FACT: Nearly 10.8 million youth, ages 12-20, are underage drinkers. (Source)

If you have an alcohol store, the biggest challenge is restricting minors from buying alcohol. Checking buyers' age becomes mandatory before selling alcohol and other associated items. Suppose you fail to maintain adequate safety and permit minors to purchase alcohol. In that case, you and the delivery companies will face serious penalties that may even result in the cancellation of your distribution license.

Evaluating the buyer's age is the biggest hassle for everyone, and that's a strong reason behind tons of penalties by the government authorities. The sale of alcohol (online and offline) has increased exponentially, which brings high-end age-verification security into the limelight.

So, what are the common hurdles alcohol companies face, and what modern-age verification solutions are available for them?

Let's start with some statistics about alcohol sales in the USA:

• In 2021, beer accounted for an estimated 42.5 percent of the U.S. alcohol industry market. (Source)
• In September and October 2020, off-premise sales were 17.6% higher than the fall of 2019.
• Ecommerce alcohol sales in the U.S. are expected to see average annual growth of nearly 45% in value over the next four years.
• 80% growth in online alcohol sales in the U.S. in 2020.

These facts/stats highlight the growing demand for security before delivering/selling alcohol to anyone and restricting minors from getting these items.

What is the Adverse Impact of Underage Drinking?

There is always a reason why the government has fixed the age of 21 as the minimum age to buy alcohol. The numerous negative impacts of underage drinking make it a significant concern for the government authorities to take such laws and penalize the companies, distributors, and dealers who breach them.

Below is the adverse impact of underage drinking that you should also know.

• Early Drinking Cause Later Problems: If anyone starts drinking alcohol early, there are chances of getting alcohol-related health hazards in the early stage of life. It is found that minors drinking alcohol have higher dependency after they turn 21 than adults who don't drink till 21.
• High Death & Injury Rate: The chances of death and injury are three times for underage drinkers compared to adults. It has also been found that minor drinkers end their life through suicide more than those who don't drink till 21.
• Bad Educational Foundation: If minors indulge in drinking habits, their education is affected the most, causing low grades, lack of vision for future goals, etc.
• Badly Impact the Brain’s Growth: Minor's brain requires nutritious food to grow and nurture, but intake of alcohol can harm the growth of the brain, which affects your future directly.

Before talking about the challenges, it's essential to know the fines and penalties imposed on the companies.

Providing alcohol to minors is equivalent to breaking legal procedures.

Disallowing the law can cause the cancellation of a license and a fine of $800,000 for a company making 10,000 daily alcohol deliveries.

This rule is applicable only in the USA. The U.K. and other countries across the globe have different laws. E.g., the U.K. has restricted the sale of alcohol and knives to over-18s.

All this brings in a crucial need for age verification solutions to maintain high-end security from selling their alcohol items to minors. Most businesses fail to maintain the required safety with a low accuracy rate.

Today, an age-verification ID scanner provides the most practical solution for the hurdle of verifying the buyer's age.

I.D. Scanner - Battling Inefficient Solutions

ID Scanning machine is the modern solution to validate minors and restrict them from buying alcohol. Minor Decliner is the one-stop destination for providing ID Scanner for liquor stores.

I.D. scanners are highly efficient in validating the I.D. and safeguarding your store from counterfeit I.D.s by minors. Using ID scanning machines at the checkpoint helps your liquor store battle inefficient solutions, which are listed below.

• 100% Accuracy: Accuracy is the biggest issue with manual scanning and age verification. Many people are experts in creating counterfeit I.D.s that easily bypass security checks and buy alcohol. However, the I.D. scanning machine works with 100% accuracy, eliminating the fake I.D.s in the first check.
• Quick Age Verification: Manual ID verification is time-consuming and hectic. The time further increases in case of any buyer is found to be a suspected minor. However, modern I.D. verification machines can approve or reject I.D.s within seconds, removing long waiting periods.
• Scan Various Documents: Modern ID scanners are not all the same. Some have barcodes, while others have a magnetic strip that makes it tough for manual checks to validate. The ID scanning machines efficiently validate different IDs, enhancing the scope of security.

Over To You:

You have now found the most practical and modern solution to restrict the sale of alcohol to minors. Among all options available, I.D. scanners are the most feasible and cost-effective solution to retain security & protect your liquor license by adding machine-driven age verification with 100% accuracy.

At Minor Decliner, you can buy from various I.D. scanning machines that you can use for various businesses, including bars, nightclubs, tobacco stores, and more.

If you plan to install an age-verification I.D. scanner at your liquor store and eliminate the risk of providing alcohol to minors or protect the establishment’s license, reach out at 888-310-4001. We can discuss your business requirements and recommend a feasible I.D. Scanner.