Abstract
Aims: Test-purchasing (using volunteers to attempt an apparent under-age purchase) can be used as an enforcement intervention against retailers who sell alcohol to minors. This article will investigate whether community shopkeepers, familiar with alcohol test-purchasing protocols, are able to distinguish volunteers from genuine under-age customers. Methods: Thirty-six qualitative interviews were conducted with community shopkeepers, the retailers most often associated with under-age sales, working in convenience stores located in socially-contrasting areas of Glasgow, Scotland, 24 of which were licensed to sell alcohol. Findings: Interviewees provided details of the strategies they used to prevent under-age sales. Robust age-verification, set 7.5 above legal-age of purchase, was felt to be particularly effective. Although, they were apprehensive of test-purchases, experienced retailers reported that they always knew when one was taking place in their shop, because volunteers were not sourced locally and, in contrast to real under-age customers, they were honest and compliant. Conclusions: Although making retailers more aware of their responsibilities, increased familiarity with the protocols of test-purchasing can allow vendors to be certain who real under-age customers are, potentially making low-risk sales to minors possible. Test-purchasing protocols (e.g. volunteers ages) should be re-oriented to keep pace with more robust age-verification checks. © 2014 Informa UK Ltd.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 221-224 |
Number of pages | 4 |
Journal | Drugs Education Prevention and Policy |
Volume | 21 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2014 |
Keywords
- community shopkeepers
- Glasgow
- alcohol sale
- age verification