RETURN TO INTRODUCTION TO BEST PRACTICES

Supervision/Compliance

Continuously supervise and offer positive recognition.

Management should make preventing underage tobacco sales a priority and consistently reinforce this issue at periodic meetings and in training sessions. If tobacco laws are mentioned only when an employee is hired, clerks may mistakenly believe it’s not an important issue to the store. Continuous follow-up training and discussion about preventing underage tobacco sales not only reinforces the proper behaviors but also sends a strong message to the staff that this is a serious subject.

Offer rewards and positive reinforcement when an underage customer is denied tobacco products. Too often we only communicate with the clerk when they’ve failed to properly check ID. If video cameras are available, use them to monitor employee performance. If the staff knows their performance is being watched, they will be more likely to take the necessary steps to always perform their job properly.

Periodically check store compliance.
Take a proactive step to make sure your employees are following the law by developing an internal compliance check program to test whether or not employees are asking for identification and properly calculating age. You can hire people to visit your store, or hire companies who will supply customers for you. Often just notifying employees that the store will be checking compliance on a regular basis is a powerful deterrent against misconduct.

IMPORTANT: Remember if you create your own compliance check program, you may want to use young adults who look like underage customers.