Juvente: Mystery Shopping Report Shows Continuing Problems

Juvente Norway: New Mystery Shopping Report Shows Ongoing Problems

An investigation conducted by Juvente in Norway shows patchy compliance with legal age limits. The investigation found that one in three alcohol shops sell alcohol products to minors.

The numbers are from a new report released by Juvente, as part of the mystery shopping campaign to test compliance (“Sjenkekontroll”).

Between summer and December 2016, Juvente members conducted in total 711 mystery shopping attempts in 584 shops across 90 municipalities.

It’s the tenth year in a row that Juvente is compiling the mystery shopping report, where Juvente members conduct mystery shopping in municipalities across the country in both ordinary shops and the alcohol retail monopoly.

I dag har vi lansert rapporten fra Skjenkekontrollen 2016. Det gjorde vi med å ha en aksjon utenfor Stortinget, der vi blant annet møtte og overleverte rapporten til @knutarildhareide! 🙌 Takk til alle som var med! Rapporten finner du på skjenkekontrollen.no 📊

A post shared by Juvente (@juvente) on Jun 12, 2017 at 4:47am PDT

14-year old Sander Stenberg is one of the mystery shoppers who obtained alcohol easily. Sander was able to buy beer in two different shops in Oslo/ Akershus.

I don’t even look older than my age,” he says to the Norwegian daily VG.

During his mystery shopping attempts, he went to the check-out counter with two alcohol products and a bag of crisps. In one of the attempts he was asked for his ID-card but was anyway able to leave the shop with alcohol purchased.

I just told them that I had forgotten my ID. So the person at the check-out said ‘oh no, okay… that would be 98 crowns…,# says the 14-year old.

In the other shop, it was even easier. There, he was not even asked for his ID.

The numbers shows that it has not become more difficult for minors to buy alcohol over the years. In the course of the decade-long work Juvente has conducted, minors were able to purchase alcohol in 28% of the attempts. Juvente thinks this is of grave concern.

It shows again a weakness in the system that is supposed to control the compliance of the age limit in alcohol retail. The municipalities that are responsible for this task, cannot yet show that they take the task seriously,” says Juvente President Øyvind Kind Robertsen.

The only thing that can reduce the number of alcohol sales to minors is the so-called ID obligation.

Source Website: Sjenkekontrollen (Norwegian)