Responsible Retailer Profile

Berbiglia Wine & Spirits
Kansas City, Missouri

Berbiglia Wine & Spirits has had a long history of being a responsible retailer. All 100 salespeople in Berbiglia’s 14 stores sign a pledge to uphold the company’s proactive policy on preventing purchases by minors. The company motto on underage access is “ONE AND DONE,” meaning that if an employee is found to have broken the pledge, even once, they are automatically terminated. In addition to the automatic reminder on the cash register during every sale to “Please Check ID,” Berbiglia has a great program to collect false identification used by underage people attempting to buy. Berbiglia offers its clerks $50 for every fake ID collected and the IDs are sent to the City. If the IDs happen to be real, the parents are called.

“We set out many years ago to make sure that we had the reputation in our market place as the place “NOT” to go to buy alcohol.” --Berbiglia Chairman Jack Bondon

Berbiglia’s quest to be responsible has not been limited to internal operations alone, the company has also worked with The Century Council since 2000 promoting the Point of Sale Program and most recently the 65% Campaign. In light of this diligent effort to be proactive in reducing underage access, it is no wonder Chairman Bondon described the retailers as the “soldiers doing the fighting” in the war against underage drinking.

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