Shop servers experience of alcohol-related issues and interventions in socially contrasting areas Neil Davidson1, Alasdair J. M. Forsyth1a & Anne Ellaway2 1. Institute for Society and Social Justice Research, Glasgow Caledonian University G4 0BA 2. MRC Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow a. Corresponding author [email protected] Contents Shop servers experience of alcohol-related issues and interventions in socially contrasting areas ...... 1 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 4 1.1 Alcohol issues and spatial disadvantage ................................................................................... 4 1.2 The growing influence of the off-trade ..................................................................................... 4 1.3 The off-trade server as local alcohol expert ............................................................................. 6 1.4 The current alcohol market and policy arena ........................................................................... 7 1.5 Aims and Objectives .................................................................................................................. 8 2. Methodology ............................................................................................................................... 9 2.1 Process used to identify shops .................................................................................................. 9 2.2 In-depth interviews ................................................................................................................. 10 2.3 Shop survey ............................................................................................................................. 13 3. Findings Part I: Community issues ............................................................................................ 18 3.1 Customer base ........................................................................................................................ 18 3.2 Alcohol-related sales ............................................................................................................... 19 3.3 Alcohol consumption in Scotland ........................................................................................... 19 3.4 Alcohol consumption in their neighbourhood ........................................................................ 21 3.5 Opinion of the neighbourhood in relation to issues ............................................................... 23 3.6 Relations with customers ........................................................................................................ 23 4. Findings Part II: internal issues related to alcohol sales ........................................................... 26 4.1 Drunk persons ......................................................................................................................... 26 4.2 Under-age persons .................................................................................................................. 28 4.3 Shoplifting, robbery and security technologies ...................................................................... 35 4.4 Modified selling practices: ‘red-flag’ products ....................................................................... 37 5. Findings Part III: external issues related to alcohol sales ......................................................... 39 5.1 Loitering and proxy-buying ..................................................................................................... 39 5.2 Informal security: Shop security networks and Informal enforcement .................................. 43 5.3 Police contact .......................................................................................................................... 44 5.4 Personal licence training ......................................................................................................... 45 5.5 The future: potential legislation and trends within the industry ........................................... 46 6. Findings Part IV: Quantitative survey ........................................................................................ 53 2 6.1 Community off-sales sample ................................................................................................... 53 6.2 Control group of unlicensed shops ......................................................................................... 68 7. Discussion .................................................................................................................................. 73 7.1 Summary ................................................................................................................................. 73 7.2 Implications ............................................................................................................................. 75 7.3 Conclusions ............................................................................................................................. 77 References ........................................................................................................................................ 79 Acknowledgments ................................................................................................................................ 82 APPENDIX 1: INFORMATION SHEET FOR INTERVIEWEES ................................................................... 2 APPENDIX 2: CONSENT FORM FOR INTERVIEWEES ............................................................................ 3 APPENDIX 3: INTERVIEW SCHEDULE FOR LICENSED AND UNLICENSED SHOP WORKERS .................. 4 APPENDIX 4: SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE .............................................................................................. 7 APPENDIX 5: INFORMATION SHEET FOR SURVEY ............................................................................. 10 3 1. Introduction 1.1 Alcohol issues and spatial disadvantage In recent decades, like the rest of the UK, Scotland has experienced a considerable rise in alcohol- related harms. For example, liver cirrhosis rates have risen sharply and are around double that of England (Leon & McCambridge, 2006). These problems are particularly concentrated in Glasgow, Scotland’s largest city (NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde, 2011) where alcohol-related issues are so pronounced that they have been described as “some of the highest alcohol related death rates in the UK and in the Western world”1. Glasgow contains 35 out of the 50 most deprived areas2 in Scotland (despite containing only around 600,000 of the country’s 5 million inhabitants). Alcohol- related problems have disproportionately affected those living in deprived areas of the city. In Glasgow, alcohol-attributable hospitalisations rates are twice the Scottish national average and, the most deprived neighbourhoods in the city experience rates four times the levels recorded in more affluent parts (Hanlon et al, 2006; Leyland et al, 2007). Many studies have examined these issues in other locations by looking for associations between alcohol availability (e.g. outlet density and alcohol-related problems). Increased density of alcohol outlets has been found to be associated with more instances of drunk driving (Jewell and Brown, 1995), pedestrian injury collisions (LaSacala et al, 2005), and violent assaults (Stevenson et al, 1999). Hay et al (2009) also found strong associations between proximity to nearest alcohol outlet and deprivation, with a greater access to outlets in more-deprived urban areas. However, in a review of the relevant literature, Livingston et al (2007) found that despite broad similarities in findings, the specifics of the relationships between outlet and alcohol-related violence vary from place to place and from study to study. One major gap in the literature identified by Livingston et al. was the underlying assumption that every alcohol outlet (within broad licence categories) is equivalent. Highlighting the importance of local context, a study conducted by this team (Ellaway et al, 2010) which looked at outlet density and deprivation in Glasgow, found that while some deprived areas in the city did have higher outlet density there were others that did not systematically follow this pattern (some of the most deprived neighbourhoods had the fewest outlets). How this non-linear inequity of outlet distribution affects retailers and consumers was unknown and suggested the need for further research, particularly with regards to alcohol purchasing patterns. 1.2 The growing influence of the off-trade In Scotland and across the UK, there has been a movement by consumers away from the on-trade (i.e. pubs and nightclubs) sector and towards the off-trade (i.e. off-licences, shops and 1 Dr Linda de Caestecker, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde’s Director of Public Health Medicine; http://www.theedinburghreporter.co.uk/tag/nicola-sturgeon-msp/ (accessed February 2012). 2 As indicated by the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation 2009 (SIMD) (See methodology section for description of the SIMD). 4 supermarkets) (CamRA, 2007; Holloway et al, 2008; Withrington, 2007). In Scotland this shift has been more prominent. The estimated litres per capita of pure alcohol sold in Scotland between 2005 and 2009 has remained stable, however there was a decrease of 15% in on-trade and a rise of 8% in off‐trade3, while in England and Wales