ROBERT BLACKMORE: We asked the Queensland Government why – what was the general reason for not having access to this stuff in supermarkets – alcohol accessibility in convenience stores and supermarkets – and essentially it was harm minimisation. Harm minimisation is the reason. Because we saw it- the reason why it was interesting to us, we saw a major supermarket advertising an alcohol product, a product- an alcoholic sort of product. You’re right, in Queensland we don’t have access to that. So we just dug a little deeper and we found out that yeah, no, that is the case in Australia, in Queensland, we have different rule. So the Australasian Association of Convenience Stores CEO is here, Jeff Rogut. And Jeff, I assume you would like alcohol in convenience stores and supermarkets in Queensland would you? Good morning.
JEFF ROGUT: Good morning to you Rob. Well look certainly speaking from a convenience store point of view it is something we would like to see. There are a number of reasons for that. Firstly, let me say we’re not looking at having availability 24 hours a day. So if we were given the opportunity of being able to sell alcohol it would be done within the trading hours that other competitors can sell alcohol as well. So that’s one of the things I’d like to dispel straight away. But the reasons that we believe we should be selling alcohol are a number. Firstly, from a competition point of view as one of your callers or one of your correspondence said earlier, the supermarkets and people that do sell alcohol really almost have a monopoly on this and it does open up competition giving smaller retailers the opportunity to compete.
Secondly from a consumer point of view and we did some research back in 2016 – we’re just about to redo that and update it – from a convenience point of view consumers that bought alcohol said that – and it was around 60 per cent of people – said that they would use a convenience store to buy smaller purchases as and when they needed them. So there is a consumer angle to this as well.
ROBERT BLACKMORE: But you’re- I mean I think the issue here is also profit isn’t it, and revenue, that there is quite a significant income stream available to those that are selling alcohol. That’s a fair point too, isn’t it?
JEFF ROGUT: Yes, certainly there would be and obviously our stores run on a commercial basis. The majority of them are owned individually, they are small businesses and the market generally in convenience has its ups and downs. You’re right when you said that there are other legal products that we sell that are under pressure: things such as tobacco, things such as confectionery and snack foods [indistinct]. But the industry in recent years – certainly in the last 10 years – has moved significantly towards a food focus, a healthier food focus. And if you look at some of the brands, I won’t necessarily name them here – but if you look at some of the brands, what they’re selling, it sandwiches, it’s salads, it’s sushi in some cases. We’ve now become the second biggest destination for coffee. So our industry’s focus is about food and alcohol is a good adjunct to those sorts of categories.
ROBERT BLACKMORE: I just wonder what the international evidence is. I mean there are many countries around the world where alcohol is available wherever you want to have your money in your hand. I mean it’s in vending machines, it’s everywhere. I mean does the evidence suggests that access in that regard leads to increase consumption?
JEFF ROGUT: Look the evidence that we’ve seen and we do benchmark against other countries, we actually visit countries every year. We do an overseas [indistinct] tour, we just got back from China interestingly enough. I took a group of people to look at some of the developments there. Alcohol is freely available in smaller stores and even service stations that don’t sell a lot of food, they sell alcohol. In the US, Japan, Korea, Singapore, UK, Ireland, at all of those countries have alcohol available freely in convenience stores and you don’t see people rolling around drunk on the forecourt or outside of the stores. I think that’s a really important point.
ROBERT BLACKMORE: But this is a Queensland issue it would seem. In Australia, it’s a Queensland issue. We don’t have it in Queensland. We have it in other states. Let me redo it a little bit more from the statement we received from the Queensland Government: the measure appropriately limits the availability of takeaway alcohol and reduces the risk of underage drinking and other alcohol-related social problems. The Liquor Act restricts availability of alcohol to outlets where staff are trained specifically in the responsible service of alcohol. That’s interesting too Jeff, that staff would then have to have an eye on who was drunk when they were selling the stuff.
JEFF ROGUT: Absolutely and we don’t have a problem with that. It’s actually a national issue. No convenience stores that sell petrol actually sell alcohol but yet if you come to a state like Victoria you can go to the drive through bottle shop til one o’clock in the morning, not get out of your car and you can buy alcohol. Our operators are really well-trained in terms of age information because we sell tobacco. The penalties for selling tobacco to under-age people is severe.
So we believe from the responsible retailer point of view, we’re actually in a very good position to do that. And certainly from a training point of view of staff we have absolutely no problem with that and we go further to say that if anybody abuses the privilege, if we were there by granted the ability to sell alcohol, we have no problem with them being punished or losing their licence. There is some really interesting research that I read only yesterday that came out of the US and convenience stores sell alcohol in all of the states, even in Pennsylvania where they didn’t recently were given the ability to sell it. And they’re saying that the younger generation – they’re now calling them – the people born between 1995 and 2007 – the sober generation because they are buying less alcohol and drinking less alcohol. So the fact that it’s available doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s going to encourage people to consume alcohol.
ROBERT BLACKMORE: Interesting. All right Jeff, good of you to put a few of those points across for us this morning, the Australasian Association of Convenience Store CEO Jeff Rogut this morning. And of course they’ve been looking at it for some time. I wonder what the appetite is in Queensland for change in this regard. And I can only imagine if it were brought up as a state political issue and suddenly some politician was talking about wanting to do it whether it would be a vote winner, whether people would switch on to that, whether anyone would really be too passionate about seeing it come in. What do you think? Any further views.
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