Safeway has started requiring a signature from Arizona customers buying alcohol.
When a clerk checks a customer's ID card, the customer also must swipe the ID card on the credit-card device and sign on the PIN pad.
Safeway public affairs director Cathy Kloos said stores previously logged signatures but new software makes the process electronic.
When customers sign, they agree they are of legal drinking age, she said.
However, there is no explanation on the screen.
The signatures at Safeway are kept in a database.
The signature step is somewhat unusual for retailers, and signatures aren't required by state law. But if there ever was an investigation, the store could prove its clerks were diligent about checking IDs, said Lee Hill, spokesperson for the Arizona Department of Liquor Licenses and Control.
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If the store doesn't have records, a judge could presume they didn't check ID, according to the state law.
Different retailers comply in different ways. Some have cameras that would show a picture of a clerk checking an ID card, others have a log book that they ask customers to sign.
Safeway has taken its log book electronic, and other retailers may, too, as their software is upgraded, said Tim McCabe, president of the Arizona Food Marketing Alliance, a group that represents grocers, convenience stores and other food retailers.
"It's a good, solid backup practice to prove you're doing the right thing," he said.
Kloos said the new software was installed in all Safeway stores in the state during the past year and Safeway hasn't received any customer feedback on the change.
Some customers are perturbed. Tucson resident Wesley Jones said he doesn't understand why a signature is needed, "so I've stopped shopping at Safeway."
Others don't mind the extra minute in the checkout line. Yolanda Herrera said she applauds Safeway for adding the signature step because it could help deter underage drinking and the use of fake IDs.
She is chair of the Pima County-Tucson Task Force to Reduce Underage Drinking.
"Anytime a company puts a policy in place to help the underage-drinking problem we have, I think that's a good idea," she said.
Contact reporter Becky Pallack at bpallack@azstarnet.com or 807-8012.