Alcohol Over Regulation At It’s Worst

There is very little worse than being treated poorly and refusing to speak up for yourself.  You don't want to go home after an incident and stew in the "wish I said" type thinking all weekend.  I myself, made a scene over an asinine store policy yesterday and I'm glad I did.

It doesn't matter WHERE this happened.  It just shows you what happens when you put together over-regulation+store policy+employees who can't think for themselves.

I went to the store with two friends. I'm 51, grey headed and definitely look my age. I was with my 28 year old friend and his girlfriend.  We needed a bunch of drinks for our evening working at Nightmare On 19the Street.  We grabbed a bunch of Gatorade four packs, some sodas and some beer.  We got in the express line.  We then noticed that the next line was shorter so I grabbed up the Gatorade and my friends snagged the beer and soft drinks.  When the young girl started checking us out she said "I need to see some I.D." so I kind of giggled as us older people do when we get carded and said "here".  She then said "no, I need to see HIS I.D.".  I then put my hand on the beer and said "no, it's MY beer".  She then said, "well, he carried it up here so I have to see HIS I.D.?  I said, "Mam, this is my beer, I'm paying for it, it's MY beer".  At this point she calls the manager over.  She tells him about the situation and he says "it's store policy that I see everyone's I.D.s" (saying he wanted all three of us to produce an I.D.).  I then sent my two friends out of the store (no, they didn't have I.D.s and didn't need any. They weren't driving and they weren't buying anything).  I then put the beer on the floor and picked it back up and said "Now is it my beer?".  The manager starts keying some stuff into the computer and at this point I lost it, I said "This is HORSESH!T, I'm a 51 year old man and you're not going to sell me beer?".  The manager mumbled so more like maybe he was going to make an exception or something.  This is where my "voice of the people instincts kick in".  At this point, in my mind, I'm thinking, if I let these jerks walk over me like this, what will they do to someone who won't speak up?  So I just said "keep your sh!t" and walked out the store (only to notice that about 25 employees were watching in horror).

Now, as a mentioned before, this was probably a combination of things that led to this event. It doesn't matter.  Think about this.  The store policy is "the last person that touches the booze owns it".  That means that you can't carry a six pack up to the front for your mom unless you're ready to be carded.  It means that if you have a kid in your basket and he touches the wine bottle it belongs to the kid. And if I continue to follow this 'logic', when the checker touched my beer, she was a "minor in possession of alcohol".

Like I said, it doesn't matter where this happened. I'm happy enough that I spoke up for myself.  I also know I spend an average of $200 a week at the place, which is over ten grand a year that they'll never get back from me (trust me, I can hold a grudge a long time).

So what do you think?  Was I just being a butthole? Is the policy dumb? Was the manager or employee unable to make an in intelligent decision. Do you think this is the "spirit" of whatever law forced this situation?  I mean seriously, I'm old enough, I produced an I.D., beer is legal for a grown ass man.  I would love your input.