Store tobacco policies: a survey of store managers, California, 1996-1997

Objective-To identify store tobacco policies and retailer perception and be liefs that may nave contributed to changes in compliance with youth access laws in California. Design-In the winter of 1996-7, a cross sectional, follow up telephone surv ey was conducted of California store managers whose stores were anonymously surveyed for illegal tobacco sales in the summer of 1996 (that is, 1996 Yo uth Tobacco Purchase Survey YTPS). Setting-A simple random sample of stores from a List of California stores L ikely to sell tobacco, used in the 1996 YTPS. Participants-334 managers (77 %) of the 434 stores surveyed in 1996 responded to the survey After elimina ting stores that stopped selling tobacco or were under new management or ow nership, 320 responses of store managers were included in the analysis. The stores were analysed by type of ownership: chain, which included corporate managed (n = 61); franchise owned (n = 56); and independent (n = 203). Main outcome measures-Responses of store managers were linked with the 1996 YTPS outcomes. Manager responses were compared by chi(2) tests. Logistic r egression analyses were conducted to identify store factors associated with illegal tobacco sales. Results-A lower likelihood of illegal sales rate was associated with the ch ain stores when compared with the independent stores (odds ratio (OR) = 0.4 , 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.2 to 0.9). A lower likelihood of illegal t obacco sales was found in stores that implemented tobacco related activitie s in the previous year such as changing tobacco displays (OR = 0.5, 95% CI 0.2 to 0.9) or adding new warning signs (OR = 0.7, 95% CI 0.4 to 1.2). Stor e managers' beliefs that youth were sent to their stores to do compliance c hecks also resulted in a lower likelihood of illegal sales (OR = 0.7, 95% C I 0.4 to 1.1). Conclusions-Store tobacco youth access policies, and managers' beliefs abou t the extent of youth access enforcement in the community, are important in reducing illegal tobacco sales to miners.