No excuse to fail a test purchase

There is a problem with local retailers selling cigarettes to children in the UK and the law is framed so that the retailer has to verify the age of the person asking to purchase tobacco products. A rise in the age to 18 has helped reduce the problem but determined children still seem to be able to buy tobacco from some local shops.

Sussex retailer Steve Denham is convinced that the reason why so many retailers are still caught making sales by trading standards officers is because they have not implemented simple management processes to ensure their staff challenge potential purchasers who do not look 18.

Multiple retailers have introduced schemes like challenge 25, which perhaps tells us the low expectations they have of their staff. However, local retailers should be able to do better.

Keeping within the law, both its spirit and letter, should be part of your value system. And values are not tradable. Good local businessess need to have robust processes. Even those retailers who do have good processes should not be complacent. Test them frequently.

Comments

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Sticks and stones do hurt

My 17 year-old son returned from a rock festival this week wearing a wristband proudly declaring him 0ver 18. He explained how easy it had been to use someone else's ID to get the identification and said it was ironic that he had not needed to show the over 18 band when buying alcohol. Today, Scottish retailer Abdul Qadar is complaining that public authorities are asking people to lie about their age when making test purchases. What trading standards officers may be forgetting is that the fact that retailers invest in a business premises and trade consistently from it make their job much, much easier. The alternative, a world of markets and itinerant traders, will be far harder to police. Mr Qadar's sense of injustice is fair. Those retailers, like Mr Qadar, who value their investment will seek to trade legally and will not sell alcohol to people under the age of 18. Asking children to lie about their age to local traders is a slander on all retailers.

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