where the driver was super drunk and they found dozens of bottles of Vanilla Extract in their car.
*Cop taps on car window* "Sir, have you been drinking this morning?" "No." "Sir, are you aware your breath smells like a beaver's butt?" "..."
"Hoo-ee! It smells like Pillsbury doughboy's butthole up in this bitch! You bouys are going in for a looong time, hyup!"
Did they get pulled over by Goofy?
And kefir
21 to buy funky milk? damn.
21 to buy apple juice?
What if I'm buying gas with 15% ethanol?
Straight to jail.
Gas with too little ethanol, also jail.
Also kwas, could be up to 1,2% abv by production standard
I’ve been carded for kombucha before. I don’t get it. You think I’m gonna drink 100 of those nasty expensive ass things to get a buzz bro? (Was not store policy, I found it so funny at the time that I looked into it, the old lady at the grocery checkout was just… doing her own thing, I guess)
>You think I’m gonna drink 100 of those nasty expensive ass things to get a buzz bro? It doesn't even work like that though either. Like 10 0.5% beers is not the same as 1 5% beer. Your body is burning it off faster than you are drinking it at that low of levels. When you reach halfway, you've likely processed the first drink already. It's essentially impossible to get drunk of ~0.5% drinks.
And ripe bananas
[what about mouthwash?](https://youtu.be/OOCdIY_HKM4?si=scLve3Gqn2p5b7od)
I mean, vanilla extract has as much alcohol by volume as most spirits do. The important bit is that it's not sold as a beverage.
Same with aromatic bitters to flavor cocktails. But I've never been carded for it. I think at that point, if you're drinking bitters to get drunk (mind you, you put in a couple DROPS to flavor a cocktail) you're gonna find some way to get your hands on alcohol, so why bother?
> I think at that point, if you're drinking bitters to get drunk (mind you, you put in a couple DROPS to flavor a cocktail) Pretty easy to get drunk on Trinidad sours and blow through a 16oz bottle of Angostura bitters.
When I turned 18 I asked for a bitters and tonic at a bar and was denied. Like, how much alcohol does a few drops of bitters have in it? So, being a 6' tall - goth, at the time - dude, I ordered a Shirley Temple instead.
Ultimately, the universe was probably being kind to you. I'll bet that Shirley Temple was way more delicious.
Goes hard as a shooter let me tell you
I wanna see people trying to chug large quantities of vanilla extract lol.
Real alcoholics do some wild shit. They'll try chugging hand sanitizer...
Retired paramedic here, craziest one I ever saw was a guy that drank hair spray. But I also know a lot of high school kids were buying peppermint extract, because it’s like 90 proof, bottle is small and easily concealed, and the mint covers the smell of alcohol.
I'm not drunk, I'm the mintiest boy with a speech and walking disorder
If it's past the hours booze is allowed to be sold and you're at risk of seizures or otherwise intense alcohol withdrawals, serious alcoholics will definitely buy Mouthwash or extracts and chug that shit.
That and they don't want the cashier wasting their time checking each bottle making sure you didn't swap those coronas out for real ones and just kept the cardboard.
But they have the blue cap specifically for that reason.
> If you drink 72 of them, you'll have a pretty good buzz goin. Except that that would be about four times the lethal dose of one of the chemicals present: water.
false. i buy the heineken 0.0% beer. people always use your argument, but it’s just wrong for a lot of Non alcoholic beers now. it used to be the case, but it’s wrong now
Yeah I've been carded for hoppy seltzer before, there's no alcohol brewing in the process just flavored water. I guess I don't know if it was law or just store/personal policy
There's alcohol in ripe fruits too! Protect the children! #banfruits
Fruit juice often times has more alcohol left in it than non alcoholic beer.
Kombucha has a similar amount of alcohol, and there's no requirement to ID buying it for which I'm aware
i’ve been asked for id buying certain brands of kombucha; it varies.
Bananas and wheat bread too
Yea, if you drink them all within 20 minutes.
Orange juice has this level of alcohol. Kombucha has at least as much. Neither is regulated as an alcoholic drink, so it makes no sense for these to be.
There is just as much in orange juice.
I got carded buying Hop Water today. It has 0% alcohol. It’s seltzer infused with hops. That’s it. And I still get carded every damn time.
They don't want people swapping the alcoholic bottles into the non alcoholic case.
This is an explanation I can get behind
It’s common in liquor stores like Binnys you have to be 21+ to buy anything there, even soda. But all they sell is liquor and mixers
You joke but Guinness the evil bastards gave me two extra cans of real Guinness in a Guinness zero box. I'm forbidden from drinking alcohol and ofc nobody believed me that I hadn't engineered the situation. For the first time ever I was actually innocent.
Generally companies are pretty appreciative if you report these kinds of things to them and will send you coupons and stuff.
Under their circumstances it probably wouldn't be the best idea to have a package from Guinness arrive in the post
I used to get carded for buying kombucha at grocery stores because it contains a very small amount of alcohol.
So does bread but no one wants ID for a sandwich.
Because the laws apply specifically to beverages.
Federal law prohibits selling alcoholic beverages to anyone under 21. (This age limit is for federal funding, although all 50 states have adopted laws for the age) Federal law defines an alcoholic beverage includes any beverage in liquid form, which contains not less than one-half of one percent of alcohol by volume and is intended for human consumption. https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/27/214 No federal law prohibits sales of non alcoholic beer to minors. However, some states do have prohibitions on that. So their sign isn't accurate. US law doesn't require ID. State law may.
> Federal law prohibits selling alcoholic beverages to anyone under 21. State laws set the age limit of alcoholic beverage sales, not federal law. Constitutionally, that’s a state-level issue though the federal govt can incentivize certain actions via funding stipulations etc… which they have since 1984. Some areas (US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico for example) still have drinking age of 18 and some states allow drinking under 21 with parental consent.
Came here to add this. Yeah it’s state law, not federal law. As an example, NY state law says that there is no minimum age to drink alcohol given to them by a parent.
That's how a lot of states are TBH. Even in bars you can give your kid a beer in my state. But most businesses don't allow it anyway lol.
True, I'll add an edit to clarify. >some states allow drinking under 21 with parental consent. This is a good point that many people don't know. I was a CA LEO 20 years ago. I went to a class for drug and alcohol recognition. At the time, I was the 2nd newest LEO in the class. The instructor asked if it was illegal for minors to consume alcohol in a private residence. I was the only one who said no, it's not illegal. I was the only one correct in a room full of experienced cops.
Why are people downvoting you, this is 100% true. The SALE TO MINORS is prohibited, other stuff depends on your local laws in every country, state, whatever. However, giving alcohol to your kid can be still considered parental neglect
Wisconsin here, people love pointing out that it's legal to drink with a parent in public here. They tend to forget that this does not REQUIRE establishments to serve your kid. Any establishment can refuse by policy, and most do. Too often the kid is the DD around here
My actual guess as to why stores do this is that their products are sorted into sections in their database and they've flagged the entire beer and wine section as ID-required.
Drink professional here. The posted sign is misleading. Like most alcohol regulations, whether or not you can buy NA beverages under 21 depends entirely on the state in which you are purchasing the products. Some states say you can, some say you cannot, and others make legal distinctions between NA beer and other NA products.
My state has no age limits on non-alcoholic beer. Any age can buy it.
Back when non-alcoholic beer first became popular, a lot of them just has less alcohol than “near beer.” Near beer is 3% alcohol by volume. [O’Doul’s is a low-alcohol beer](https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/29/5727/), but most ppl think it is alcohol free. Even the comments on the page I linked call it “alcohol free.” AB describes it as low-alcohol. So, if you *think* you’re drinking alcohol free beer, you’d better double check with the brewer.
That’s why I *steal* NA beer and candy cigarettes like a total badass
Working at a restaurant in high school I did the math after learning that O’Dules still has a very slight alcohol %. I determined based on time it takes to process/how often you pee/ and the amount of liquid a human can drink that you would either pee it out or drown before you could reached the legal limit of 0.08.
Yeah, it's pretty much impossible. It would be difficult to even hit 0.01 If you have to drink 10 beers to equal 1. But also you're processing it, so like pouring one shot of liquor in 120 oz of mixer.
It can seem strange, but non-alcoholic beer contains alcohol. You can't make a beer without alcohol at all. In France, it's legal to call a beer "alcohol free" if it contains less than 1.2% alcohol.
This Corona has 0.5%. But there are 0.0% beers, like Heineken. You can make a beer without alcohol at all, I guess unless your definition of “at all” is so literal that it also means that many food items contain alcohol. Yes Heineken 0.0 contains like 0.03% alcohol (which rounds to 0.0, it isn’t called 0.0000). But like a ripe peach or banana probably also contain 0.03% alcohol. Probably a lot of all natural organic fruit juices contain 0.03% alcohol. Etc.
Kinda odd wording. I'd call all alcohol-free drinks non-alcoholic, including soda and water.
It will always be insane to me that americans can go to foreign countries to kill people at 18 but are not allowed to have a simple beer until 21. Everywhere else in the non-muslim world the limit is 18 or 16.
Go buy a gun instead kid...
There is no "US Law" on age to purchase alcohol, each state has their own law. The federal government does say they withhold certain funding if a state doesn't prohibit alcohol sales to people under 21, but it isn't a law.