A thing that happened:
Yesterday, I bought a bottle of two-buck Chuck at the Brookline Trader Joe’s in order to ease my troubled mind. When I came to the checkout, I pulled out my ID, expecting to be carded. The checker looked at it and scoffed slightly. I waved it around a little bit, shifting my weight from one foot to the other and generally doing the kind of dance people do when they’re in an awkward situation. I wondered if she had somehow forgotten, and how awkward it would be if I asked if she needed to see my ID.
Now, I’ve gone uncarded before, but mostly in bars and restaurants, where there’s that weird tacit “we’re making a high margin on this product so we don’t care how old you are” thing going on. I can’t imagine Trader Joe’s makes very high margins on a bottle of wine that costs $3.99. She had a supervisor right over her shoulder, too.
Finally, after she had scanned my items and I had to swipe my debit card, I just came out and asked if she needed to see it.
She looked me up and down. “No,” she said firmly.
I am twenty-one years old. Why is this happening already?
