Shopper runs afoul of store's ID policy

 

By ELIZABETH COMEAU

Staff Writer

Barbara Skapa left the grocery store last week with three out of the four items she needed.

Milk.

Olive oil.

Tapenade.

But when it came to the fourth item -- wine -- Skapa left a Farmington Hannaford empty-handed.

Skapa, 65, was carded.

"Even though no one would mistake me for 30 or even 40," Skapa said, "I'll be bringing my driver's license with me from now on."

Normally, Skapa said, she'd have her ID on her. Last week, however, she was being driven around by a friend.

"I have a cast on my left leg, so I have to be driven places," Skapa said. "We had gone to the doctor's to check up on my knee and then decided to stop at Hannaford on the way home. I piled my cart up with milk, olive oil, tapenade, two bottles of Chardonnay, a bottle of Merlot and Cognac, and my friend, Brownie, picked up a six pack of beer."

"So (the cashier) starts ringing things in and comes to the wine and says 'you need a photo ID, Ma'am -- you're buying liquor and we have a new policy.'"

The new policy, Skapa said, wasn't posted anywhere in the store.

"I said to her, look, I didn't drive here, but my friend here is 58 and I'm 65 so how about if my friend buys this," Skapa said. "She told me that was third-party purchasing and not allowed either. So I asked to see the manager."

According to Rebecca Howes, a spokeswoman for Hannaford Supermarkets, the grocery store chain recently changed its policy surrounding the purchase of alcohol.

Howes said the corporation has begun asking people who appear to be under 45 to present proof of their age. In the past, the policy was to require those under age 30 to present identification.

Skapa, of Mount Vernon, said she told the store manager she was taken aback by the new policy.

"He then said he was sorry, but that they couldn't let me buy my wine," she said.

The manager then gave Skapa information for Hannaford's customer service department if she had more questions. He also told her the store would post something about the new policy right away.

Howes said all Hannaford stores in Maine have been asked to implement the new policy by mid-September. "Some stores have already begun to do so," she said.

Howes said signs alerting customers to the policy change will appear in checkout lines and liquor aisles next week.

Howes said Hannaford changed its policy because it can be difficult to judge a person's age.

At Shaw's Supermarkets, spokeswoman Judy Chong said if a person "appears to be under age 30, the cashier will ask for ID."

Chong said if an out-of-state ID is presented, it must be checked by a supervisor. "You also have to input the exact date of birth for verification," Chong said. "We provide training for all of our cashiers and our policy is reviewed twice yearly."

In 2005, Maine legislators passed a law that requires people who appear to be under 27 years old to present reliable photographic identification containing that person's date of birth. This law does not change the legal age for purchasing alcohol, which is still 21 years old, but does give stores and their employees the ability to require legal identification.

At Hannaford, Howes said, Skapa could have presented one of four accepted forms of ID in order to buy alcohol.

"Those are driver's licenses, state-issued IDs, passports, and military IDs," Howes said."

Instead, Skapa said, she and her friend "walked away without our booze."

Shopper runs afoul
of store's ID policy

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