Macey's appeals to sell alcoholic beverages

SPANISH FORK — Macey's grocery store has appealed the six-month suspension of its right to sell alcoholic beverages after police caught two clerks selling to minors.

One of the clerks was reprimanded and demoted; the other was fired, city documents show. The revocation starts Oct. 1 and continues through March 31.

The store's attorney, David Davis, filed an appeal, which is scheduled to be heard by the City Council on Tuesday.

The store, 187 E. 1000 North, wasn't fined because it had taken steps to prevent such sales but could lose thousands of dollars in beer sales.

Clerks sold the beverages to underage "sting" buyers during police undercover operations on May 19 and July 28. The two teenage buyers work as undercover officers for the Utah County Health Department Division of Substance Abuse.

City documents show that the clerk who sold the beverage on May 19 had been trained when he was hired as a bagger, then received more training when he was promoted to checker. He also received Utah County training.

Macey's also had installed software in the cash registers to warn clerks if the buyer was underage by checking the birthdate. Surveillance videotapes revealed that the clerks followed protocol in making a visual examination of each purchaser and checking identification.

But in the May 19 incident the clerk transposed the birthdate on the identification from 1986 to 1968 and the buyer slipped through.

In the July 28 incident the software caught the buyer as underage, but the female clerk, who also had extensive training, put an older date into the register so the purchase could be completed. She was fired.

The meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. in City Hall, 40 S. Main.