COVINGTON, Ga. -- When an unusually high number of convenience stores were recently caught selling alcohol to underage customers during an undercover sting, the Newton County Sheriff's Office and the Georgia Association of Convenience Stores (GACS) joined forces to offer a retailer training program for licensed alcohol distributors in the county later in May, the Newton Citizen reports.

The class will instruct store owners and employees about selling alcohol responsibly, and also will review selling other age-restrictive items, such as tobacco products and lottery tickets.

“Frankly, these are the kinds of things you can't really emphasize enough,” GACS President Jim Tudor told the newspaper. “We just want to take a look, try to get our arms around exactly what happened, see if there are any common denominators and work with the sheriff's department to ensure that our compliance rates get back to the historical levels that they've been.”

A recent investigation found that about 21 of the 48 stores licensed to sell alcohol in Newton County had sold alcohol to underage consumers. According to Tudor, before alcohol licenses can be renewed, convenience store owners or their representative has to attend an annual training session.

GACS decided to offer an additional training session given the high number of businesses that had allegedly violated the law in Newton County. Any store may participate in the session.

“Whether you’re in Newton County or wherever you are, the reality is that I think all retailers recognize that the public takes the responsible sale of alcohol very seriously, and so it’s very, very important that we do everything we can to do it right,” Tudor told the newspaper.