I have a nineteen year old daughter that I am urging to get into mystery shopping. I see postings wanting people her age to order drinks to see if they are carded. How does this work? She keeps asking me "isn't it illegal for a ninetten year old to try to buy alcohol?"

All the ones I've seen require the shopper to be age 21 or above. I do these shops all the time, but I'm 22. I don't think, legally speaking, a MSC can/would ask underage shoppers to attempt an alcohol purchase.

That may fall into the realm of entrapment if she is not legal to buy alcohol.

What looks like a really good gig for a 19 year old would be the tobacco compliance shops. She is legally old enough, but young enough she should be carded and that's what they want. I used to see companies offering some great routes for those. At 54, it was not something I paid a lot of attention to, lol!

I agree with cake. I've been doing these shops for 5 years now and have never seen one that required an underage person to try and by any restricted items. There are cigarette shops that only require you to be 18.

I've only heard of police agencies having underage kids going in to coerce places to sell them restricted items.

Hi, pony, welcome to the forum. I have several really great meal and bar shops I do each month with one of my kids. That is probably what you are referencing. The requirement is for 2 people to eat and one orders an alcoholic beverage to see if the bartender/server checks that person's ID. The person ordering the drink must be 21 (legal drinking age). Most clients require that IDs be check on all patrons who appear to be less than 30 or 35. The point of the shop is not to trick the client into doing something illegal but to document that by not checking, they could potentially do something illegal. That way, the client has NOT done anything illegal by serving the alcohol, but the server who did not check ID before serving has violated the company's policy and will be censured, up to and including termination.

For example, One client I have shopped is a restaurant/bar chain. The requirement is that you are a mystery shopper until you finish eating, after which you ask for the manager and reveal yourself to him, giving him signed paperwork, and you tell him whether the server passed or failed. At this chain, if the server fails, the corporate office requires that the manager fire the server immediately for policy violation. I liked this shop as long as they all passed. Then one day one failed and both the manager and the server started to cry. Yes, literally, both men cried. Immediately terminated. It wasn't fun anymore. That was my last one for this chain.

Thank you. I probably mistook the cigarette ones for alcohol - my mind is going.

It is illegal for a 19 year old to attempt to buy alcohol. Of course, it is illegal for a clerk or bartender or cashier or waitress to serve or give it to her.