Kwik Shops Agree to New Tobacco Policies

Source from:  By Times Staff Thursday, October 25, 2007 10/26/2007

Ten Kwik Shops in the Quad-City area will take a tougher line against selling tobacco products to minors under an agreement with the Iowa Attorney General's Office and 42 other states and territories. The agreement was worked out with the Kroger Co., which operates nine Kwik Shops in Davenport and one in Eldridge, according to a news release issued by the Iowa Attorney General's Office. It has nine other Kwik Shops in Iowa. Kroger agreed to a variety of measures to avoid tobacco sales to minors at its stores. They include stronger employee training on store policies for avoiding sales to youths; unannounced internal compliance checks; and anonymous external performance checks by an independent entity to verify compliance. Cash registers that require clerks to enter information from a customer's photo identification for the sale of tobacco products to persons who appear to be under age 27 will also be required. Kroger is the nation's largest grocery chain with 2,468 supermarkets in 31 states. Kroger also has 779 convenience stores. The Kroger agreement is the 11th reached between major tobacco retailers and most of the states. Previous agreements cover all 7-Eleven, CVS, Wal-Mart, Walgreens and Rite Aid stores and all gas stations and convenience stores operating under the Conoco, Phillips 66, Exxon, 76, Mobil, BP, Amoco, ARCO and Chevron brand names. Enditem