Selling liquor to a street person

[Holland]

I was in a convenience store, one that has liquor on one side and food on the other. When I went up to make my purchase, I noticed the clerk selling a bottle of liquor to an elderly street person for less than the purchase price. The street person just handed the clerk a bunch of change and it was short by about a dollar or so. I asked the clerk if he thought it was a good idea to do that. He said if he did’t give her the liquor she might drink something that would poison her. I felt kind of bad for giving the guy a hard time. I now know I could never be a liquor store clerk. Any comments on what I could have said.

 

[kage_ar]

I’d have bought the lady some food to go along with it.

 

[Holland]

I’d have bought the lady some food to go along with it.

Not a bad idea; I’ve been known to do that a time or two, much to the embarrassment of some of my friends if they happen to be along when I do it.

 

[CreosMary]

I was in a convenience store, one that has liquor on one side and food on the other. When I went up to make my purchase, I noticed the clerk selling a bottle of liquor to an elderly street person for less than the purchase price. The street person just handed the clerk a bunch of change and it was short by about a dollar or so. I asked the clerk if he thought it was a good idea to do that. He said if he did’t give her the liquor she might drink something that would poison her. I felt kind of bad for giving the guy a hard time. I now know I could never be a liquor store clerk. Any comments on what I could have said.

Considering that the shop assistant was not Catholic, it may be difficult to explain to him the behaviour was ‘co-operation in evil’.
We have this problem a lot where I live, but by junkies asking for cash (allegedly for food)
What I do is offer to buy them a meal, they often refuse as thier intention was to buy drugs with accumulated cash. In this case I have not co-operated in evil as I have not contributed to thier addiction and allowed them the chance to eat; this however can be difficult to explain to others on the spot

 

[Bennie_P]

I was in a convenience store, one that has liquor on one side and food on the other. When I went up to make my purchase, I noticed the clerk selling a bottle of liquor to an elderly street person for less than the purchase price. The street person just handed the clerk a bunch of change and it was short by about a dollar or so. I asked the clerk if he thought it was a good idea to do that. He said if he did’t give her the liquor she might drink something that would poison her. I felt kind of bad for giving the guy a hard time. I now know I could never be a liquor store clerk. Any comments on what I could have said.

I think the clerk did right and the suggstions about buying food for the person are good suggestions too. The clerk showed mercy and in his own way may prevented a possible greater evil. He probably knows the person, and who knows? he might be giving the person help in other ways. I know a guy who only gives handouts to street people that don’t ask for handouts, and another that carries MREs in thier vehicle to give to the homeless, so if he is asked for money for food he has food to give. Jesus lives on the street - watch for him.

 

[THutch04]

I did work as a store clerk where we didn’t sell alcohol, but we sold cigarettes and tobacco products. Sometimes people would come in who really didn’t look like they should be buying more. We had one customer who called the store ahead of time and said that we would recognize her because she was wearing a shirt that was dirty because she couldn’t afford to do laundry…all we could think of was “wow, you can’t afford laundry but you can afford cigarettes…” I generally would sell them though, even if I thought it wasn’t a good idea. I just never felt right as a kid (I was 18 at the time) refusing a sale to adults if there wasn’t an objective reason to do so. The clerk might know the person who came in. Usually the same people come into stores, and if it’s a regular customer, sometimes exceptions will be made if they don’t have enough money (not saying it’s right, but it definitely happens).