Some 20 years of effort by retailers, with the help of We Card, has led to a substantial decrease in the sale of tobacco products to underage consumers.

We Card is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. The national “We Card” program was launched in 1995 to help combat youth access to tobacco.

Twenty years ago, it was easy for underage consumers to buy tobacco at retail stores. Some reports indicated a 40-60% success rate for underage consumers. After years of efforts to prevent underage tobacco sales, that rate is now down to roughly 10%, according to the federal government’s 2013 Synar Report measuring illegal tobacco sales to minors.

Celebrating its 20th Anniversary this year, the We Card Program’s September-held, We Card Awareness Month, seeks to boost responsible retailing awareness along with the availability of 2016 We Card materials. From Labor Day to New Year’s Eve, retailers prepare for the coming year by ordering We Card in-store materials and lining up their employees for We Card’s online training courses.

To keep up with the times, We Card has launched many things in its 20th year, including:

•      A new Smartphone site – We Card NOW – wecardnow.com — providing retail management and employees with quick access to its resources, including an Age Calculator and digital version of its 365-page a day calendar that store cashiers use to “card” customers.
•     New resources to help merchants of electronic vapor products identify and deny minors’ attempts to purchase, such as:
•     New “Under 18, No E-Vapor: WE CARD” in-store signage
•     A new in-store Electronic Vapor kit of resources that is especially suited for “vape” stores who are new to the concept of handling age-restricted product sales.
•     An “E-Cig and Vapor Central” dedicated home on wecard.org where resources can be quickly found, ordered and used.

“We Card was a pioneering program in 1995 to help introduce the concept of responsible retailing on a massive scale and “carding” was a sometimes used term. Today, carding is commonplace and We Card is forging new resources for all age-restricted products, including those designed to prevent electronic vapor product sales to minors,” said Lyle Beckwith, senior vice president of government relations for the National Association of Convenience Stores and a We Card board member. NACS is a founding board member of We Card.

Preventing electronic vapor sales to minors is especially important since over the past few years nearly all states have quickly adjusted their state laws to include electronic cigarettes and vaping products within their tobacco or age-restricted product sales laws. At the federal level, the FDA has proposed “deeming” electronic vapor products under its authority, and “carding” and denying sales to minors would be added as another retailer requirement.

“We have many key stakeholders to thank for the tremendous 20-year track record We Card has in training and educating retailers,” said Doug Anderson, president of We Card, “and vital to our efforts is the important collaboration across retailers, state and national associations, manufacturers, state agencies and law enforcement.”

“NGA has been part of We Card since it launched in 1995, and it continues to be an important a resource for retailers who sell age-restricted products. For two decades We Card has been an essential resource for independent supermarket’s training and education needs,” said Peter Larkin, president and CEO of the National Grocers Association (NGA). NGA is a founding board member of We Card.

FDA has completed more than 478,000 retailer compliance checks since 2010 – with 133,000 completed in FFY 2015. FDA has issued official guidance for Tobacco Retailer Training Programs and We Card’s electronic learning training not only matches this federal curriculum but exceeds it with retail-focused emphasis on customer service, role-playing and interactive gaming.