Reducing point of sale advertising – 8/30/05

Q: Has your state worked with convenience store owners and community programs to develop collaborative efforts that provide education and incentives to support retailers who would lose income if point of sale tobacco advertising was removed? Please share any strategies that have been implemented in your state to reduce point of sale tobacco advertising in convenience stores.

A:

1. Alabama: the Convenience Store Association serves on the Advisory Board that oversees implementation of the state youth access law. They promote the ABC Board's free Responsible Vendor program that provides training to vendors of tobacco products. The program provides tools to assist with age calculations and some signage, but no incentive items other than that. Alabama has one of the lowest noncompliance rates and has been cited by the national Synar folks as a model program, so we think it's working.
    
2. Connecticut: Students and staff at Trinity College, in collaboration with Create Change, both in Hartford, CT, offered training for middle and high school students around alcohol and tobacco advertising, including their version of an Operation Storefront initiative. Having collected their baseline data, the group is now embarking on an initiative to reduce retailer advertising for both alcohol and tobacco.
    
   Some of the students from the The Hispanic Health Council in Hartford, CT attended the above trainings, but when they took what they learned back to their community, they were concerned about the loss of revenue if retailers gave up their advertising incentives. So they chose to develop an initiative to recognize retailers who agree to change some advertising and product placements and/or reduce their tobacco and alcohol-related advertising and to enforce purchasing restrictions for these products (some of these shops are known for selling loosies as well as selling to minors). The idea is to publicly acknowledge these retailers for doing their part to support the health of the community. In return, members of the community will be encouraged to patronize these shops rather than those who do not agree to participate.
    
   Both retailer programs are just getting started, so the comparative success of these two different approaches is not yet known.
    
3. New Hampshire: No, as we do not have MSA funds.
    
4. Rhode Island: No.
    
5. West Virginia: No.

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