I brought this up in shoutbox, but thought it would make an interesting somewhats ports related discussion. This thread is from another board. Rather than summarize, I’m gonna repost the original post…
[QUOTE=Cincy Beer Vendor]I’m an accountant full time, and on the side I beer vend (vended) for the Cincinnati Reds. I’m the guy that goes up and down the aisles COLD BEER HERE!! etc etc…it’s a great part time job. You work 3.5 hours max, make your own schedule, and average $150 in that time span. Anyway…
I was walking the concourse area today sweating my ass off, almost time to go home. An obvious preggo comes up to me…she’s easily 7-8 months in, and wants to buy 2 Miller Lites. I have never encountered this situation before, and I kindly suggest to her that it’s so hot out, perhaps she’d like a bottle Dasani or soda to quench her thirst. She insisted that she wanted the beer. I asked her if it was for someone else (husband etc), she got real defensive at this point and said…"No it’s for me, why do you care?"
I responded with…"Well ma’am I don’t feel comfortable selling a pregnant woman beer. I don’t think it’s right to drink while you’re pregnant."
She then goes off on me in front of lots and lots of people, cursing etc. Her husband hears her and comes over to find out what the trouble is. She explains to him and he yells “I don’t think it’s any of your business what the f*** my wife drinks”…etc a few times. I try walking away and they follow me to my commissary (where I replenish) and my vending manager of course happens to be in there. They explain what happened to him and I continue to object to selling to them. I tell him that any of the other vendors are welcome to sell a pregnant woman beer if they want, but I"m not doing it. He apologizes to her and grabs beer from the cooler and gives it to her for free. I just stand there dumbfounded.
They leave and he asks me to cash out and come to his office. The HR girl is in there when I get there and they end up letting me go because I somehow caused a scene and the woman wasn’t doing anything illegal.
Pretty pissed off. Been there almost 4 years and it’s a great side job…I put all that money in savings for a house.
I still object to selling to her, but what say you?
TLDR:
I vend beer for the Reds
Preggo asks for 2 Miller Lites
I object
She goes batshit crazy
I get fired.
Wow - that is interesting. I certainly can’t fault the guy for objecting to serve her a beer, but I’m sure you can liken this to someone at McDonalds refusing to sell a BigMac to a fat 6 year old. An individual’s personal objections do not constitute the right to refuse to do his/her job without consequence. If I were an employee who was opposed to selling beer to pregnant women and I knew that management and/or ownership was not opposed, I would be leaving the organization.
The stink of it is, the guy is out of a job and likely there is nothing that can be done for him. In the meantime, some nutty chick gets to run around and pound down shitty beer while pregnant AND think she was somehow in the right for making a scene (and of course drinking while pregnant). There is certainly no winner here.
IMO - management should have exercised their right to refuse service to anyone and stood behind the guy AND/OR simply appeased the customer and not fired the employee. While one can argue for or against her right to buy the beer, it certainly didn’t have to end in the demise of an otherwise good employee’s career/sidejob. Not to mention the odds of this occuring, they could have simply appeased one customer and let ol’ boy continue working (if he didn’t immediately quit out of disgust).
I would have done the same thing. The consequences would have just had to come and be as they may, even if it meant losing the job. Sometimes you have to just do what you know to be right, and not worry about the company line bullshit. No way I could sell a pregnant woman a beer knowing she’s going to drink it. She may indeed get it from somewhere else, but it wouldn’t be from me.
A convenience store clerk somewhere in the U.S. probably faces this scenario frequently. The variables are a little bit different, but the decision to be made is pretty much the same.
Removed PBs post with the thread link - I was intentionally saving it for after we had discussions… I wanted to see what we came up with on our own first. I’ll post it later.
Here was part of my take (on selling alcohol to pregnant women):
However, here's an interesting angle: The law presumes alcohol is unsafe for sale to minors for non-medicinal consumption. If that's the case, why should it be considered to be safe for an unborn child to consume on a similar basis?
crazy story. Obviously he shouldnt have sold her the beer. I’d be more pissed that I got fired without being able to tell the husband and wife what gigantic pieces of shit they are for drinking beer while pregnant.
Obviously the husband is a POS if he made his 7-8 month pregnant wife go and buy the beer instead of doing it himself.
So is this guy trying to get his job back? If so what is he going to do if the situation comes up again? Has he considered selling peanuts, popcorn, cotton candy, or soft drinks intead?
I agree that I would have found it difficult to sell her the beer. I probably would have warned her that there are health risks involved when consuming alcohol during pregnancy. If she was still insistent then I would have probably sold her the beer. Who knows if it was for someone else, etc.?
I don’t really consider it my business and as long as I provide some information so that she is making a fairly informed decision, then I don’t think there is much that I could do. Do I want my wife to drink beer when she is pregnant? NO! But, ultimately, it is something that is beyond my control, whether or not I am comfortable with it. As posted earlier, if it bothered me that much I would either leave the job or speak with my boss about it. I’m not sure how much I would be bothered, not having been in the situation. I imagine a good bit, but if she is insistent past my warnings then I can’t prevent her from doing something legal.
You also have to consider that not all alcohol is frowned upon during pregnancy-> a glass of red wine every day or two is recommended for pregnant women by many of the world’s foremost doctors.
Totally sucks for this guy, though; you’ve got to feel for him and can certainly understand his position.
would you sell cigs to a prego woman if you worked at a convenient store or grocery store?
Would you sell a BBgun to a person that said it was a toy for their 2 year old?
the guy did what he thought was right, BUT it’s not up to him to make non-illegal choices for other people. i don’t see the issue if his mgr wanted to fire him. it’s a business and if you don’t like something, change jobs.
I woulda done the same thing as the guy though. however, if he didn’t ask who it was for, then he woulda never known it was for her. gotta play the dumb card or jump ship.
[quote=“cdsniner, post:8, topic:25587”]Obviously the husband is a POS if he made his 7-8 month pregnant wife go and buy the beer instead of doing it himself.
So is this guy trying to get his job back? If so what is he going to do if the situation comes up again? Has he considered selling peanuts, popcorn, cotton candy, or soft drinks intead?[/quote]Funny you should say that. My wife made a trip to restock our liquor cabinet while 6.5 months pregnant. Let’s just say the trip was big enough that she needed a cart to fit all of the merchandise. She was interested by the attention she got, but no one said anything. That is slightly different because sale at a store doesn’t infer immediate consumption (and just to be clear, my wife never drank while pregnant, it was just a social experiment… and I was out of rum.) ;D
I think she made a trip with our infant son later, but I can’t remember.
As for this guy, I stand behind his actions. Right to refuse service. However, the employer probably had grounds to take action because, that right of refusal does not necessarily rest in the hands of the guy walking the aisles.
[quote=“NinerAdvocate, post:6, topic:25587”]Here was part of my take (on selling alcohol to pregnant women):
However, here's an interesting angle: The law presumes alcohol is unsafe for sale to minors for non-medicinal consumption. If that's the case, why should it be considered to be safe for an unborn child to consume on a similar basis?
As a vendor, I’d be under the impression that he has the right to refuse service to whom he deems unfit, for whatever reason so long as it is not racial or sexist in nature. Studies say it is presumed safe for 1 to 2 drinks a week, and that’s even debatable. Anyone who has had a kid will likely attest to this, our doctor said NO ALCOHOL. I mean a few probably won’t hurt it here or there but do you really want to take the chance of having Sloth come out of the womb and have that constant reminder. I know NLP’s probably doomed to have that happen with or without alcohol, but the rest of us would like to steer clear of it.
It depends on the mood I was in if I’d do anything. Tired, lots of customers, probably not going to say anything - just think about it and let it go. Slow day, I’ll speak up about it gentle like. Pissed, I’d probably just call her out lol. I’d probably not think about the job’s security, but I’d have to see the circumstances.
The only people who are wrong here IMO are the dumb facks drinking beer while they’ve got one in the oven.
Legal stuff: you can never legislate when life begins. God I hope this messed up nation never sees such a day. However, if the intent is to keep the child, then I do feel it is safe to view the child as a life and then go along with what NA said.
[quote=“Charlotte2002, post:12, topic:25587”][quote=“NinerAdvocate, post:6, topic:25587”]Here was part of my take (on selling alcohol to pregnant women):
However, here's an interesting angle: The law presumes alcohol is unsafe for sale to minors for non-medicinal consumption. If that's the case, why should it be considered to be safe for an unborn child to consume on a similar basis?
[/quote]
You are a liberal right? Unborn baby isn’t alive.[/quote]
No, I am not a liberal. I also detest label stereotypes and the lazy thinking based on them.
I’m generally impressed with the thoughts expressed here on this topic. Most of you are right-on about this. Having worked directly with children with fetal alcohol syndrome during my career, I can tell you it is a horribly tragic curse to put on a kid, especially if you KNOW it will harm an unborn child. Most people DO know this and I have to support the beer vendor’s decision not to sell to this woman.
As for being liberal or not, many decisions in life are not cut and dried. I know people who are pro-choice and pro-death penalty, or are for one and not the other, or opposed to both. In this case the “non-political” fetus is thankful their mom was denied the beer. Trust me.