2018-10-18 Liquor Adjudication Board Minutes

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Fuke: As opposed to the absence of a person in charge. So, the ceiling is different? Takase: Yes. We can actually go up to $2,000. It's a little more serious than the card. It's a little different than the norm we see. Normally we see one selling after hours; our cut-off for stores is 11:00 P.M. and 2:00 A.M. for bars, so you usually see the sales right after that. This one was actually 4:00 A.M. and it wasn't through our investigation. We actually got a complaint from the person that purchased it, so we followed up to see what was going on. To the licensee's benefit, they provided us with all the information that implicated them. That's one of the reasons we are recommending a greater leniency than we normally would. That, plus they did take steps to secure the liquor, which is not a requirement, but they did find a way to secure their coolers. We had recommended that they move the item (a flavored tea, hard tea) away from the other ice teas so that it wouldn't be mistakenly grabbed. The manufacturers try to manufacture those types of things very similar to non-alcoholic beverages which does create some problems. Fuke: Any further questions? Andi. Pawasarat: Yes, I wanted to discuss a little just because you said that the register does come up with a prompt saying that it is an alcoholic item, and the only way to get through is to override. Takase: Yes. Brandon and I went out to look at this. That was one of our first questions. Just looking at the two cans, you may not necessarily know, but when we scanned the can, it does say "ask for birthdate," so they have to override it. Probably in 99% of our cases, people have the equipment that will notify them that they're selling alcohol. What we see happening is the cashiers just override through it. That happened in this case. The only other thing I can think of is that the hours were so far off that nobody was expecting liquor sales during those hours. Pawasarat: I mean, it's just a good thing there wasn't a DUI checkpoint and she had gotten over and had an alcohol beverage level that turned out positive, in which case would've been a huge problem. Takase: When she got home to drink her tea, she noticed and reported it to us. She was upset that she was sold... Gonzalez: ...an alcoholic beverage when she wanted to buy a non-alcoholic beverage. But the thing to remember, too, is the transaction wasn't only for the ice tea itself, she paid for gas and she bought cigarettes, and it was at 4:00 A.M. and I believe the cashier said they may have been tired and fatigued at the time. So it was part of a bundle transaction and she thought she was buying regular tea. Takase: The owners said that going through their machine now, they can actually lock out all sales during those hours, so that's what they've done. We tried to give him some credit that he's working with us and he's implementing measurers to prevent this problem in the future. That's why, rather than being a $750 suspension, we gave him a $1,000 in this case. OCTOBER 18, 2018 - LIQUOR ADJUDICATION BOARD MINUTES 25