Letter to the Editor:

Wal-Mart's stupid ID policy

By Will Hemeyer, Senior

Published Feb. 27, 2007

I know that a lot of college kds use tobacco products. But just this evening I went to the Conley Road Wal-Mart to do my biweekly shopping and went to purchase some chewing tobacco.

I am 23 and usually don't get carded for beer at good ol' Wally World. My girlfriend is two years older than I am, and the cashier carded her. She didn't have her ID on her for some odd reason. So the cashier refused to sell to me. I used to be a cashier at a local grocery store and never carded the person who was with the person buying tobacco or liquor unless they looked like he or she was a minor.

But when I asked her why she wouldn't sell, she said it was because my girlfriend didn't have her ID and looked younger than 27.

That gets me thinking: What is the difference between my situation and having a child under the age of 27 with an adult? Now I know she would have sold an adult with a child the tobacco, even though the child wouldn't have an ID. I knew plenty of kids in high school whose parents bought them tobacco and alcohol. What is the difference between the child and the parent? I don't see one.