Customers resent store’s efforts to obey new law

Puzzlement and anger are meeting one Iqaluit store’s attempts to comply with the new Nunavut Tobacco Act.

For the past couple of weeks, the Northmart in Iqaluit has been asking for IDs from customers buying cigarettes.

Some haven’t been pleased about proving they’re over 19, or the risk of being refused permission to buy cigarettes.

“We want to let people know we’re compliant, and we also want people to know that it’s not those damn people down by the Northmart store who are doing this,” said store manager Glenn Cousins.

Cousins said his employees already know about the new regulations.

With the recent installation of a new point-of-sales cash system, the screen alerts the cashier every time a tobacco product is scanned.

“That prompts the employee to enter the birth date or make a certain judgement call,” Cousins said. “We’re saying if you’re not confident, if they don’t have identification, then you should decline them.”

So far, the effort to comply with the tobacco law hasn’t cost extra money because the new computer system was designed to record information from cigarette purchasers.

The long-term costs for compliance with the new law will be in the training and testing that Cousins knows the store will have to undertake.

He’d like to see the GN assist with making sure the smoking public over 19 has the identification they need to buy cigarettes.

“They should try to find a way to do an ID spree and set up a booth,” he suggested. “They could help people fill out all the forms and have their photo taken. Some have no driver’s license and they don’t travel.”

To keep on selling cigarettes and avoid fines is worth the effort, although Cousins didn’t want to reveal exactly the amount of sales that cigarettes account for at his store.

Cousins acknowledged that everywhere in the North, cigarette retail sales are “substantial.”