Circle K agrees to guard against selling tobacco to minors
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About 4,000 Circle K stores, including two in the Quad Cities area, will enhance efforts to eliminate underage tobacco sales as part of an agreement with nearly 40 attorneys general.
Circle K must adopt specific procedures designed to reduce sales and marketing of cigarettes and other tobacco products to minors at all of its corporate-owned and franchise stores.
The agreement follows multiple incidents involving Circle K retail workers allegedly selling tobacco products to minors. None of those incidents are cited in the agreement.
There are two Circle K stores in our area – one in Rock Island and one in East Moline, Illinois.
“To its credit, Circle K is joining the roster of companies that have committed to a leadership role, by ramping up safeguards against youth access to tobacco, in Iowa and nationwide," Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller said.
The agreement with Circle K includes training for personnel, independent compliance checks and advising franchise operators of serious consequences for selling tobacco to underage customers.
The agreement is called the Assurance of Voluntary Compliance. The agreement includes these terms:
- ID must be checked on all persons who appear to be under 30, to protect against mistakes by clerks in evaluating a person’s age by their appearance alone.
- In-store advertising of tobacco must be limited in ways intended to reduce the effect on young people, and outdoor advertising is to be eliminated at stores within 500 feet of playgrounds or schools.
- Employee training will focus on the mechanics of eliminating underage tobacco sales, and will also emphasize the serious health issues that give rise to the legal efforts to restrict youth access to tobacco.
- Circle K will test itself on the effectiveness of its own safeguards against underage sales by conducting “mystery shopper” compliance checks at 500 of its stores every six months.
- Circle K voluntarily agreed to pay the attorneys general a total of $225,000 to be used for such purposes as consumer education, public protection, or the implementation of programs protecting against tobacco use by minors.
“We commend Circle K for joining us in this ongoing effort to keep tobacco out of the hands of young people,” Miller said.
Previous multistate agreements have covered gas station convenience stores selling fuel under the Conoco, Phillips 66 or 76, Exxon, Mobil, BP Amoco, Shell, Valero, ARCO and Chevron brand names, and retail and pharmacy chains Kroger, 7-Eleven, Walgreens, Rite Aid, CVS, and Walmart.
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