PILOT STUDY OF RACS PROGRAM SHOWS DRAMATIC IMPROVEMENT IN RETAILER COMPLIANCE

Greg Steinsiek — Thu, 10 Oct 2019 16:49:07 +0000

In August of this year, we implemented a series of new measures in the United States designed to build upon our efforts to combat youth access, appeal, and use of JUUL products and across the category. As part of that announcement, we launched JUUL Labs’ Retail Access Control Standards (RACS) program, a standards-based program tied to a retailer’s point-of-sale system which automatically locks when a JUUL product is scanned and remains locked until a retailer electronically scans a valid, of-age government-issued I.D. to verify both the age and I.D. validity. A RACS-compliant system also limits the amount of product that can be purchased in a single transaction, a policy designed to cut down on social sourcing and illegal third-party sales to underage users. JUUL Labs is the only vapor product company in the U.S. to require its retailers to maintain a mandatory bulk purchase policy which limits each transaction to one device and four refill kits.

Today, the company presented a poster at the 7th Annual Vermont Center on Behavior & Health Conference summarizing the results of a RACS pilot study conducted across a subset of regional convenience stores. The pilot study was designed to assess the system’s effectiveness in improving compliance rates and to monitor its implementation in a real-world setting. Participating retail outlets updated their point-of-sale systems to be RACS-compliant and trained store employees to follow RACS requirements for age verification and bulk-purchase limits. A third-party vendor conducted the pilot study.

From May to June 2019, a total of 3,990 compliance checks were conducted at 171 participating stores, 2,219 in the month prior to the implementation of RACS and 1,771 after implementation of RACS. An age-verification failure post-installation was defined as failure of the retailer to check a customer’s I.D., failure of the RACS system to require scanning of the I.D. prior to purchase, or failure of the RACS system to reject fake, expired, or otherwise invalid I.D.s. A bulk purchase failure post-installation was defined as failure of the scanning system to limit bulk purchases, or a retailer knowingly allowing an individual to complete two or more back-to-back transactions designed to evade the bulk purchase limits.

For both age-verification and bulk-purchasing audits, failure rates dropped drastically after implementing RACS.

For age-verification compliance, the overall failure rate fell from 36.8% for JUUL purchases before implementing RACS to 0.2% after implementation.
For bulk-purchase compliance, the overall failure rate fell from 29.3% for JUUL purchases before implementing RACS to 1.0% after implementation.
734 of 2,219 compliance checks resulted in an age-verification or bulk-purchase failure before implementation, while only 11 of 1,771 compliance checks resulted in an age-verification or bulk-purchase failure after implementation.
- The two age-verification failures were attributable to store clerks scanning their own I.D.s on behalf of the customer.
- Eight of the bulk-purchase failures were attributable to technical issues, including disabling of the feature, and the remaining failure was attributable to a store clerk allowing back-to-back transactions.

As previously announced, JUUL Labs’ leadership team, under the direction of newly-appointed CEO K.C. Crosthwaite, is overseeing a broad review of the company’s practices and policies to ensure alignment with its aim of responsible leadership within the industry. The preliminary evidence from this pilot study is compelling and demonstrates RACS can be an important component of a larger comprehensive youth-prevention framework that also incorporates marketing restrictions and additional controls.

RETAIL ACCESS CONTROL STANDARDS

Greg Steinsiek — Thu, 29 Aug 2019 11:58:50 +0000

Over the past several years, youth vaping in America has become a serious and urgent problem, and at JUUL Labs, we have no higher priority than combating youth use. As data has emerged about the scope of the youth vaping issue, we have taken a series of escalating steps. And today, we are implementing a series of new measures to combat the serious problem of youth access, appeal, and use of vapor products.

As JUUL Labs continues to lead the industry in youth prevention actions, we are partnering with retailers to implement RACS – the strictest age-verification system ever required for age-restricted products.”
Kevin Burns, CEO of JUUL Labs

The Industry’s Reaction To RACS

Retail Partners

ExtraMile

ExtraMile has roughly 892 convenience store locations in three states, including California, Oregon, and Washington.

ExtraMile Convenience Stores LLC is committed to the prevention of underage use and access to tobacco products. We look forward to working with JUUL Labs to explore the deployment of RACS at our franchisee locations and believe it will be an additional valuable resource combatting underage use and bulk purchases of age-restricted products.
Brian Mulcahy, Merchandising Manager, ExtraMile

Cumberland Farms

Cumberland Farms is a convenience store chain based in Westborough, Massachusetts and has almost 600 stores across eight states, employing over 6,000 people.

Cumberland Farms is fully committed to building upon our best in class age verification and compliance systems. We look forward to working with JUUL Labs to deploy RACS and believe this is another step in the right direction in using superior technology to restrict underage use and access of tobacco products.
Gwen Forman, Senior Vice President of Marketing at Cumberland Farms.

Kum & Go

Kum & Go is based out of West Des Moines, Iowa and operates roughly 400 convenience store locations across the Midwest, employing about 4,000 employees.

Kum & Go has and always will be committed to combating underage use of age verified products, and to the betterment of our customers’ lives and the communities we serve. Our values are aligned with JUUL’s and we are pleased to jointly develop methods, like RACS, to further these objectives in a more seamless, efficient, and effective manner.
Scott Keplinger, Vice President of Category Management for Kum & Go.

Trade Organizations:

Former President, Arab American Grocers’ Association:

Arab American Grocers’ Association is a local, San Francisco-based association of local community stores and grocers.

Local community stores and neighborhood businesses that sell vapor and other tobacco products must help prevent underage access. As former President of the Arab-American Grocers’ Association in San Francisco, I am pleased to work with JUUL Labs to adopt this new technology as part of our commitment to the community to prevent youth use of these products.

Conexxus:

Conexxus is a non-profit organization that defines industry standards for the convenience store and petroleum markets.

We support standards and technologically-based solutions that will restrict underage access, while providing a level playing field for responsible retailers. Collectively, we can work together to keep these products out of the hands of youth.

Point-of-Sale Providers

To increase ease of retailer certification, we have partnered with premier service providers to build and deploy technology integrations.

Shopkeep

ShopKeep is the point of sale system built by merchants for merchants. We were founded by a merchant, so we understand that simple, powerful solutions beat complicated, over-engineered options every time.

The ability to help independent businesses manage appropriate age and quantity based controls for certain products provides tremendous value to key segments of our customer base and the wider communities in which they operate. We are proud to partner with JUUL in providing their retailers with the robust tools and technology platform necessary to combat youth use of vapor products.
Mike DeSimone, Shopkeep CEO

Lightspeed

Lightspeed is a cloud-based commerce platform powering small and medium-sized businesses in approximately 100 countries around the world.

We support measures to restrict youth access to and use of age-restricted products, including vapor products. Lightspeed is proud to partner with JUUL Labs and retailers throughout the U.S to provide technology that will dramatically advance age verification as we know it.
Dax Dasilva, Founder and CEO of Lightspeed

FasTrax Solutions

FasTrax Solutions is a software development/application service provider, specializing in Retail Point-of-Sale/Inventory Control, Warehouse Management, Digital Marketing, and Customer Loyalty/Reward Solutions.

As a company with 10+ years of experience in point of sale technology, we understand the impact RACS will have for retailers selling restricted products. FasTrax Solutions is proud to team with JUUL labs and retailers across the US in supporting all measures to restrict youth access to age restricted products, including Vapor.
John Griffin, FasTrax VP Operations

NCR

NCR Corporation is a leading software- and services-led enterprise provider in the financial, retail, hospitality, small business and telecom and technology industries.

Verifone

Verifone is redefining convenience retail by enabling frictionless consumer experiences that go beyond just payments. Offering a unified customer experience, whether it’s self-service, at the pump, in store, via mobile or wherever your consumers take you, Verifone is leading the way to meaningful innovation and better customer journeys.

Gilbarco

Gilbarco Veeder-Root is the worldwide technology leader for retail and commercial fueling operations offering the broadest range of integrated solutions from the forecourt to the convenience store and head office.

Clover

Clover is an integrated point-of-sale platform that combines stylish and functional hardware, powerful business software, and payment processing to help merchants get paid and run their business better.

More information

If you are a retail partner, POS provider, or trade association, please visit www.racscompliance.org for more information.

RACS – Juul Labs