I've worked 4 years of game retail (uk) and that shit happened all the time, not by me i hasten to add. Theres something about gaming culture that makes a lot of game store managers arrogant assholes. They take the ID requirement and treat it as if they're guarding a Zelda like treasure chest from pirates. They feel they can berate customers and laugh at their purchases ("you're buying THIS? uhhh sure ok") is seen as acceptable.
A lot of the staff are gamers and the managers tend to just be managers, the way the mentality works, the gamers are either not seen as management material or they move on to better careers after using this as a temporary job. Ive worked with and for managers who despised gamers, but they would take all the freebies and happily boast. They would go to the uk conferences, come back laden with free systems, games, promo copies, and instead of incentivising the staff with them, they'd laugh and say they kept them.
Going OT now but one of my best experiences was after working in a game store, was going back years later to see the same manager there, bitter but still arrogant as hell. They all have retail mentality too...theyre treated to accept head office bulletins as the word of god, and will berate any customer who dares challenge their passed down knowledge. Can you imagine any of that shit in a contract phone store? No chance, instant dismissal.