Genuine Door Service

The legal age for selling alcohol is sixteen in The Netherlands, the same age at which you can drive a scooter. At my checkout, I get a customer who might or might not be sixteen, with a few bottles of alcoholic drinks.

Me: “Can I see some ID, please?”

The customer holds up a helmet.

Customer: “I drive a scooter, so I’m sixteen.”

Me: “That’s nice, but I still have to see some form of identification.”

Customer: “It got stolen. But I’m sixteen, so you have to sell it to me.”

Me: “I can’t sell it without any ID. I’m sorry. I’ll have to keep the bottles here until you provide me with your ID card or driver’s license.”

Customer: “I don’t f****** have it, you a**hole. I just told you; are you deaf? I demand to speak to your manager!”

Me: *Calling my manager* “I have a customer at my checkout who seems to have lost the way to the door. Could you come and help him?”

Customer: “That’s not what I f****** meant!”

Me: “I know, but you’re not getting it anyway, not without ID, and not with ID, either, because I think you’ve had enough already.”

The customer kept on screaming and shouting until my manager came along and took him out of the shop.