The Safety and Licensing Committee met 07/23/2025. During the meeting, they held appearance by the owners of 5 businesses that recently received demerit points on their alcohol licenses. Each of the five businesses were recently convicted of having dispensed alcohol to minors and each establishment received 80 demerit points on their licenses.
Somewhat surprisingly, all five license holders attended the meeting. They each explained the circumstances surrounding their violations and the steps they were taking to prevent such violations in the future.
I’ve prepared a transcript of the discussion for download:
STUC’S PIZZA – A server who had previously worked at a restaurant that did not sell alcohol and was not yet in the habit of checking IDs sold alcohol to someone who was underage. The owner has now instructed him to make sure to check everyone’s IDs. The owner also got digital calendars showing the birthdate it was legal for someone to be served alcohol and had placed those calendars at every serving station.
WALMART ON CALUMET – The cashier who sold alcohol to a minor was actually a very experienced cashier. When he keyed in the ID the first time it was declined, but he thought it was a malfunction with the register. He keyed the birthdate in again but did so from memory and entered it incorrectly which allowed the sale. The employee has been retrained on computer use and all register operators have been reminded about protocols. The owner noted that Walmart’s corporate policy is to ID anyone who looks over 40, but his policy at his store is to ID everybody.-
APPLETON LIQUOR – The license holder said that the store manager who completed the sale had 21 years of experience, but during the transaction the till froze and he got flustered and forgot to ID the person. She also noted that the business owner, her fiancé, had recently died.
Since the violation, all of the employees had signed policy agreements and undergone employee training. Their policy is to not even let minors into the store unless they are with a parent. She also put prompts into the computer that force employees to scan IDs and has posted notes around the store marking the date of people 21 and older.
RASCAL’S BAR & GRILL – The license holder said that the server had misread the ID and thought it said 2002 when it actually said 2005. Since the violation, she had gone through training provided by the Police Department which was very informative and showed them what to look for in fake IDs. She had asked all her employees to check IDs of everybody that comes to the bar and also ask the person what their age was. She was also in the process of getting an ID scanner
SCUBA’S POURHOUSE – The license holder said that the business had a big calendar posted on the wall showing the birthdate at which someone would be 21 or older. The bartender responsible for the violation had 20 years of experience and looked at the ID in question twice, but for whatever reason didn’t use the calendar on the wall as a reference. The person trying to buy alcohol was 2 months shy of 21, and the bartender did the math wrong and thought he was two months past his 21st birthday.
In response, the owner reiterated to all his staff that they need to check IDs and compare them to the calendar on the wall. They also try to ID every person who looks under the age of 40.
He mentioned that he had purchased ID scanners for another establishment that he runs but had not found those scanners to work consistently which was frustrating because he thought ID scanners would be the way to go if they actually worked consistently. He wondered if anyone had a recommendation for a good ID scanner to purchase. A police department representative was at the meeting, and they were going to talk privately after the meeting.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1284218&GUID=2F214F46-4990-41A0-8FBC-9C7164057FF0
Be the first to reply