99 Bottles of Beer On the Wall

Here at ShopperCast East, we love to entertain!  Even on this dreary, rainy, January morning, we're dreaming about a summer BBQ.  Invite some friends and co-workers over, throw some hamburgers, hot dogs and chicken breasts on the grill and pop open a cold one. 

Sounds like we'd better think twice before going to stock up at Wal-Mart if we're thinking about bringing our teenager with it if we're buying beer.  Turns out, Wal-Mart has a policy that says that if one person in the group is underage, then no alcohol can be sold.  Brenda B. on PlanetFeedback ran into just this situation when her husband took his kids with him to purchase a few items as well as some beer.

We're not familiar with this Wal-Mart policy but can attest that liquor stores in Florida also have this policy.  We went as far as to ask the manager at our local Virginia ABC store if that was the case there.  (We'd rather not leave our child in the car or hanging about outside the liquor store.)  He said it was the parent's call as to what age it's inappropriate to bring a child into a liquor store. (We're still not leaving him in the car.)

We can think of all kinds of exceptions to Wal-Mart's policy - what if the child is an infant and the parents can't afford a baby-sitter but still want to get into a bottle of vino after they put baby to bed?  What about when Mom wants to pick up a six-pack when she gets her groceries?

However, it's entirely Wal-Mart's right to make this kind of policy - and its basis is that it needs to prevent sales to the underage.  There are some legal consequences to them for selling alcohol to minors.  Plus it's a good policy to make sure that only those who are of-age are purchasing beer and wine.  We question whether there should be exceptions made to this policy, but that's entirely up to Wal-Mart ~ no matter what we or Brenda B. think about it.  It's fine to voice your opinion, but the bottom line is that if you don't like the policy, don't shop there. 

Especially not for beer or wine and you have your kid with you.

So we guess that means we'll just have to pick up our BBQ libations at the grocery store.  Salud!

--Contributed by Deb