Evaluation of Retailers' Behaviour Towards Certain Youth Access-to-Tobacco Restrictions - 2008

Key Results

This is the 13^th report on the measurement of retailer behaviour towards youth access to tobacco products. This survey, carried out on a regular basis since 1995, has provided a unique and continuous perspective on retailer behaviour as well as in-store advertising and promotion of tobacco products for Health Canada.

This survey provides a measure of retailer behaviour at the national level. A total of 5,598 retail stores were visited in this data collection. The national results reported in this document reflect the core 30 cities for which data have been collected since 2002 (prior to 2002 data were collected in 25 "core" cities).

Overview

• Nationally, in 2008, 85.9% of retailers refused to sell cigarettes to underage Canadians. Unchanged from 2007, 85.9% remains the highest recorded level since this survey began in 1995 and demonstrates continued vigilance by the majority of retailers in reducing youth access to tobacco.
• The percentage of retailers who asked for ID (84.1%) is also at the highest level since measuring retailer behaviour began and is similar to last year's result (83.2%).
• Compliance levels are similar to last year; cigarette sales are refused almost 100% of the time when ID was asked for by the retailers and less than 30% of the time when ID was not requested.
• Of the 5,598 retailers visited, 41.0% displayed "Operation ID" materials, compared to 39.2% last year and 55.2% in 2006.
• There is an increasing trend in national compliance rates for each of the four retailer trade categories from 1995 to 2008. Chain convenience stores and grocery stores both surpassed the 90% compliance level in 2008. These two types of retailers had less impact on the national average (85.9%) because there were less of them in the total sample.
• Slightly less than two-thirds (64.8%) of all outlets comply with mandatory tobacco sign provisions, a statistically significant decrease over last year's result of 67.1%.
• The declining trend in the distribution of point of sale (POS) signs in retail establishments since 2004 continues. Following the ban on the display of any tobacco products in all but 3 provinces, only 2.7% of retail outlets displayed POS signs in 2008 versus 32.0% last year, and 35.5% in 2006.
• For the first time, minors were asked to observe if other tobacco products, such as chewing tobacco, snuff, individual cigars, cigarillos, flavoured cigarettes, were sold. In 2008, seven out of ten provinces banned the display of any tobacco products, resulting in only 4.8% of retailers displaying these products.

Compliance by Minors' Age and Sex

• Sales were refused to 85.5% of 15 year olds, compared to 83.4% of 16 year olds and 87.4% of 17 year olds.
• Unlike previous years, when fewer retailers were willing to sell tobacco to younger teens (15 and 16 year olds) versus older teens (17 year olds), this year, the compliance rate is higher when the teen attempting to buy tobacco is 17 years old versus those teens who are 15 or 16 years old.
• A higher percentage of retailers refused cigarette sales to male teens (87.5%) who were attempting to buy cigarettes than female teens (84.3%).

Compliance by Clerks' Age and Sex

• The highest compliance rate was among the group of clerks who appeared older than 25 (but not senior), where 87.4% refused sale of cigarettes to the minor. When the clerk is approximately of the same age as the minor, the national compliance rate drops to 68.9%.
• A greater percentage of female clerks refused the sale of cigarettes to a minor compared to male clerks (88.2% versus 83.8). Compliance levels for refusal to sell and asking for ID have significantly increased over the previous year for female clerks only.

Compliance by Retailer Type

• Chain convenience stores obtained the highest compliance level at 91.9%, followed by grocery stores (90.9%), gas stores/kiosks (86.5%), and independent convenience stores (82.7%).
• National compliance with mandatory tobacco sign laws significantly declined for 3 out of the 4 retailer types. The highest compliance rate was among grocery stores at 71.2% (75.3% in 2007) followed by chain convenience stores, at 69.4% (75.4% in 2007), gas stores/kiosks at 66.3% (69.4% in 2007), and independent convenience stores (61.1% versus 61.6% in 2007)
• There was no statistically significant difference in compliance when retailers were near a school and/or mall (86.8%), or located elsewhere (85.4%).

Conclusions

• Econometric analysis shows that the increase in retailer compliance over time has contributed to the decrease in the prevalence of smoking among youth under the legal age to purchase cigarettes and a decrease in the percentage of youth accessing cigarettes in retail stores.
• The introduction of provincial legislation banning tobacco displays in retail establishments (including point-of-sale (POS) displays) has led to a significant decrease in observed POS promotion. In 2008, only 2.7% of retail outlets displayed POS signs compared to 32.0% in 2007.
• The continued success in retailers' compliance will assist towards attaining the FTCS goal (2007 to 2011) of reducing the prevalence of Canadian youth (15 to 17 year olds) who smoke from 15% to 9%.