I think you’ve misread my post. In the California situation, I was a youth but could prove my identity with an Ontario driver’s licence. The twit at the cash register demanded a California driver’s licence. So I got the beer at another store just across the street.
On the other case, getting carded in your 70s, presenting my ID and getting on with my life is exactly what I did. I just thought that the bureaucratic requirements were pretty funny!
The grocery store I shop at started, awhile back, asking everybody their age as well, no matter what. Since my 21st birthday is 40 years in the rear view, I’d chuckle a bit at first as I got my license out. The cashiers have a good line at the ready for oldsters like me getting carded: “sorry, we’re required to ask anyone who looks like they could be under 40 for ID”. An apology / compliment combo! Inconvenience deflection judo.
The intent is to remove any possible personal bias or leeway from the clerk. If you give the clerk the ability to use their own discretion, the store can be exposed to risk.
I agree that an “expired driver’s license” is not an identity document. Why are you carrying one around? As for a store clerk not accepting a valid one, that sounds like a really counterproductive policy, but @pkbites may be right that the business does not have to sell anyone shit.
Scanning the ID to put you on the list of bad people who smoke and drink bad things seems like beyond the pale, though; despite @Sylvanz 's assurance, I have personally experienced businesses abusing my personal information, and I would just not buy anything there— definitely not going to try arguing with the cashier, who, as described, was probably trained and required to do certain things.
I don’t understand this. why doesn’t the parent just say that they are buying the item? And are you really that much of a stickler that you won’t sell to a person with a student ID when their parent is standing right next to them at the checkout?
There is no defense because it makes no logical sense. The expiration date means you can no longer drive legally, it does not mean that you stopped being you on that date.
That actually happened to me years ago. I flew to Phoenix to play golf in Mesa and, somehow, they missed the fact that my license had expired 8 days previously. Unfortunately, they caught it in Phoenix and were going to deny me entrance through security. I offered up the same common sense argument as you. They called their supervisor and, after hearing my explanation and, in a stunning act of rebellious common sense, allowed me to pass security.
I have had a clerk at a government office use their discretion in that a couple-of-days’-expired passport was valid as one of the forms of identification for… renewing a passport. That really saved me a lot of trouble.
I have not had the general experience of grocery-store cashiers acting fucking stupid. Quite the contrary, they seem to be quite canny and helpful, once pointing out an expired package I accidentally picked up, they seem to be competent at mental arithmetic, and they seem to not sell alcohol to under-aged teenagers. The few places where I have had a bad experience, I never, ever go back.
As discussed at length upthread, it makes practical sense.
Back when I was a young adult with no driver’s license, I used my U.S. passport as ID when buying beer. And at least half the time, the cashier would genially ask how long I was visiting the U.S. 
Up until just before the Pandemic my NJ driver’s license was basically reinforced paper with no photo. I don’t remember when they finally started adding photos and security features, but for most of my life in NJ I had a license that looked almost exactly like my vehicle registration card.
A lot of the time the people working concessions at sporting events are parents from a local youth sports team, marching, band, etc. who are doing it as a fundraiser (the venue donates some portion of the sales to their group). Their entire training is a 15 minute session saying don’t sell alcohol without checking an Id. and these are the buttons to press on the point of sale device.
My point is simply the venue has even less control over the intelligence or education of the people selling you beer than if they were simply hiring minimum wage workers. They get who they get.
Then the adult should buy it. Otherwise that sounds exactly like the type of trap that stores get in trouble for. “But officer, the parent was next to him, that’s why I sold alcohol to a minor” is not going to fly, and they will get fined. They’re a stickler about wanting to keep their job.
When I went away to college in another state, I took my (then newly-introduced) Virginia DL license (yes, redundant). The license was a small plastic bifold, with one face having a paper license heat-sealed behind a transparent panel and the other side having a removable embossed plastic card with basic driver information. The idea was that your friendly LEO could take out the embossed card and run it through a portable imprint machine when you got cited for whatever. There was no photo. To people who were used to a simple paper license, it was…surprising.
I got assorted responses to the license when presenting it to bartenders and for other purposes. Some of them thought I was a cop or some type of municipal inspector because it flipped open like it did. A couple times I flipped it out and the individual just waved me on without even looking at it.
Plus, it was hell to get it in a wallet. Wouldn’t fit anywhere easily.
In Florida, it was also an arrest and trip to the slammer and making bail for release. Plus firing.
The law needs to be amended: it’s not illegal to buy hooch underage, just illegal to sell to minors. No consequences for the illicit buyer (other than wasting your cash when the cop pours your booze out in the street). Don’t like that I carded you? TS, I’m not risking jail for you. The worst part is when your boss doesn’t back you up.
Strange. In NC, it’s a Class 1 misdemeanor to try to buy liquor with a fake/altered ID. The ABC stores take it very seriously. They will usually seize the ID and call local LE immediately.
OTOH, most ABC stores do not have a policy of checking every person’s ID. If you look old enough, they’re fine.
Finally, one of the things that surprised my wife when she moved to NC is that some counties will not let anyone aged 17 to 20 enter an ABC store. We were traveling with her 19 YO daughter and I warned them that I needed to check if it was OK for her to go in the store. The daughter wanted to buy my wife a special bottle for our anniversary using a CC, so it was sort of a big deal to them. They were used to “My mom is actually the one buying it, I’m just paying for it” that worked in their previous state of residence.
You know Florida’s weird, right? 
The law I don’t get: it’s not illegal to sell fireworks in the Sunshine State. It’s not illegal to buy fireworks in the nation’s wang. It’s illegal to set off fireworks in FL; the one unenforceable law. I guess you can just sit and admire your stash of BOOM. 
I might not call it an additional requirement - but there’s one state ( Arizona , I think) where licenses don’t expire until the 65 birthday. I’ve heard of people having difficulty because someone in NY doesn’t believe a license that expires in 40 years is real
There’s only one Federal law I know of regarding age discrimination.It only applies to employment and only protects those over 40. Some states have laws that protect all adults but most of them only apply to certain situations and have exceptions-for example, a discount for children’s and senior tickets is generally allowed as are 55+ communities.
Also , at some places (venues in particular) everyone’s ID is checked to avoid arguments when mine isn’t checked and the 22 year old behind me is asked for ID.
In a lot of situations, the store won’t even sell to an adult who is with someone underage. I never had a problem when it was an actual child with me- but the store clerk doesn’t know if the adult is actually the 15 year old’s parent or someone the kid found in the parking lot and offered $10 to buy the beer.
I’ve never had my expired ID taken away - how could it be when I have always renewed either by mail or online ?’
When I got my license renewed earlier this year, I had to do it in-person (as I was required to take a vision test). As part of the process, they punched a hole in my old DL, and took it away at the very end as I was about to leave the facility.
The DoD used to issue indefinite (no expiration date) IDs, but like all DoD IDs at the time they were basically just laminated card stock. Easy to fake, especially if you weren’t risking using it for DoD purposes. Because they never expired, everyone had to keep accepting them long after it was obvious they weren’t up to snuff from a counterfeiting perspective.
Another reason why making all IDs expire and become invalid is a good idea.
Something that is Actually Dumb: at my grocery store you have to show proof of age to buy non-alcoholic beer. Yes, non-alcoholic beer.
This is not a state law. I can only guess it’s a policy of the grocery store that avoids the need for staff to read the ABV off the label before challenging a sale. But this makes little sense to me because it’s all computerized now. The old “check ID” alert when scanning alcohol ought to suffice just fine.
I guess they have to preserve the option to check in case the scanner isn’t reporting right (because they’d still be breaking the law even if by accident), and the best way to preserve the option is to make it an official policy that everything that says “beer” needs a photo ID.