It was a Krogers on a Friday evening. All the checkout lanes were packed except for
one near the middle with a perky young girl at the register—perhaps 16-years
old—and an equally strapping young lad happily bagging on the end of the conveyor. I looked at my armful of goodies—some apples,
a newspaper, a card, and a six-pack of Black and Tan Ale. I knew what was coming next and sighed…oh
well, it was the shortest line, I guess I can wait..
To my great surprise, however, the young girl didn’t call
for assistance from an “older” co-worker and the young lad placed the bottled brew
in a plastic bag and handed it over to me.
Hmm…Something different here? In
the past when I purchased beer at the grocery and the checkout person was
underage, she/he had to call over someone older to slide it past the laser UPC
code reader. I recall being impossibly
frustrated that this employee wasn’t permitted to drag the beer six inches to the left. Indeed, they weren't allowed to even "touch" it. It was as if the beer contained a
radioactive isotopes or something…or maybe they didn’t trust an employee who
was so thirsty that, as I fumbled head turned through my wallet for my loyalty card, he/she
would swipe a few gulps from one of the bottles. I remember even offering to slide it past the
scanner for them; “Oh, no sir! That
would be against the rules,” they’d say. No, things had changed and maybe a healthy heaping of
common sense finally won out. In a
restaurant, Ohio
I rather lucked out in my own personal beer consuming past. Although Ohio
