They're For My Gramma

I remember when you could walk into a store with two bucks and change and a note from your gramma. The quickly scrawled note read something like this:

"Hi, Pam, This is Gladys Smith. Please let my granddaughter buy me a pack of Virginny Slims. They're for me. She got the money. Thanks, Gladys

PS. How's your mama doin'? Tell her I said hi."

Created with Canva
Created with Canva
loading...

Okay. Times have changed. Gramma lived in a tiny town and the clerk not only knew Gramma, but they knew her handwriting and our whole family.

K101 logo
Get our free mobile app

Times Have Changed

This would never fly nowadays. These days store policy is to card everyone for alcohol and cigarettes, and I think it's a good system.

The onus is no longer on someone to play guess the consumer's age.

Created with Canva
Created with Canva
loading...

That 22-and-a-half-year-old checkout clerk doesn't have to try to figure out if the person buying beer or wine is over 35. Guess too high and it's embarrassing. Guess wrong and you and the store could get a huge fine.

Showing ID for Seemingly Benign Items

Most people fish out their IDs before they're even asked for them when they're buying alcohol or cigarettes. What might have seemed crazy to our parents or great-grandparents has become part of life.

Created with Canva
Created with Canva
loading...

But now we're beginning to show ID for other products, even things that seem benign.

Items like spray paint are restricted to reduce graffiti or to prevent minors from abusing inhalants. In 2006, the Combat Methamphetamine Epidemic Act (CMEA) was passed requiring consumers to show a photo ID to buy Sudafed or any product containing pseudoephedrine.

I saw Breaking Bad. Just because I have bad sinuses, doesn't mean my crazy cousin Jack won't come up with some other "off-label" use for the product.

Will We Be Showing ID to Bake a Cake in Arizona?

The alcohol and tobacco restrictions made sense since they are intended to keep minors from making bad decisions. The paint and cold medicine restrictions seem to punish everyone. I'm pretty sure most of us have no ill intentions and just want to be able to breathe freely.

But is this going too far?

Will we soon have to show ID when we want to bake a cake?

Created with Canva
Created with Canva
loading...

There are already stores on the East Coast asking consumers to show ID when purchasing BAKING SODA!

So, It's Now Illegal to Buy Baking Soda Without ID?

Well, no. There is not yet any law on the books in Arizona requiring you to show ID in order to buy baking soda. Yet.

Created with Canva
Created with Canva
loading...

Some stores in the US are now asking shoppers to show ID because baking soda is used to produce certain illegal drugs, like crack cocaine.

Oh, and you can blame those crazy TikTok challenges for this, too. Certain viral videos have encouraged kids to partake in dangerous behaviors related to ingesting baking soda. The stores may be trying to get ahead of possible liability issues.

LOOK: Can you guess the world-famous actor from a childhood photo?

Stacker used Getty Images to compile photos of beloved actors from when they were children. How many can you guess from their childhood picture alone?

Gallery Credit: Stacker

LOOK: Controversial songs from the year you were born

Stacker celebrates history's most boundary-pushing—and thereby controversial—songs from 1930 through today.

Gallery Credit: Stacker

LOOK: See how much gasoline cost the year you started driving

To find out more about how has the price of gas changed throughout the years, Stacker ran the numbers on the cost of a gallon of gasoline for each of the last 84 years. Using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (released in April 2020), we analyzed the average price for a gallon of unleaded regular gasoline from 1976 to 2020 along with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for unleaded regular gasoline from 1937 to 1976, including the absolute and inflation-adjusted prices for each year.

Read on to explore the cost of gas over time and rediscover just how much a gallon was when you first started driving.

Gallery Credit: Sophia Crisafulli

More From K101