{"id":56567,"date":"2020-11-07T15:14:02","date_gmt":"2020-11-07T22:14:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/?p=56567"},"modified":"2021-02-07T03:31:27","modified_gmt":"2021-02-07T10:31:27","slug":"checking-customer-ids-a-challenge-for-liquor-staff-in-the-covid-era","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/2020\/11\/07\/checking-customer-ids-a-challenge-for-liquor-staff-in-the-covid-era\/","title":{"rendered":"Checking customer IDs a challenge for liquor staff in the COVID era"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Can I see your ID?<\/strong> Mackenzie Clearsky, left, asks for a valid proof of photo ID from a customer on Sept. 21, at Liquor Depot Westbrook in Calgary. Clearsky has been working as a sales associate at Liquor Depot Westbrook for the past 11 months. (Photo by Harpreet Kaur\/The Press).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

C<\/span>hecking photo IDs can be a challenging task during COVID-19, according to Mackenzie Clearsky, a Calgary liquor store employee.<\/p>\n

I<\/span>n Alberta, anyone who appears to be under the age of 25 needs to show a valid proof of photo ID as an age proof before buying alcohol.<\/p>\n

The Face Coverings Bylaw took effect Aug. 1 in Calgary<\/a> for safety and protection reasons during COVID-19. It requires the wearing of face coverings or masks in indoor public areas and public vehicles.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore Aug. 1, I had lots of customers who had face masks on, but after Aug. 1, I noticed everybody had it on and it made it much more difficult to tell how old people were,\u201d Clearsky said in an interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’ve noticed that I’ve been IDing people who are over the age of 40,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Clearsky said that, initially, she was uncomfortable asking people to take off their masks.<\/p>\n

Eventually, Clearsky had to insist due to the difficulty when checking IDs with masks, since she based her suspicions on people\u2019s eyebrows and eye shape.<\/p>\n

Managers at liquor stores are also having a tough time supervising their teams for checking photo IDs, following liquor policies, and taking care of all the necessary precautions when asking people to take off their masks.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing a responsible manager, I always encourage my employees to follow the company policies along with the government guidelines when looking for IDs, and dealing with the customers wearing face masks,\u201d said Poonamjeet Kaur Sandhu, an assistant manager at Liquor Depot Westbrook in Calgary.<\/p>\n

Sandhu said that employees have to pay “extra attention” to their gestures and tone of voice in order to ensure an effective, non-confrontational communication when asking customers to lower their masks.<\/p>\n

In spite of all the obstacles and challenges due to COVID-19, liquor stores employees are fully satisfied with working in accordance with The Gaming and Liquor Act of Alberta<\/em><\/a> by not selling alcohol to any underage person.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe ID under the age of 40, which eliminates all the doubts of selling alcoholic stuff to any underage people,\u201d says Sandhu.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m very confident that I’m not selling to minors,\u201d said Clearsky.<\/p>\n

Clearsky explained that expired IDs are not accepted as a valid proof of ID, and she has had to deny the services in such situations.<\/p>\n

However, Calgarians fully understand the provincial liquor laws, and try to co-operate with the employees who are working at liquor stores during a pandemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it’s both their obligation and the right to ask for ID,\u201d says Jason Devine, a customer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t think liquor store employees should be blamed in any way for asking someone to identify themselves so that they don’t get in trouble,” he added.<\/p>\n

Devine said that most liquor stores have installed plexiglass, plastic shields, and other elements to ensure that there is no risk to\u00a0 a\u00a0 customer from\u00a0 pulling down a face mask, for just a minute, to show a photo ID.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the liquor store, of course, is caught for not following the law and selling liquor to someone who isn’t of age, then they get penalized,\u201d said Devine.<\/p>\n

\"\"
On duty:<\/strong> Mackenzie Clearsky wears a face mask at work on Sept. 21 at Liquor Depot Westbrook, Calgary. Clearsky has been working as a sales associate at Liquor Depot Westbrook for the past 11 months. (Photo by Harpreet Kaur\/The Press).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How do the liquor stores manage to check photo ID with face masks on? [ READ MORE ]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":658,"featured_media":56571,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_ef_editorial_meta_text_assignment-slug":"S1 Masks and IDs at Liquor Stores","footnotes":""},"categories":[13,1560],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-56567","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"category-pandemic"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/658"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56567"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56567\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60228,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56567\/revisions\/60228"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}