Everyone who buys alcohol at a state liquor store will now have to show a valid form of identification, which includes a state issued ID card, a driver’s license, a military ID, or a passport.
Terry Wood, with the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, said workers will scan or enter information from all valid IDs into their system.
“Information scanned will only include the date of birth, and the validity of the ID, there will be no personal information such as name, address or purchase, that will be captured or stored,” Wood said. “The only scanned information is the birth date, invalidity of the ID and that will not be kept.”
Before the policy update, employees at state liquor stores would only ID people who looked younger than 35 years old. But Wood said it’s hard to judge someone’s age based only on appearance.
“It created a lot of pressure on the clerks,” he said. “It created a lot of inconsistency among customers, you know, ‘why did you not ID that guy, but you're IDing me,’ type thing. It was subjective. And it created controversy. So this will be fair and consistent for everyone.”
He also said mask mandates make it harder to figure out how old customers are, so the new policy will help crack down on underage sales.
“There's been some attempts, and I don't know, specifically in our stores or which stores but there have been attempts by people who are not 21 to masquerade themselves as somebody older when they've got a mask over a lot of their face anyway,” he said.
Wood said there will be signs posted around stores reminding customers about the new policy.
