Tales From The Grocery: The Minor

A few years ago I got a second job as a cashier at a grocery store in order to pay off some bills. It was a miserable, humiliating and demoralizing experience in every measurable sense, and I got the hell out of there as soon as my bills were paid. I feel genuinely sorry for anyone who has to work in such a place.

Here is a terrifying Tale From The Grocery. Please note that all Tales are 100% true.

One day I saw the store’s undercover cop confront two male customers-- one older and one younger-- who were buying beer. He said he’d been watching them and saw that the younger of the two had paid the older one to buy beer for him. He didn’t arrest them, but he gave them a warning and told them to beat it.

One of the teen cashiers saw the commotion and asked me what was going on. I said the cop threw the guys out because the older one was buying beer for a minor. He looked shocked and said, “That’s illegal?”

Wow. Like so many of the things that happen at that store, I didn’t know how to respond to that.