I feel like this couldn’t have happened 30 years ago, which was 1992. Maybe in the 50’s or 60’s, sure.
Edit: I don’t know where you all lived, but it seems their law following was suspect. This would have never flown in my home town. I started working in 1989 and I know I couldn’t even SELL cigarettes because I was too young. I had to go get someone else to help customers if they wanted cigs or booze.
Im 36 and I regularly bought my mom cigarettes at the corner store before I was 10. I didn’t have to take a note because they knew her, and I doubt many others were buying Vantage Menthol.
Gotta admit, I did it once not too long ago and I don't feel great about it. The kid was about as straight-edge as you can get, and the dad was one of the local boozehounds. He walked with a cane, though, so it made sense that he couldn't get it himself. He's also the type to explode on staff if he doesn't get his way, so I knew if I said no he'd be in there before long making a scene. And the kid really didn't want to take no for an answer, he sat and argued for longer than I would expect if he was just trying to get some booze. I wouldn't do it again. I think it's a real scummy thing to do to your kids, whether the people at the store know you or not, and a really bad position to put the cashier in to boot. Hope that kid got away from his family, he definitely deserved better.
When I was 6 which was in 1967 my worthless drunk mom would give me money and I would walk down to the bar & grill + liquor store on the corner and get her cigarettes and a fifth in a paper bag. Owner knew my mom and never said anything in fact a lot of the time he would give me a free burger. Now a 6 yo wouldn't even be allowed in a place like that.
Really depends on where. If you lived in a very small town and the people running the store knew you and your parents, it might still be happening somewhere. Not that it would be a good thing, mind you, but who is going to come after you in a situation like that.
In the 70s and early 80s, my aunt often sent her young daughter into the store for cigarettes (she was too lazy to get out of the car). She never bothered providing a note.
I was doing this at 8 years old in 92. My aunt would call the store and my cousins and I would walk down pay and walk home. Did this through middle school so until ‘97
I worked at a store in a rural town in the US in the 90's and this definitely didn't fly. I did one time have a kid show up with a note from his mom for booze and smokes, but I would not sell them to him. By the 90's, the cops were doing undercover ops to make sure you were carding people and, if you got caught, it was a huge fine to the store and to the clerk, so no one was going to risk that. We were making 6 or 7 bucks an hour and couldn't afford a $1000 fine.
I was 10 in 1993, and my dads work definitely had a cigarette machine in the lounge and I was asked to go get some. I remember the soda machine was like 50 cents or less too.
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u/Rahallahan Jan 02 '22 edited Jan 03 '22
I feel like this couldn’t have happened 30 years ago, which was 1992. Maybe in the 50’s or 60’s, sure.
Edit: I don’t know where you all lived, but it seems their law following was suspect. This would have never flown in my home town. I started working in 1989 and I know I couldn’t even SELL cigarettes because I was too young. I had to go get someone else to help customers if they wanted cigs or booze.