Loblaws fined $7,000 after 16-year-old sold wine at Surrey, B.C., store

A person is seen shopping for wine in this undated stock image. (Shutterstock)

A major Canadian food retailer was fined thousands of dollars after one of its B.C. grocery stores sold wine to a 16-year-old.

B.C.'s Liquor and Cannabis Regulation Branch posted details of the decision earlier this month, saying Loblaws Inc. is on the hook for a sale made at a Real Canadian Superstore in Surrey last fall.

The grocery store is licensed to stock domestic and imported wine on its shelves, but it must be purchased at tills specifically marked for liquor sales.

According to Dianne Flood, LCRB general manager's delegate, two inspectors visited the store on Sept. 14 for a routine inspection. They hired and brought with them a "minor agent," who was 16 years old at the time.

The inspectors watched as the minor agent picked up a bottle of wine from the designated wine sales area of the store and took it to the checkout area, where they were directed to a specific till. The cashier scanned the wine and told the agent the price. The agent gave a $20 bill, received their change and left the store.

"At no time did the cashier ask the minor agent for identification," Flood wrote in the decision, adding minor agents are told not to try to deceive an employee, but simply say they don't have identification if they're asked for it.

One of the inspectors then returned to the store and asked to see a manager, explaining the contraventions.

Company, manager claim 'due diligence'

While Loblaws and the store manager didn't dispute the cashier failed to ask the minor agent for identification, they claimed the store did its due diligence in training its employee.

More than a dozen managers work at the store, and only staff with Serving It Right certification are permitted to sell liquor. Staff are also required to sign off on the store's liquor sales policy four times a year.

"The general manager knew the cashier and said she was a good employee and had been employed by (Loblaws) for 15 to 20 years," the decision says. "The general manager was shocked that the cashier had made a sale to the minor agent. When she asked the cashier about it, the cashier admitted she made the sale and did not ask for identification. The cashier said she had not been feeling well and she should have called in sick."

As a result of the offence, the cashier was suspended for two weeks, without pay, which marked the first time they were disciplined.

According to the general manager, the point-of-sales machines have a prompt that remind the cashier to check a purchaser's date of birth. However, that prompt can be overridden by pressing the computer's "enter" key. A report from the system showed the prompt is overridden about 70 per cent of the time.

"The front-end manager attributed the low-level of use of the prompt to the lower number of sales made to younger persons," Flood wrote. "She said this is due in part to the older demographic of the establishment’s customer base and because the only available liquor is limited to wine; not beer or other hard liquor that younger purchasers are more likely to be looking for."

The LCRB's decision explained that store policy used to require staff to ask for identification for anyone who appeared to be under the age of 40. But in 2022, that policy changed, requiring staff to request identification from anyone who looked 25 and younger.

Even so, the front-end manager told the board she tells staff to ask for identification from anyone who looks younger than 30.

"(Loblaws) concluded that the mistake in selling to the minor was a human error, not a deficiency in training," the decision says. "The cashier admitted she knew she should have asked for identification and that is how she was trained."

Training 'insufficient'

The LCRB's decision said it appears Loblaws "relies in large part" on its staff having SIR certificate "as adequate training to prevent the sale of liquor to minors." It also relies on staff signing off on the liquor sales policy.

"No further training, tests, hands-on practise, direct supervision, or shadowing follows," Flood's decision says, adding she finds Loblaws' "training of its cashiers to sell liquor to be insufficient."

"The sale of liquor is not the same as the sale of milk or bread," she wrote. "Rather, the sale of liquor carries with it significant responsibilities including to ensure minors and intoxicated persons are not sold liquor and liquor is not being purchased by a third party for these otherwise ineligible purchasers."

Instead, Flood recommended Loblaws include additional training measures for staff, like quizzes, written tests and hands-on instruction.

Flood wrote Loblaws had "good intentions" with its training, but said it failed to prove its due diligence in this case, and ordered a $7,000 penalty.