Underage drinking is a tricky problem to tackle.
Between some companies blatantly advertising to minors and many underage drinkers stealing alcohol, it can feel out of our control. But when it comes to preventing underage alcohol sales, the responsibility falls squarely on liquor store owners and other retailers who sell alcohol.
Selling alcohol to minors is a misdemeanor, but penalties can escalate to felony charges (including jail time) on repeat offenses. Legal penalties aside, selling alcohol to minors can tarnish your business’ reputation and give you unneeded headaches.
Luckily, it’s not all bad news. The right combination of training and modern technology can help your store prevent underage alcohol sales and stay in compliance.
It goes without saying that selling alcohol to minors is bad for business, but how bad is the problem really? Let’s look at some facts:
All that being said, underage drinking is actually down overall compared to prior decades. This is due to many factors, like the rising use of other drugs like marijuana, more concerns over health risks, along with better and state-specific compliance technology, to name a few.
But falling numbers don’t mean liquor stores can afford to drop their guard. The rarer underage drinking becomes, the more a slip-up will stand out to law enforcement and your community.
What’s the best way to prevent underage alcohol sales? The most important step is to have consistent plans and policies. This way, your prevention tactics can scale as your business grows.
To get into specifics, here are five specific methods you can use today to eliminate underage sales.
Checking IDs is the most effective way to prevent underage sales, since teens may frequent shops that are lax. However, the most common way for underage drinkers to buy alcohol is through “shoulder tapping” (a.k.a. getting someone of legal age to buy alcohol for them).
There are a few ways to prevent this from happening in your store, and one of the most effective is to ID everyone at the checkout counter. Train your staff about what age to card and not to card (i.e. there’s no need to card small children) and clearly state your ID policies throughout your store.
Selling liquor online is a great way to connect with a wider range of customers and boost sales — but it also opens you up to more risk. Since online liquor sales are effectively anonymous, they can be abused by underage drinkers if they’re not set up correctly.
To get the benefits of online liquor sales without the risks, ensure your e-commerce platform asks for age verification on entering the site. If you offer in-store pickup, check the IDs of anyone picking up to make sure they match the name and age of the online order.
Last, if you deliver, ensure your deliveries require a signature and ID check.
While cameras and other security systems are usually thought of as a way to prevent theft, they can also help cut down underage sales.
Visible security cameras tell customers clearly that they’re being watched, which acts as a deterrent for theft and underage sales. Putting cameras at registers also adds a layer of accountability for staff, since any underage sales can be verified.
Remember: You can also use the employee access features on your point of sale (POS) system to see which employees made certain sales and at which register.
All the technology in the world won’t help if your staff isn’t trained on preventing underage sales and given consistent policies to follow. Well-trained employees are vital for keeping your liquor store safe and secure.
Here are some important training tips to follow:
There are also settings you can enable in your liquor store POS system, like automatically prompting cashiers to check for ID when age-restricted items are scanned to help employees stay on top of compliance.
The number one way to cut down on underage sales is to make ID checks easier. When employees are tasked with checking customers’ IDs manually every time, you risk them misreading birthdates, not spotting expired licenses, or not checking IDs at all when things are busy.
Integrated ID scanners drastically simplify the process of checking IDs, allowing cashiers to scan a license with a barcode scanner and verify it instantly.
ID scanners are easy to set up and only require a compatible POS system and a 2D barcode scanner. With a small or no investment, you can drastically reduce your risk and improve the checkout experience at the same time.
In addition to checking customer IDs, liquor stores, grocery stores, and any business that sells liquor must stay on top of ever-changing local and state regulations.
This can be a challenge, especially when you’re busy managing your store — but industry-specific technology like Bottle POS makes a huge difference.
Bottle POS was designed by liquor store owners to handle the specific challenges of running a liquor store, including staying up to date with the latest age-verification tools like ID scanners and integrating with security cameras.
Reducing your store’s risk of making an underage sale isn’t the only advantage of Bottle POS — it also comes loaded with liquor-specific features like automated ranking, automated invoicing, streamlined vendor management, customer loyalty, and more.
Talk with one of our experts today to see how Bottle POS can keep your store safe.
