On my way home from my job today I stopped into a convenient Loblaws to pick up a few items. Lo and behold, what did I see, but displays of genuine honest-to-God beer. Politicians have been threatening to make beer available in groceries stores as long as I can remember and finally they’ve done it. No wine or hard liquor though, oh no, no, no. And not in convenience stores, only selected grocery stores.

There was a decent selection of craft brews available, so I picked up a couple Boneshakers and a couple Headstock IPAs from Burlington.

I got my groceries together and found a cashier, but after a few minutes I realized that you could only go through certain cash lines if you had beer. Basically I noticed the new signs…

I trundled over to one of the beer lanes. It turns out that SMART Serve Certified means asking everyone for ID. Can I see a piece of government issued picture ID please? Of course I started laughing. I just turned 55. I must be 20 years older than you, I said to the woman at the cash. This was met by the stare of death. Er…30…I must be 30 years older than you. That was a better guess, apparently, and drew a smile. I have to ask everybody, she told me.