I have a valid U.S. passport which is the only ID I have right now that shows my birthdate. I tried to use my passport to buy some alcohol from Safeway, and they told me that passports are now no longer acceptable forms of ID. How is it possible that I can use my passport as proper ID to exit the U.S. and enter another country, but I can’t use it as a form of ID when buying alcohol from the local grocery store?
Thjat happened to a friend of mine back in the 70s who trued to but liquor in MA… The funny thing is that the date on her passport was wrong, it showed her as older by a year.
Bah sounds like a misunderstanding. Perhaps FOREIGN passports could not be accepted but it would be ridiculous for a retailer to not accept widely available federally issued IDs such as passports, military IDs and greencards.
In a related situation, a bar I visited tried to kick me out for an expired license last August (which showed I was over 21 btw), and then I showed them my FOID card (Firearms owner ID for those unfamiliar) that was issued by the state that had not expired. Initially, they wanted to call the police on me because of my license (which made no sense, I wasn’t driving). It was a big deal for them… they couldn’t comprehend that I had a valid STATE issued ID that proved I was over 21. They ended up calling the owners at home to allow me permission to stay. I don’t visit that bar anymore.
ID laws are goofy. Reminds be of the two dollar bill and Best Buy. When people see things they don’t recognize, they flop.
Might be a store policy. I work in a restaurant/bar and my manager did tell us once “If they’re in the states, why would they be using a US passport?” but he left it at that and never explicitly said not to accept passports as ID. I have seen people use both US and foreign passports when buying alcohol and accepted them as long as I could read the birthdate. Hopefully I haven’t been breaking the law. 
Could it just be store policy (as others have said)?
It seems reasonable that anyone allowed to ring out alcohol at Safeway has seen a valid drivers’ license from your state. In my county, at least, you have to be 18 to ring up alcohol at a store and most 18-year-olds have a license. When I worked at a store we did not get any lessons on “this is what a valid drivers license looks like” - I guess they expected us to know.
But I have never, ever seen a passport in person (I’m 27). Heck, I’ve never even seen one on film or online. If I was working at a store there is no way I would be able to know if you were showing me a real passport or something you just printed on your computer.
Seems to me that it would take a lot more time and effort for a store to ensure that employees could verify the validity of a passport than it would to just not accept them.
So, if a foreigner is asked for ID, their foreign driver’s license is better than their passport?
I had a major problem with this in Indiana in the early 1990s: at that time British driver’s licences didn’t have photo ID on them, or date of birth. And the bouncers on the door of the bars had no idea what they were looking at. Most of them just took my word for it. IIRC, one of them asked for photo ID so I gave my passport and that was acceptable.
Probably for the same reason I did when I got back from Germany back in 19something. I had two forms of picture ID. One was my military ID and the other was my passport.
I’ve bought two bottles of wine in the past six months, both times using my passport to prove my age. As others have said, perhaps Safeway has an overly zealous store policy on acceptable forms of ID. In my case it helped that I walked into the stores with a bike helmet, lending credibility to the claim that I have no driver’s licence and the U.S. passport is the only form of ID I could provide.
Back when I was living in NYC I got along fine with my Israeli driver’s licence (I’m a U.S citizen, but I never bothered to get local ID).
He must never have seen Breaking Away.
As for why one might use a passport instead of a state ID, I used my passport for ID a few weeks ago when my job made me take a piss test prior to offering me a permanent position. I had forgotten my wallet that day and had to take the test within 24 hours of the offer, so my choices were to drive round-trip an hour to get my wallet or use the passport that luckily was in my car.
The cashier was probably just being a jackass.
Probably just an over zealous manager. I’ve seen managers refuse to sell alcohol to people with out of state driver’s licenses. In Texas, they don’t issue new driver’s licenses or IDs at the DPS, you have to wait at least two weeks in the mail.
AFAIK, I’ve never seen a foreign passport rejected as it is often the only form of photo ID that foreign tourists have on them.
I went to a club in Boston a few years ago, and I expected to get a little confusion about the Quebec driver’s license I was using as ID. When I handed it to the bouncer, he turned around and picked up a folder and started flipping pages - the club had made handbooks for their bouncers, with color pictures of driver’s licenses and other acceptable ID’s from every state, province, and a bunch of foreign countries.
I was very impressed.
That’s been my experience too. They probably have photo IDs from their home country, but they wouldn’t necessarily be in English. On my Japanese driver’s license, even my birthday is in Japanese (roman numerals, but the year is in Japanese era, not western calendar year).
Dear ZipperJJ:
Here is a link for your edification:
This makes no sense. I am voting for the store doesn’t know its ass from a hole in the ground.
In the United States a passport trumps everything as a form of ID.
You can use a passport to get a driver’s license (6th bullet point), but you can’t use a driver’s license to get a passport
A place I used to work at came under new management and eventually, after I had left, went to a policy of no IDs other than a driver’s license for tobacco sales (no liquor sales at this gas station.) Anyway, the policy made no sense to the people actually running the register. Also, thanks to the station’s proximity to the air force base, a lot of customers would come in and use their military ID, often while still wearing BDUs. I don’t think anyone other than the owner actually enforced that policy and she’s never actually there anyway.