Handling age restricted products can be a challenge in retail, especially small business retail. There are regulations to follow operationally. Structure is vital in proper management of this so that investigators can be shown that a business has the correct management processes in place.
Whether it is the management of age restricted products like firearms, tobacco products or other items, having a systematic, consistent, approach to the sale of age restricted items is good for business and for all who work in a business and could be bund by regulations connected with the age restricted products.
Having POS software that serves in this area is vital.
The Tower Systems POS software manages the sale of age restricted products. This features in our software for firearms dealers, newsagents, garden centres, producer businesses, toy shops and adult shops. In each of these specialty retail channels, the management of age restricted products is important.
Through the Tower POS software, retailers can have in place appropriate checks and balances to ensure correct management of age restricted products.
Use your POS software to force an age check on every purchase. This shows the business having zero tolerance for avoiding the age check. Regularly remind staff about this. Do these things and any violation the retail sales person deliberately violating business policy and defrauding the business in their use of the age check facilities in the POS software.
This step of enforcement alone could be what is necessary to demonstrate to regulators that the business manages age restriction seriously and structurally.
Get your age check processes right from the outset and you can layer the business with a level of protection that is vital. For sure, there is an operational delay in selling age restricted products, but this is minor when you consider the cost to the business of being caught breaking the law in this space.
Our advice to retailers is that they use the age restriction facilities in their POS software to ensure that they get it right, every time.
In our work, we deal with the issues of age restricted products in a range of retail channels including: newsagencies, firearms retail, produce stores and adult stores. In each case, there are different regulations and requirements to handle.
