A man demonstrated just how easy it is for minors to purchase alcoholic beverages using omnipresent self-checkout machines at various retailers. In his clip, he walks through these steps to show folks how big of a problem this is.
“Consumer alert this is how kids buy alcohol,” a text overlay in the video reads. The original clip shows a video of someone holding up a can of Arizona iced tea in front of a self-checkout register. They are holding another can in their hands, which appears to be of a similar size and shape as the Arizona can, however, it’s of an alcoholic beverage.
The video then transitions to Big Bear (@bigbearwine), a liquor store expert who the Daily Dot has previously covered in other posts, for example, when he informed consumers of a much more affordable alternative to Bailey’s Irish Cream Liqueur.
Big Bear says that nowadays, it’s become easier than ever for youngsters to nab themselves some booze even though they aren’t of legal age to purchase it.
“We’re going undercover and I’m going to show you how easy it is now for minors to buy alcohol from places like Safeway, King Supers, and Walmart, using their self-checkout,” he says. “It is scary easy. Let me show you.”
In the clip, Big Bear picks up a non-alcoholic version of an Arnold Palmer can before grabbing an alcoholic version that looks similar.
He holds the two cans side by side to show how their dimensions and appearance, at first glance, are nearly identical.
“So this is what they do. We’re gonna scan the NA, the non-alcohol version, twice, and not scan this one, so we’re still scanning two products,” he explains.
Big Bear then walks up to the self-checkout and grabs the scanner gun, scanning the NA version two times.
“And then after I get it all done, I drop them and the attendant still comes over to make sure I’m OK,” he places the cans in the weighted sector of the self-checkout aisle and the cans crash to the ground.
“So I just had them void the one product so I’m only buying a tea, but check this out,” he says before panning the camera over to the can of spiked Arnold Palmer sitting at the self-checkout machine. “They just left it here unattended, anyone can buy it.”
@bigbearwine Parents please watch. For educational use only. #alcohol #liquor #liquorstore #whiskey #crownroyal #momsoftiktok ♬ original sound – Big Bear
The TikToker shares how this is problematic because he asked his eight grader whether kids are using this hack and was told yes.
“What have we done in the state of Colorado to allow alcohol so easily accessible to minors?” he asks. “Why did we do this?”
He’s got some ideas, continuing, “‘Cause the big box store said we want this, we don’t care about safety, we don’t care about underage drinking, we care about our bottom line and you know what I’m done with it.”
“Why are we allowing this to happen?” he asks at the end of the video.
However, numerous folks, instead of sounding the alarms, sarcastically thanked the man for showing them how to pull off their own underage drinking heists.
“Great tutorial for the kids!” one wrote.
This was a sentiment echoed by other folks, with one commenting, “Thanks for the tips! I’ll be using this,” while another remarked, “Thank you for showing me the ways.”
Other users argued that minors finding ways to skirt rules and regulations was nothing new: “It’s never been a problem for kids to get alcohol every generation finds their own way to get it.”
“You can literally do this for anything. That how I got my tv for 3.99,” someone else said, remarking that different-self-checkout-scan scams are common knowledge.
Big Bear’s concerns have been covered by others. Alcohol Justice‘s study published by San Diego University explores the possible positive correlation between the surge in self-checkout solutions at grocery stores and minors being able to purchase alcohol without having their ID cards checked. Taylor & Francis Online has also stated outright that, “Self-checkout lanes are a source of alcohol availability for underage customers,” and the National Institute of Health has also published its findings as self-checkout lines as a “potential” conduit for underage drinking.
The Daily Dot has reached out to Big Bear via Instagram direct message for further information.
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