She Tried to Buy Cigarettes for Her Underage Teenagers—Then Her Own Kids Had to Explain Federal Age Laws to Her in the Checkout Line
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Laws are becoming stricter and stricter when it comes to buying cigarettes because of how unhealthy they are. In some cases, that makes it so people run into a lot of trouble when trying to make a purchase.
That was the case in this story when a parent came into the store with her teenagers and tried to buy some cigarettes. Unfortunately, she said that they weren’t for her, so the cashier was legally prohibited from selling them to her.
The mother got upset, but her kids explained that the cashier was just doing her job.
Read through the full story below to see how the parent likely got around the restriction anyway.
It’s sad when kids have to explain the law to their parents.
I was working the customer service counter at work and had this woman (total non-Karen type, friendly, joking with me) and 3 teenagers (T1, T2, T3) come up.
Let’s get into what happened.
She wanted to buy some cigarettes. No problem. So she looks at her phone and reads it out. Again, not that uncommon, Canada recently changed the packaging requirements for every brand, they all look identical now so you need to know the exact name.
After years and years of just having to worry about the color and brand, it’s taking some getting used to, even a year and a half later. It’s a reflex. So some people, especially people that only smoke occasionally, have the name of their preferred cigarettes saved in their phones.
Oh, they aren’t even for her.
Anyway, she lists off the brand, size, etc, all the info I need, and as I am heading to the correct drawer, I hear the words that make me stop dead. “I don’t know, I don’t smoke”. Then this exchange ensues where she transformed into Karen before my very eyes:
M: “I’m sorry, I can’t sell them to you then. I would need to ID the person they are for.”
This does make things difficult.
K: “Are you serious? They’re for my girl friend, she’s having a rough day, I said I would pick up some smokes for her.”
M: “I’m sorry, but once I ask for ID I need to see it and once I know that they are not for the purchaser, I need to see the ID for the one they are for.”
K: “Even if I go to another store?”
Her kid understands what is going on.
M: “I have no control over other stores. I just cannot legally sell them to you now that I now they are not for you”
K: “This is ridiculous, she’s 36 years old!”
T1: “Mom, it’s the law, she can’t sell them to you because she has no proof that they are not for someone under 19. For all she knows you could be buying them for one of us”
At least her kid seems kind.
K: (still complaining) “Fine, we’ll go somewhere else. It’s still stupid”
I couldn’t hear all of what he was saying to her after, but before they were out of ear shot he was still trying to explain that it was the law and I was only doing my job.
It looks like she found a way to get what she needed.
Not 5 minutes later a gentleman came in asking for the exact same cigarettes. He was paying cash. I have zero doubts that he was her husband, but I can’t prove that.
He didn’t say that they were for anyone else, he was polite, paid and went on his way.
She can have her suspicions as long as she doesn’t know that they aren’t for the purchaser.
Just for clarification, there are some brands that we sell a lot of, some that we hardly sell at all, and some that land somewhere in the middle. This was one of the middle brands.
Common enough that they could have plausibly been for the gentleman that bought them, but uncommon enough that I would have bet money that he was Karen’s husband.
They really do make it difficult to buy cigarettes in Canada, but that is likely a good thing.
Read on to see what the people in the comments have to say about this story.
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Some people are just idiots.
A lot has changed in the last few decades.
This seems true to me.
Now this is a funny story.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a burned-out employee who finds a way to ease his stress with an extended daily lunch.
You have to be careful to avoid suspicion.
Making it hard to buy cigarettes is intentional, and people shouldn’t take it out on the cashier. I can see how it would get annoying to deal with, though.
I do agree with this person, however, that the guy buying them was her husband.
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