Building, Enhancing, and Expanding Partnerships of Community Coalitions and Alcohol Merchants

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Building, Enhancing, and Expanding Partnerships
of Community Coalitions and Alcohol Merchants

• Ronald D. Williams, Jr., PhD, CHES
• James Maginel, LCSW
• Southeast Missouri State University
• Southeast Regional Support Center
• Lori Meyer
• Director of Human Resources, Pajco, Inc.

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Underage Alcohol Use

• Related consequences
• Automobile crashes
• Homicide
• Suicide
• Sexual assaults
• Unprotected sex
• Etc.
• Is saying no the only strategy?

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Environmental Strategies

• Alcohol education, social norms, policy change,
  parental education/training, school-based
  prevention, limit access, etc.
• Limiting access to alcohol is an effective
  strategy to reduce underage alcohol use
• However, engaging alcohol merchants can be
  difficult

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Coalitions and Alcohol Merchants The Partnership

• Coalition success relies heavily on the active
  participation from a broad membership base
• Alcohol merchants have historically been
  reluctant to participate in coalitions
• Identifying common ground may result in more
  participation from merchants

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Current Role of Merchants

• First and foremost, it is a business.
• Alcohol law compliance can directly affect the
  bottom line, therefore merchants should be
  interested.
• Many merchants have a vested interest in
  community well-being.

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Common Ground

• How can we help each other?

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Merchant Benefits of Coalition Participation

• Increased community visibility regarding alcohol
  law compliance
• Partnering/sponsoring substance abuse prevention
  activities
• Active voice within the community addressing
  underage drinking

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Coalition Benefits from Merchant Participation

• Understand issue from perspective of merchant
• Merchants are first line of defense in limiting
  access
• Use of merchant knowledge on underage purchasing
  practices within specific community

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Getting Merchants Involved

• Whats in it for them? (Merchants)
• We cannot assume that they are even interested in
  helping reduce underage alcohol access.
• May feel that they are doing the best that they
  can.
• Whats in it for us? (Coalition)
• What can they bring to the table?
• What role will they play in the coalitions goals?

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Compliance Checks

• A legally controlled attempt to purchase alcohol
  by an minor or person resembling a minor
• Designed to limit underage access to alcohol by
  catching and penalizing the merchants who sell to
  minors

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From the Merchants Viewpoint

• Compliance Checks Financial Problems
• Consequences range from
• Citations
• Employee fines
• Store fines
• Termination of employee
• Loss of liquor license (temporary or permanent)

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From the Merchants Viewpoint

• Each time you print an article about one of our
  employees selling alcohol to minors, you send a
  rash of kids to my store.
• We are demonized when an employee makes a
  mistake, yet nothing ever happens to the kids who
  attempt to buy alcohol every weekend.
• --Business Owner Comments

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From the Merchants Viewpoint

• Compliance checks seem designed to harm the
  merchant
• This is evident by negative media coverage

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Media Coverage of Compliance Checks

• When was the last time you read about compliance
  checks that resulted in zero sales to minors?

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Southeast Missourian, 7/12/06, Cape Girardeau, MO
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The Journal Times, 5/13/05, Racine, WI
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(No Transcript)
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KGO-TV San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose, 8/19/06
http//abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?sectionlocalid
4477634
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Media Strategies

• Emphasize those merchants who do not sell to
  minors
• Rely on media representative on coalition
• Emphasize normative marketing through positive
  feedback

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Media Strategies

• How many refusals were seen during compliance
  checks?
• What outlet refused to sale to minors?
• What employees refused to sale?

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Media Strategies

• If merchants experience an increase in underage
  purchase attempts after negative press, then
  would they see a reduction after positive press?

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Using Coalition Evaluation to Benefit Merchants

• What can the coalition learn from merchants?
• Employees are a valuable resource
• Front-line preventionists
• Informed stakeholders
• Parents, grandparents, community members, etc.
• Data source

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From the Merchants Viewpoint

• We would prefer Cops in Shops or Badges in
  Business to compliance checks
• This strategy was used in the past through the
  Division of Alcohol and Tobacco Control
• The Divisions staff has since been cut, and they
  no longer have the resources to resume
• Research has not demonstrated that these
  interventions are as effective as compliance
  checks
• Discussion led to questions regarding underage
  attempts to purchase alcohol in local stores

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Using Coalition Evaluation to Benefit Merchants

• Campus Community Coalition for
• Change Cashier Survey 2007

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Campus Community Coalition for Change Cashier
Survey 2007

• Phase 1
• 23 item questionnaire designed to gather
  information from merchant employees about
• Underage alcohol purchase attempt practices
• Frequency of attempts and refusals
• Methods used to deny sales

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Campus Community Coalition for Change Cashier
Survey 2007

• Phase 2
• Four item qualitative questionnaire
• In-depth information gathered from employees who
  work the peak times for underage alcohol purchase
  attempts
• Effective strategies of refusal
• Minor strategies used during attempt

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Using the Survey to Benefit Merchants

• Pilot Test Summer 2007
• 218 respondents from one merchant chain (400
  total employees)
• Shifts Represented
• Morning 5am 10am
• Midday 10am 5pm
• Evening 5pm 9pm
• Night 9pm-12am
• Late night 12am-5am

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Campus Community Coalition for Change Cashier
Survey 2007 Pilot Test
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Campus Community Coalition for Change Cashier
Survey 2007 Pilot Test
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Using the Survey to Benefit Merchants

• 67.4 of respondents report at least one underage
  attempt to buy alcohol is made on one typical
  weekend shift.
• 26.6 report over three attempts are made on one
  typical shift.
• Employees who worked in retail stores that sell
  alcohol products for less than one year reported
  fewer underage alcohol purchase attempts.
• Employees under the age of 26 reported fewer
  underage alcohol purchase attempts.

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Using the Survey to Benefit Merchants

• Merchant management must see benefit
• Results used to generate positive press for
  businesses involved
• Results used in merchant education program

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Positive Press Coverage

• Press Releases
• High Middle School print
• College print
• Local community print
• Radio and television press
• Use this positive coverage to attract new
  merchants for coalition membership

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Fostering the Partnership

• Empowerment and capacity-building
• What do merchants think will work?
• Cops in Shops
• Respect 21

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Respect 21 Preventing Underage Access

• Goal
• To help retailers develop and enhance their
  existing retail practices to prevent the sale of
  alcohol to minors
• Developed through Brandeis University
  Responsible Retailing Forum
• Evaluated measureable outcomes

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Respect 21 Preventing Underage Access

• Bluff City Beer, Co. Miller Brewing Company
• Cape Girardeau, MO region
• 27 participants (17 convenience stores 10
  restaurants/bar)

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Respect 21 Preventing Underage Access

• Training and Educational Materials
• POS signage
• H.E.L.P. Guide
• Self-assessment tool
• TIPS Brochure
• Mystery shopper handout for employees

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Respect 21 Mystery Shopper

• Mystery shoppers are from an independent 3rd
  party group
• Legal age (21-23 years old)
• No external penalties for failed inspection by
  Mystery Shopper
• For failed compliance check, penalties range from
  fines to termination of employment
• Confidential results provided only to retailer
  and Brandeis University researchers
• Educational process

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Respect 21 Contact Information

• Miller Brewing
• Diane Wagner, Alcohol Responsibility Manager,
  dwagner_at_mbco.com
• Kathleen Neuwirth, Administrative Assistant,
  Neuwirth.kathleen_at_mbco.com
• Brandeis University
• Dr. Brad Krevor, Krevor_at_brandeis.edu

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Benefits to Community

• Merchant Success Coalition Success
• Reduce underage access to alcohol
• Increase community awareness of alcohol
  merchants role in prevention
• Build capacity of merchants to effectively train
  and educate employees on alcohol compliance
  issues
• Generate positive press for both merchants and
  coalition