Marandino Foods

Ok so they are not a big chain store they are great for getting what you need close by. They give back to the community and let girl scouts sell cookies inside where its warm. The people are great

I'm a Machinist's Mate 2nd class in the US Navy about to finish out my 6-year contract with an honorable discharge, on terminal leave in CT. I went into Marandino's today to buy a 12-pack and some food for a get together I'm planning to have for myself and a couple of friends. The clerk asked to see my identification, which is perfectly reasonable since apparently they ran into trouble with false ID's recently, and were shut down for a period because of it. What I found to be perfectly UNreasonable was the fact that on the hierarchy of personal identification, a US active duty military ID is less than worthless. They asked if I had a driver's license instead, and I said of course, but I looked nothing like the picture because - shock - I joined the military to spend my golden years serving my country. And have since had a radical change in my hairdo. I showed it to them anyway, and they brought their manager out to get his opinion. He said they couldn't accept it as a valid form of ID, but that they also couldn't accept my military ID (Which has my birthday, social, updated photo, AND says I'm protected under the Geneva Convention.), but the only reason for that which they gave me was "We usually use driver's licenses." I understand that in the Avon/Simsbury/Canton area of Connecticut, there isn't much of a military presence. But it's absolutely ludicrous that an active duty military identification could be considered lower on the food chain than a piece of laminated plastic that allows me to drive a car. They wouldn't even look at it. And whenever I tried to explain this to them, they just said over and over, like I was a learning-disabled child, that I didn't look like my 7 year old driver's license (Which is NOT expired), and that my signature looked nothing like it did 7 years ago. Another side effect of military service. Marandino's has henceforth lost my business, and hopefully anyone else in the area who has a shred of respect for the men and women who sacrifice their youth putting their lives on the line for their country. I haven't felt so insulted in a long, long time.