Responsible Retailing Forum

Responsible Retailing Forum Concept

August, 2005

Concept Paper:

Responsible Retailing Forum

Purpose
The RR Forum brings together public and private stakeholders—regulatory and enforcement agencies; attorneys general; public health agencies and advocates; retailers and their associations; distributors and producers; and researchers—in order to (1) identify and promulgate Best Practices to prevent underage sales of age-restricted products; and (2) examine the impacts of RR policies from the diverse perspectives of these different stakeholders.

Background:
The RR Forum has emerged from the work of state attorneys general who—under the authority of Consumer Protection statutes—have been engaging national retail chains in efforts to improve their age-verification and underage sales refusal for age-restricted products. Through a series of regional meetings in 1999 organized by Brandeis University’s Heller School with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, it became clear that retailers already had adopted policies to prohibit unlawful sales to minors, but these policies did not translate into appropriate and consistent store-level conduct. Then, in March 2000, Brandeis conducted a meeting for national stakeholders in Washington, D.C., hosted by the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention, to consider the feasibility—and desirability—of public-private cooperation in promoting effective RR policies and practices. Although the desire for further dialogue was strong, the potential for public-private cooperation was impeded by the lack of certainty as to what specific measures would be effective in reducing unlawful underage sales.

In response to this dilemma, the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (part of SAMHSA) commissioned a federal guidance document, Report on Best Practices for Responsible Retailing (“CSAP Report”), under the direction of Dr. Brad Krevor of the Heller School. The CSAP Report contained three principal innovations: (a) identification of the constituent parts of RR; (b) emphasis upon managerial systems to supervise, incentivize, and monitor clerk conduct, and (c) calls upon public agencies not only to enforce sales to minors laws, but also to assist retailers in identifying and implementing Responsible Retailing Best Practices—an “enforcement + assistance” model. The CSAP Report recognizes that the performance of store-level RR practices is affected by a community context and by state- and community-level laws, policies and resources.

The RR Forum was established in early 2003 as a way of continuing the discussions among national stakeholder who participated in the meetings with attorneys general and in the development of the CSAP Report. Through its field studies to operationalize, and evaluate, (see Field Studies) the recommendations of the CSAP Report, the RR Forum is now closely associated with this “enforcement + assistance” model. In June, 2006, RRF became a separate legal, non-profit corporation. In January, 2007, RRF received IRS approval for tax-exempt, 501(C)3 status.

Activities:

National Meeting: The RR Forum conducts a national meeting that brings together diverse public and private stake-holders to present academic research and state and community field projects identifying Best Practices for RR and to examine topical RR issues.
     - In the 1st RR Forum, approximately 45 representatives of alcohol producers, state attorneys generals, regulatory and enforcement agencies, national retail chains / associations, and researchers shared (somewhat warily!) their own perspectives on the problems of underage sales and use and their perceptions of other stakeholders’ roles and responsibilities for these problems and their potential remedies.
     - In the 2nd RR Forum (Las Vegas, NV February 2004), the participants had grown to almost 80, reflecting additional representation of the Federal Trade Commission, the public health community and prevention agents; and the dialogue grew more frank as participants started to listen more attentively and openly to one another and to recognize that organizations with very different perspectives and objectives could nevertheless cooperate to achieve the common goal of reducing underage sales.
     - In the 3rd RR Form (Santa Fe, NM March 2005), attendance grew to approximately 100 individuals representing 31 states and over 45,000 retail outlets (including Wal-Mart, ExxonMobil, Southland, British Petroleum, Walgreens), major brewers and distillers and national advocates.
     - The 2006 national meeting was held in Washington, D.C. (April 18-20), again with over 100 attendees representing 29 states, including a special pre-conference meeting for Washington-based stakeholders representing national associations and federal agencies. The 5th national conference was again held in Santa Fe, NM (April 8-9. 2007).

RR Policy Examination: The RR Forum conducts periodic examinations of aspects of public and private RR policy.
- In 2004-2005, a Policy Work Group presented an examination of three RR policy areas: “zero tolerance” policies (i.e. automatic termination for employees who sell to a minor); appropriate penalty structures for clerks and licensees; and incentive policies to encourage licensees to adopt and sustain aggressive RR policies. For the full report, click here.
- In 2006-2007, the Policy Work Group conducted an examination of implementation issues relating to the newly enacted STOP Act, which was discussed in a plenary session at the 2007 RRF national meeting and presented formally to SAMHSA in November, 2007. For the full report, click here.

Field Studies: the RRF has partnered with state regulatory / enforcement agencies and retail associations to operationalize the “enforcement + assistance” model. In Birmingham, AL, Des Moines, IA, Springfield, MO and Santa Fe, NM between September 2003 and May 2005, the RRF and its state partners pilot-tested a quality improvement tool to assist retailers to identify and implement Best Practices identified in the CSAP Report and a Mystery Shopper Reporting System to provide retailers with detailed feedback on actual store conduct as a quality assurance tool. In late 2005, RRF began a community roll-out of the new RR model, starting in Albuquerque, NM, with two additional study sites—Iowa City, IA and Waltham, MA—launched in 2006. A report of this community roll-out of what is now called the RR Systems Project shows the strong potential of this model for improving age-verification conduct. For the full report, click here.

Organization: RRF is a 501 (C) 3 non-profit corporation. The director of RRF is Brad Krevor, Ph.D, of the Heller Graduate School, the principal author of the CSAP Report. Research and evaluation is overseen be a Researcher Work Group consisting of scientists from Brandeis University, Boston University School of Public Health and the Prevention Research Center, PIRE. The Florida Center for Prevention Research maintains the RRF web site. The RRF Board of Directors establishes the conference agendas and RRF priorities.

Contact
Brad Krevor
Heller Graduate School
Brandeis University
781 736-4839
krevor@brandeis.edu

Schneider Institute for Health Policy

The Heller School
Mailstop 035
Waltham, Massachusetts 02454-9110

781-736-3900
781-736-3905 FAX
http://sihp.brandeis.edu

Florida Center for Prevention Research

Florida State University
2035 East Paul Dirac Drive
Herb Morgan Bldg. Room 133
Tallahassee, FL 32310-2770

850-644-3016
850-644-4701
http://fcpr.fsu.edu