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STAMP also believes that the regulations may discourage minors, especially younger adolescents, from attempting to purchase tobacco products by requiring them to verbally ask a store clerk or cashier for the exact brand and type of cigarettes or smokeless tobacco they want to purchase.

STAMP's conversations with local adult residents, local teens, community leaders, teachers, law enforcement officials, and others in the jurisdictions that have enacted the self-service/vendor-assisted regulations found the regulations:

1) help prevent underage tobacco use by reducing the supply of tobacco easily available to young people from retail stores;

2) enhance the effectiveness of school-based and community tobacco education prevention programs for youth designed to reduce young people's demand for tobacco products; and

3) increase young people's respect for the law and community values when they see local elected officials take substantive legislative action to reduce youth access to tobacco products.

In the jurisdictions that enacted the self-service/vendor-assisted regulations, STAMP's post-ordinance interviews of store owners and managers found:

1) reported decreases in shoplifting of packs of cigarette and containers of smokeless tobacco from point-of-sale and other public areas of retail stores;

2) no reported architectural remodeling or refitting of checkout counters or store aisles by retailers in order to comply with self-service/vendor-assisted regulations;

3) tobacco distributors and tobacco company sales representatives furnished behind-the-counter shelving and locking cases for tobacco products to retailers at no charge in order to assist retailers comply with self-service/vendor-assisted regulations;

4) no reported losses of sales revenue or profits for retailers from the sale of tobacco products to adults;

5) retailers removing self-service promotional displays, racks and kiosks of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco, many of which have youth-oriented themes and messages aimed at young people, a widely-used tobacco industry strategy to encourage underage purchases, pilferage and tobacco use by minors;

6) reported losses of tobacco industry-paid slotting fees to some retail merchants because of the removal of self-service promotional tobacco displays, racks and kiosks;

7) other retailers reported they did not loose tobacco industry-paid slotting fees if tobacco displays, racks or kiosks are relocated behind the counter or if they are replaced by locking cases;

8) no reported losses of other lucrative tobacco industry-paid advertising fees, promotional allowances or other financial incentives paid to retailers for advertising, promoting and marketing tobacco products in their stores [3];

9) replacement of self-service tobacco displays, racks and kiosks with self-service displays, racks and kiosks of non-tobacco products such as candy, gum and soft drinks for which the retailer receives slotting fees from the manufacturers of these products; and

10) some retailers reported compliance with the regulations cause their store clerks and cashiers to be inconvenienced because they have to obtain the tobacco products for each tobacco purchaser.

Prior to this assessment of the comprehensive youth access ordinances, STAMP also studied youth access to tobacco from self-service sales/ displays vs. vendor-assisted sales.

 

STAMP found that children and teens can purchase cigarettes and smokeless tobacco much easier through self-service sales/displays than through vendor-assisted sales.

 

In tobacco buying attempt surveys by 14 to 17 year olds conducted in twenty-one cities in a total of six California counties between 1990 and October 1993, 88% of the 842 attempted purchases from self-service sales/displays were successful, while only 33% of 387 attempted purchases from vendor-assisted sales were successful.