Parents can’t stop legal sales

To the editor

   I presently work at a local convenience store and parents constantly come in and yell at the cashiers for selling controversial merchandise.
   Overprotective parents cannot control how or who we sell these products to. I am tired of parents coming up to me complaining about what we sold to their children.
   Many of the products in many stores are not age restricted and can legally be sold to anyone.
   For example, one night a group of girls, that looked as though they were juniors in high school, came in and bought a box of condoms. I didn’t question them as to why they were buying them, but merely sold what they wished to purchase.
   The very next night, an angry woman entered the store and asked me who sold their daughter condoms last night. I told her that I rang up the sale and she began to yell about how a girl that young shouldn’t be allowed to buy pregnancy protection.
   I told her that it is perfectly legal for her daughter to purchase them and it was very responsible of her to do so. Very aggravated, the mother stormed out of the store.
   The same thing happens with the magazines we sell. Even though they are not pornographic magazines, they still contain risqué pictures. These particular parents asked why we sold these magazines to their 14-year-old son and the answer was that there is no age restriction law for them.
   This also pertains to lighters. There is no age limit on any lighters and it is legal for anyone to buy them. Even though I don’t see the reason why a middle schooler would need a lighter, it is not my place to question the purchase.
   These kinds of things are going to continue to happen, but I think that the parents should talk to their kids and ask why they are buying these things, not come to us and ask why we are selling them.

Frank Scerbo
Hillsborough High School