Central Fife Times | News | Store tightens controls on alcohol sales

Friday, 5th September, 2008

Published: Wednesday, 2nd July, 2008 12:00

Store tightens controls on alcohol sales

By Jim Stark

Comments (0)

Print Article

TRADING rules for alcohol sales are being toughened up by Somerfield, who have a major store in Cowdenbeath, in a bid to combat attempts by underage youngsters to buy alcohol.

The new rules, which come into force at 00.01 on Wednesday 16th July, mean that anyone attempting to buy alcohol that appears to be under the age of 25 at the Raith Centre store, will have to prove they are over 18 before a sale can be made.

Previously, only those customers looking under 21 have been required to provide photographic identification. Somerfield will continue to sell alcohol to those over the age of 18 if suitable identification is provided.

John Cleland, Retail Director for Somerfield, explained, "Attempted purchases of alcohol by or for under age consumers is still a major issue for the retail sector.

"We all have a responsibility to continually review our policies and controls to remove the possibility of such transactions, and at the same time ensure that our store colleagues are able to minimise the chances of mis-selling alcohol products to those that are not legally entitled to buy them.

"The warm summer months are often more challenging and with this in mind, we have changed our policy for requiring proof of a customer's age from 21 years to anyone that is fortunate enough to look under 25 years old. This will become our new standard from the 16th July and is underpinned by full retraining of all our service colleagues, clear signage inside and outside stores and regular customer announcements in store."

Acceptable forms of identification include: UK Driving Licence, EU Passport and the Citizen Card. Anyone over the age of 18 can apply for a Citizen Card, via www.citizencard.com, regardless of nationality. Application forms for Citizen Cards are also widely available from Somerfield stores nationwide.

The changes to the trading rules surrounding alcohol will be widely publicised in store.

As well as enforcing the under 25 rule, Somerfield also trains its store colleagues every 12 weeks to ensure that they are up to date with the alcohol trading rules.

In addition the tills prompt store colleagues when alcohol products are scanned. Each Somerfield store also keeps a refusal register which records the details of those customers refused alcohol. Stores are also audited regularly to ensure that they are complying with Somerfield procedures.

Comments