Sharon McKenna, award-winning convenience store manager at Spar Cullybackey, part of the Henderson Retail group in Northern Ireland, begins her monthly diary on convenience store challenges.
Spar store manager Sharon McKenna
It became illegal to sell tobacco products to anyone under the age of 18 in Northern Ireland on 1 September 2008.
Because of the major focus on retailers complying with the law and the increased pressure of local councils carrying out test purchases, this issue has been at the forefront of retailers’ minds.
I don’t know about you but, as I get older, I feel it is becoming increasingly difficult to tell a person’s age. I have a lot of faith in all my staff and trust them to be very efficient in their work, but how many convenience retailers are employing 16-year-olds who are only there for the money in their pocket at the end of the week? They may not be as diligent when it comes to underage sales.
With the fear of being “caught” in a test purchase scenario, how do we protect our staff and ourselves from prosecution?
Spar Cullybackey
As part of our due diligence, and in order to comply with legislation, our company has introduced a number of procedures to help keep both our staff and the company safe. By introducing the Challenge 21 policy, we are giving ourselves a three-year safety zone, where all staff must challenge anyone that they believe looks under the age of 21 for ID, before selling any tobacco products.
We have a till prompt set up to remind staff to ask the customer when an age-restricted product is scanned.
As part of company policy, every member of staff has to be trained in the new legislation, and in my store all 65 staff members were given one-to-one training and advised to ask every customer, even if they are 75 years old, if they were over 21. This has actually gone down quite well, especially with the older customers who feel quite flattered to be challenged.
As another protective measure, we have employed a company to visit all our stores to audit us on our compliance with the Challenge 21 policy.
Obviously, this is all at a cost, but when you’re looking at a £5,000 fine and/or six months in prison, what looks more feasible?
With current legislation, convenience retailing is getting harder and harder.
Apart from refusing to sell tobacco products altogether, what more can convenience retailers do to keep themselves on the right side of the law? Taking tobacco products out of our business is surely taking the convenience out of our business.
On a lighter note, I’m just off to the ‘Oscars’, The Retail Industry Awards, watch this space to see how we get on…
Sharon McKenna