If you’re going to buy alcohol, you need to be prepared to show your ID. If you have a child with you, let this tale be a warning of what not to do.

A well-meaning teen made a suggestion that led to an argument at the liquor store.

Keep reading to see how the store employee handles this situation.

No I can’t serve you if your underage daughter offers to pay

I work at a liquor store in my hometown during the college semester breaks.

This story happened last summer and, to this day, this is one of the most ridiculous interactions I’ve ever had with a customer.

The OP looks young, so this definitely gets comments from customers.

For context, I have a baby face and often get comments about how I don’t look old enough to sell — let alone drink alcohol.

At the time, I was 21, but even if I wasn’t — in my state you only need to be 18 to serve.

Our store policy is that we ID parties of anyone who looks to be under 45, and we have to identify everyone in the party.

Often, my coworkers and I neglect this policy if we can tell someone is clearly over the age and the kid with them is their child.

They’re stricter if the person who looks underage offers to pay.

But we will ID if the person who looks underage says in front of us that they are going to drink any of the items or if they offer to pay.

Now, onto the story. I was working the closing shift and around 8 p.m. a woman and her teenage daughter come up to my register. I do the typical greetings and start ringing.

Everything goes well until I ask for payment; the total was $100.

Mom says that she is paying cash, but when she starts pulling out money she realizes that she only has $80. She says that she is going to give me the 80 and put the rest on her card. No problem, people do that all the time.

Now, this is where things get messy…

The issue, her daughter pipes up and says “Mom, just use some of my money, I just got paid.”

And I start thinking that this isn’t going to go well but reluctantly say, “sure you can help pay, but in that case I need to see both your IDs.”

You’ll never believe what happens next.

Mom flips out, starts screaming that her daughter is clearly underage, and it’s ridiculous to ID them over $20.

My manager rushes over and asks what the problem is, and [the] mom switches her ire to him and continues screaming for half an hour about how it’s ridiculous that I am asking for her ID because she is clearly over 21 and that her daughter is clearly under 21 and how I don’t look old enough to be working there — and I should be fired because I am also underage.

Finally, the manager gives the lady a choice.

Eventually, my manager tires of being yelled at and calmly informs the mother that there is a line forming behind her, and we close soon, so she can either stick with her original plan of paying part cash part card, pay cash for what she is able to and leave the rest or just leave.

She eventually chooses to just pay part cash, part card.

I smile [at] her and tell her to have a good night.

She glares at me, pushes her daughter out of the store and leaves in a huff.

Did the employee do the right thing or should they have just let this one slide? Let’s read what Redditors are saying in the comments below.

Redditors think a lot of customers are selfish.

And others felt the OP was too nice.

One person had a great comeback all lined up.

And finally, a reader marveled at customers getting frustrated at employees for doing their job.

This worker did the right thing ID-ing this underage girl.

If you liked that post, check out this story about a customer who insists that their credit card works, and finds out that isn’t the case.