Honestly, I've never asked a total stranger for alcohol before but if a kid asked me outside some gas station I would have to decline on the grounds of self preservation. You never know, the time you say "Fuck the police." could immediately be followed by "Fuck, the police." As it stands right now I am still underage, but the clubs around here are pretty lenient. Most of the time it's free drinks until midnight, or all night and all you need is a wristband. Know the dude at the door? Wristband. Or you can find someone 21+ to give you theirs and go tell the doorman they lost it.
When I was underage, my parents were more than willing to supply booze, well getting drunk is a family tradition so yeah.. The drinking age is 18 in this part of Canada (Manitoba), so you still get requests by underage kids to buy them booze. I've done it before - only for people who I know, such as my sister, but not for any random kids. There's a new trend at the local liquor stores - two kids go to the liquor store, one goes in and attempts to get alcohol, the other one sits on a ledge outside asking people for money and or booze. I've seen this happen so often in the last year or so. It gets annoying. One other thing is that on the door at the local liquor stores, there's a big posting said "people under the age of 18 are allowed to enter the premises if accompanied by an adult." However, every single time the liquor store employee will give everyone the boot during the sale if anyone is underage.
When I was in jr. high and high school my cousins and I would always "hey mister" it and find random people to buy us booze. We all swore we would buy booze for any random kid who asked us when we turned 21 as a pay it forward type of a thing. I haven't and won't buy alcohol for any strangers but when a few of my friends were underage I would buy for them and only them. I buy for my younger brother if he asks but only if he drinks it around me. I don't want him wrapping his car around a tree or giving it to his dumb ass friends. It's not worth getting a ticket over being "the cool older brother".
FOCUS: What would you do if an underage kid asked you to buy him booze? Isn't the answer obvious? You take their money, go inside, use it to purchase your liquor, then when you go back out and they ask for their booze, you tell them you don't know what they're talking about. Tell them that buying for under-age people is a crime and you would never do that. What are they going to do, call the police? They have learned an important lesson - never trust a stranger with nothing to lose with your money - and you have free booze for the night.
My sister is 5 years younger than me and I'll buy her booze until she turns 21 this summer. My feeling is that I'd rather she ask me than some of her friend's douchebag older siblings who rob them of their money and would squeal like a piggy if any trouble came near them. I told my mother the same thing and she had no problem. She's in college, she will drink, she might as well get it from someone she trusts (and who graciously buys it for her without asking for money a lot because I'm a good brother). As for strangers, I've had a few ask at college and I turned them down. No sense getting in trouble because some idiot wants to down a sixer of Mike's Hard Lemonade.
I usually had a fake ID throughout high school, but on the occassions in between ID's I would should tap every now and again to get booze. So, last summer when a kid asked me to buy him a case of Natty as I walked into a 7-11, I agreed as a sort of nostalgic throw back to my younger days. And I was going in to get a case of Budweiser, so I didn't think it would look sketchy. Also, I knew this 7-11 well, and the loafs that worked there were not very observent and probably way too lazy to care one way or the other. Well, as I stood at the register buying the beer he crept up behind me and put the cash in my pocket. My side pants pocket. With his hand. In the middle of the transcation I jumped, turned and said loudly "Dude, what the fuck!?" There was also a line of about 4-5 people behind me. I'm not sure if I was more pissed at the fact that this kid put his hand in my pocket, or what should have been a safe and nonconfrontational favor for a stranger just possibly turned sketchy. Well, my intuition/experience with this 7-11 was correct - even if the cashier picked up on what was going on, she couldn't have cared less. Lesson learned. I won't be doing that again. Ok - I just have to tell this story which is slightly off focus. Once in high school we asked a homeless guy to buy us beer for a couple bucks. My buddy Henry gave him the money, but when we came out of the store he didn't have what we asked for and refused to acknowledge that we ever gave him money in the first place. Henry punched him in the face, dropping him like a fly and knocking him out cold, then proceeded to run away. We hopped in our car and just sped off as we were in such shock at what just happened. Then we laughed hysterically.
We would go to the crappy sections of cities right when the stores opened and ask other alcoholics to buy for us. 5 bucks is good money if you are on the dole and need to drink everyday. We also picked up hitchikers a couple of times on roadtrips but it seemed way too risky for the reward. Working in the restaurant business always guaranteed there was someone around to buy us beer. In MA, it is the right of the cashier to refuse service at any time for any reason but one time we scored a moral victory over one of them. A friend for GA was purchasing a couple hundred dollars of booze and handed the cashier a GA lisc. The cashier asked for the lisc # and at that time it was something like 20 + numbers. The cashier wouldn't sell to us because she said the ID was fake so she called the cops. They came right down, looked at the ID, verified it and said it was ok to sell us the booze. The cashier then said that since we were rude she was going to refuse us service but by this time the owner was within earshot and approved the sale. There is no way I would buy booze for anyone at this point because any kid under 21 that I know would be a friend's kid or a relative.
I just bought a kid beer this afternoon. He's a junior or sophomore in my Statics class. He ended up shorting me (less than a dollar, but come on), I went out of my way to get him what he wanted, and not even a tip? He said he'd save one for me. . . Awesome, maybe he forgot that I can get what I want, when I want it, and his gesture holds no ground to me. Oh well, lesson learned I guess; I'll stick to people I know better from now on. The joys of being 23 and a sophomore. . .