You said ‘Barcode scanners are kinda universal, right?’ Which, to me, makes it sound like you think they all work the same. As was stated above, each store has them configured differently for whatever suits their needs. Not all will have the need to have an ID check and some stores that do sell items requiring an ID check may not have that programmed into their systems.
When I worked a graveyard shift at a convenience store, I had a bit of fun with this.
Two guys came in at a 11:45 on a dark winter night. It was cold, I had a cold, and I really wanted just to be asleep. The guys went to the coolers and picked out a six-pack, then wandered up and down the aisles for a few minutes before approaching the check-out counter. There were a couple other people in the store and these two kids made a point of letting the others buy their items first. Then when there was nobody left in the store they stepped forward and the one with the beer lifted it very slowly to the counter. I glanced at it, rang it up, and told him how much to pay.
“But…” he frowned at me, “but…aren’t you going to card me?”
I started to roll my eyes and saw the clock above the coolers. Then I realized what was happening. So, to make a show of it, reached out and I grabbed the buyer by the lapels of his shirt and growled, “Let me see your ID!”
He grinned, pulled his wallet out of his pocket, and slapped a drivers’ license on top of the beer with a grin. I dutifully looked down at the card and made a show of squinting at the birth date before saying, “Ah! Happy twenty-first birthday as of…now! And sorry about pulling out your chest hair.”
Both kids grinned, the buyer paid, and they left.
A few weeks later, a man in his mid-thirties came in with a woman who appeared to be his mother or grandmother. They walked straight to the counter and asked if we had any champagne. I apologized for the low quality and pointed to a rack near the beer coolers. They went to the rack, debated for a moment over the two poor choices (Brut and Cold Duck or some cheap stuff like that), and the woman came back with a bottle in her hands. As she put it on the counter I asked, “Ma’am, are you buying this, or is he?”
“I am.” she replied.
“Well then,” I told her apologetically while pointing to a sign by the door that said [COLOR=Red]I ID under 30, “I’m required to ask for your ID.”
“Are you crazy!?” the man bellowed.
“Ah, ah!” the woman waved a hand to silence him, and grinned as she dug into her purse. She handed me her drivers’ license and I looked at the date.
“Oh, sixty-one!” I smiled back at her while punching keys on the register, “I could have sworn the numbers were reversed.”
“Thank you!” She said as she handed me a ten for a bottle of sparkling wine that didn’t cost more than $8 and tax. Then she grabbed the bottle and waved while walking out with a huge grin on her face.
I tried to hand the change back to the man, but he looked at me with an* I feel like shit* blush on his face.
“Thank you.” he said while nodding and heading for the door.[/COLOR]
–G!
This sounds like a friend of mine. Not only does he regularly wander around without a wallet, but the only cash he carries is a money clip with five $100 bills. That’s someone determined to be a pain in the ass. Technology is helping a bit, as he’s a tech early adopter so that pay-with-phone thing reigns him in some.
You said before Obama was born.
In the UK,it can be.
And very nice it is too 
Video games didn’t have ratings until after I was 18, and they certainly weren’t enforced by stores until much later, but I’ve never been more frequently carded than when buying M rated games at Target. Apparently their register just won’t finish the transaction without the clerk running a drivers license through it, as I found out the first time this happened when the young lady waiting on me tried to push it through while I was digging out my wallet. She was very apologetic, and I understand it’s not the clerks fault, but it is amusing that I’ve been carded more times after 30 than before.
While I was working at Blockbuster, we clerks could have gotten into serious trouble for not carding for R-rated movies or M-rated games. I mean SERIOUS trouble, because the company would occasionally check our compliance via mystery shops.
Last time I got carded I just gave the guy the ‘nope’ face and ran my index finger along my grey beard. Was good enough for him.
It’s part of the new epidemic of kids huffing JB Weld to get high. The problems start when they forget which tube goes in which nostril and then it’s off to the hospital to get them unstuck.:eek:
Next it’ll be souping.
When they start scanning your ID at the point of sale to attach it to the products and the feds have access to that with the photo capture and thumb print, we might need to up the worry rating just a notch.
We are close to this in some cases already.
Love me some computers until I don’t.