The Chattanooga Beer & Wrecker Board on Thursday handed out punishment to three Tiftonia-area businesses for selling alcoholic beverages to an 18-year-old who was sent in to attempt to buy beer by Chattanooga Police Department Beer Officer John Collins. The minor actually visited nine establishments in the area on Sept. 8 and was carded and denied at five of them.
They were Browns Ferry Food Mart at 541 Browns Ferry Road, Mapco at 200 Browns Ferry Road, Star Tobacco at 115 Browns Ferry Road, Mapco at 3709 Cummings Highway and Tobacco Outlet at 3627 Cummings Highway.
The minor bought one can of Twisted Tea at both the Shiva Food Mart and Mapco Express, and a beer at the Odells on the Go on Cummings Highway. He was not asked for his identification at the Shiva store, which was being manned at the time by the manager’s wife and not an employee. People under 21 are identified on driver licenses in Tennessee by vertical printing. The manager told the board he had stepped out for a few minutes to run an errand.
Shiva had its license suspended for three days and will be required to have all of its employees go through the city’s new training program for selling beer.
The Mapco and Odells servers did check the ID but served the minor anyway. Having earned the designation of “Responsible Vendor,” which means it had gone through an alcohol awareness training program approved by the Tennessee Alcoholic Beverage Commission, Mapco could not have its beer sales suspended but was instead fined $1,000 and its staff must go through the training, according to a vote by the board.