Sensible drinking

Under–age drinking

We are aiming to prevent young people from misusing alcohol by making it practically impossible for anyone under the age of 18 years to purchase it in our stores.

Our industry–leading ‘Challenge 25’ proof of age scheme has been rolled out to all of our stores across the UK, following a successful pilot in Scotland. We also test all of our stores to make sure they always ask for ID — with the results of these ‘mystery shopper visits’ published every month.

Our stores display signs making it clear that we reserve the right to prosecute anyone under 18 years who attempts to purchase alcohol, or anyone doing so on a young person’s behalf.

We are also working to promote an environment in which young people are not tempted to spend their time drinking alcohol: we’re investing £1 million in targeted youth projects to tackle alcohol–related problems amongst young people at a community level. Alongside this, we have removed certain drinks, such as high alcohol, fruit flavoured ‘shooters’, from our shelves.

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Alcohol test purchasing

The supermarket industry has led the way in tackling the issue of under age sales, through focussed training and by measuring its own performance using independent test purchases.

To ensure that no one under the age of 18 is able to buy alcohol in any of our stores, we have toughened up our ‘mystery shopper’ test purchase regime.

Every one of our stores is now independently tested each month to ensure they are always asking customers who look under the age of 25 for ID to prove they are over 18 when attempting to purchase alcohol.

Who does the testing?

The company that tests stores on our behalf is an independent organisation that specialises in test purchasing for a wide range of retailers, both supermarkets and smaller convenience stores. They also test pub chains and nightclubs.

In a recent study it found that a significant number of underage drinkers (78%) admitted they simply ask their parents for alcohol, with 83% saying they were confident their parents would say yes to their request.

When it comes to buying alcohol illegally the "likelihood of being served" is by far the most important factor for kids when considering which shops to target.

According to our test purchase company nine out of ten underage drinkers think convenience stores are currently the easiest place to get served alcohol – with 85% of those surveyed saying smaller stores offered them the best chance of being served. Only 3% said they thought they’d get away with it in a supermarket.

How the tests are conducted?

Each month a team of independent test purchasers visit every one of ASDA’s stores in the UK. Because of strict legal regulations surrounding the test purchasing of alcohol, we are only allowed to use ‘mystery shoppers’ that are over 18. However all of the test purchasers used are selected based on how young they look.

ASDA’s policy is to always ask for ID if you look younger than 25 to prove you are over 18, so each of the ‘mystery shoppers’ is testing whether they are asked for ID when attempting to buy alcohol. If they are asked for ID the store receives a pass. If they are not asked for ID the store receives a fail.

What do you do if a store fails?

A number of immediate actions need to be taken by a store if it fails a test purchase.

• The colleague responsible for selling alcohol without asking for ID must be taken off the checkouts and not allowed to return until re-training has taken place.
• All store colleagues must be informed that a test purchase exercise has been failed.
• The Challenge 25 scheme must then be re–briefed to all colleagues immediately.
• The store will then audit all of the training files to ensure all colleagues have received Challenge 25 training and that a signed record for each colleague’s training has been retained.

Should the audit highlight any colleagues that have not been trained or any colleagues that do not have a signed record on their files, they must be re-trained prior to working another shift.

The store must also ensure that sufficient numbers of Challenge 25 notices are clearly displayed along the Beer, Wine and Spirits aisle, and the correct signage is displayed at all checkouts.

Finally the store must ensure the Premises Licence is displayed at the customer service desk and all personal licence holders are fully aware of the licence conditions imposed on the store, and that the store is complying. The store will then be retested to ensure it is complying with the Challenge 25 scheme.

How do supermarkets perform compared with the rest of the industry?

On–trade e.g. pubs and clubs – 60% pass rate
Off–trade e.g. convenience stores and supermarkets – 67% pass rate

N.B. these pass rates are based on 1529 visits conducted between January and March 2008 by an independent test purchasing company.

Latest test results for ASDA (October 2008)

ASDA currently has a 76% pass rate.

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