Countdown gets suspended again

Stuff reports:

Another Countdown supermarket in Blenheim has been banned from selling booze, meaning all three Countdown supermarkets in town are alcohol-free. 

Countdown Springlands, on Middle Renwick Rd, cannot sell alcohol for five days, from May 20-25, after failing a controlled purchase operation in September last year.

Countdown Blenheim, on Arthur St, is serving a 42-day suspension after it was caught selling to minors for the fifth time in same police sting.

As I have said before, Countdown seems to have a real problem here. It is good the law is being enforced.

In the controlled purchase operation in September, two boys, aged 16 and 17, visited seven off-licence premises including Countdown Springlands and Countdown Blenheim. 

The boys gave identification showing their real age to checkout staff and still walked away with alcohol at three stores.

That’s even worse that not asking to see the ID – they saw it, and didn’t even look at the date of birth (or ignored it).

Countdown area manager Joanne McNaught said her team was very disappointed the stores failed the police sting.

“We apologise to our customers again for the inconvenience.”

All checkout staff at Countdown Springlands were re-trained after the sting.

The store hired more supervisors, stopped selling alcohol through self-checkout, and started asking people who looked under 30 for identification instead of people who looked under 25.

Useful steps but why do these breaches keep happening? Not rocket science to check ID.