Raiding a liquor store's backroom....am I in the wrong here?

[gblick]

This happened to Mrs Tot and myself just two weeks ago. We lost our 4RSmBLE, as it happens

You mean the FRLE's have already come and gone? Damn, I missed out yet again! Oh well, I'm used to that now.

[squire]

No, you didn't do anything wrong because you asked and received permission. If the spirits manager wants too keep his office off limits (I would) that's fine too but it's a matter he should take up with the General Manager and should not have involved a paying customer in the discussion.

I expect the store already has policies in place and you may have stumbled into a turf war between departments.

[The Black Tot]

You mean the FRLE's have already come and gone? Damn, I missed out yet again! Oh well, I'm used to that now.

Yes they have. I'm getting used to it, myself

[gblick]

Yes they have. I'm getting used to it, myself

Admittedly, I'm not very persistent in trying to get the stuff these days.

[Ravensfire]

Flip the scenario around - you come in the store to get a bottle the wine manager said he's put aside for you in his locked office. Then you find out someone talked their way into the office, poked around and grabbed the good bottles.

Yeah, you'd be pretty pissed off at the store over it. The right thing would be to return at least some of the extra bottles.

[tigerlam92]

No, you didn't do anything wrong because you asked and received permission. If the spirits manager wants too keep his office off limits (I would) that's fine too but it's a matter he should take up with the General Manager and should not have involved a paying customer in the discussion.

I expect the store already has policies in place and you may have stumbled into a turf war between departments.

Agreed completely. This takes the enjoyment out and it's complicated unnecessarily. They should address it without getting you involved and definitely can't speak to you in that way.

Flip the scenario around - you come in the store to get a bottle the wine manager said he's put aside for you in his locked office. Then you find out someone talked their way into the office, poked around and grabbed the good bottles.

Yeah, you'd be pretty pissed off at the store over it. The right thing would be to return at least some of the extra bottles.

I don't think this is even legal. In CA, they won't be able to buy it and he can't sell it back.

[Paddy]

My two cents.

I would NEVER attempt to go into another persons locked office and remove anything, even if an uneducated employee gave me the key.

Not even an absent friends store office, let alone someone I do not know.

It also would NEVER have occurred to me to even ask do so, let alone ask someone else to be a party to it and possibly jeopardize their job.

It's just bourbon folks, not the vaccine to cure the bubonic plague. This scenario sets up for a bad outcome (for more than one person) anyway it plays out, and was totally avoidable!

Edited December 19, 2014 by Paddy

[portwood]

Flip the scenario around - you come in the store to get a bottle the wine manager said he's put aside for you in his locked office. Then you find out someone talked their way into the office, poked around and grabbed ...

"...what you thought were your bottles"

BINGO we have a winner.

do unto others ....

[HOF44]

LE Bourbon has turned into Lord of the Flies!!!

[sutton]

Yeah, you are in the wrong.

Bring them back - you'll earn goodwill. It's one thing if an unaware employee brought them out for you, but rooting around in someone's locked office? Wow, that just seems over the top.

The guy who let you in might be looking for a job right now ...

[Clavius]

Asking an employee to look in the back for something for you is no big deal. And they should be happy to go look for you.

But you are most definitely NOT authorized to be there. Furthermore you should not have gone so far as to even ask to do such a thing. Sorry, but that's the truth.

Whether or not the manager or whomever is right or wrong in holding back bottles is completely irrelevant.

[DBM]

Common sense says that you knew what you were doing was sketchy. 1) I would have never done that and 2) if I did have the balls to pull off something similar, I would never return to the store for fear of retaliation.

[Josh]

You asked and were given permission. You didn't go in trying to pip someone to the post or discover "secret" bottles. You have no way of knowing how they do things in a given store. If they truly were for other customers (which I doubt) then they should have been clearly labeled and set aside. It's 100% on the manager. If he worked for me he'd be fired.

Edited December 20, 2014 by Josh

[P&MLiquorsEric]

I think it's shady on all 3 sides. The employee who let you in should be strongly disciplined and possibly terminated depending on his/her history. Manager should not bring it up or confront the customer so he is in the wrong too.

Third, you knew the items back there were not on the floor for a reason. Not to mention your desire for these bottles was to keep some and trade/sell others.

[camduncan]

What Josh said.

... however, and this is just me.... I'd probably offer to return them.

[Clavius]

A lot of silly responses here. You asked and were given permission. You didn't go in trying to pip someone to the post or discover "secret" bottles. You have no way of knowing how they do things in a given store. If they truly were for other customers (which I doubt) then they should have been clearly labeled and set aside. It's 100% on the manager. If he worked for me he'd be fired.

Completely disagree on all points.

But, whatever...

[garbanzobean]

What Josh said.

... however, and this is just me.... I'd probably offer to return them.

[393foureyedfox]

If I ran a liquor store and held bottles back for preferred customers, I would at a minimum write something like "being held for (special customer's name), DO NOT SELL" on a note and attach it to the bottle. I absolutely cannot believe the OP would have touched them if that were the case.

[Briscogun]

Seems the OP's basic premise is that two wrongs make a right. No one knows why those bottles were back there. He could've been holding them for other customers or hoarding them for himself. But while the manager handled it poorly by addressing you that way, you probably created a lot of issues for the innocent employee and maybe even for the manager. I would've never had the nerve to enter another mans office and start helping myself to product. Who am I to know what or why it was back there? Very presumptuous of you and regardless of how the manager spoke to you I think you should've apologized, made sure that he understood the employee was trying to be helpful and that it wasn't his fault, and offered to return the bottles to him. You invaded his space and you should've atoned for your behavior regardless of his. Always do the right thing, don't justify your behavior because you shop there or because he was wrong for not selling them the way you saw fit.

[garbanzobean]

well, the manager DID put them in his office, while putting others on the shelf. Even without a note (it is HIS office by the way, so why should he be required to do that?!), the OP had to know that he was stepping over some boundaries. Sure, the manager handled it poorly, butthe OP acted purely on excitement and greed. Was it worth it? You may have burned a bridge that allowed you to get some of the goodies, because you wanted all the goodies.

at the minimum, approach the manager and offer an apology.

[Clavius]

I am dumbfounded that we are actually having to debate this.

OP should never have asked for permission to just waltz on into the back room to grab whatever he saw that he wanted to purchase. And the idiot clerk or whomever that actually gave him permission to do so was equally in the wrong.

If a bottle is in the back room it's there for a reason: Maybe it's for a good/regular customer. Maybe an employee is going to buy it when he/she gets off work. Maybe the store is planning on doing something with it in the future like having a raffle. Or hell, maybe the manager truly is just a jerk and hoards them all for himself/herself.

The fact is that you simply don't know.

[Josh]

I don't know man. If another manager has a key to an office, I'm going to assume said manager is authorized to let me in there and look for bourbon if that's what he agreed to let me do. Then again, I've never asked to go "in back" because I think that's a bit weird for the area in which I live.

[AaronWF]

It's not the customer's responsibility to know how a store is managed or organized. I asked an employee in the liquor section of a local grocery just the other week if they had any BCBS in the back because I didn't see any on the shelf. The guy said he thought it just came in and he had a stupefied expression on his face so I asked if I could accompany him to the stock room and look with him. He allowed me to. We came up empty handed until I spotted a few 4-packs stowed on a shelf with a piece of paper on them. I pointed them out and asked if I could have one of those and the employee said, "Oh that's what you're looking for. Sorry, I thought it was something else. Unfortunately, those are being held back for another customer." It was as simple as that.

It's hard enough to gain entrance as a customer to LE liquor products these days. If the management has their head up their ass (which is all too often the case in my experience), it's not up to me to hold their hand. Managers keep LE products off the shelves for various reasons and I'm not interested in guessing why. I know what I'm looking for and if I see it I'll ask for it. If I don't see it I'll ask if it's in the back. If they don't know I'll ask if I can look. If I found the bottle in the back room with a name taped to it, I'd ask about it. I wouldn't remove the tape, but you never know, maybe the person it was reserved for already refused it and they hadn't had a chance to take the paper off.

Good customer etiquette is being polite and respectful, not anticipating management structure. The spirits manager in the OP's story sounds like an idiot and an asshole and I'd never shop in his store again if he behaved that way towards me.

[Clavius]

It's not the customer's responsibility to know how a store is managed or organized.

However there are obvious boundaries that need to be respected.

For numerous reasons, that employee should not have let you follow him back there. And IMHO you're pushing the limit even asking to do so.

[BigBoldBully]

So many aspects of this situation a person can focus on, it is easy to "disagree" without really talking about the same thing. Assuming it is illegal to trade/sell bourbon without a license, it seems relevant from one point of view that your actions were taken in furtherance of a plan to break the law. Did the spirits manager have any knowledge of your intent?