No questions asked as our 17-year-old strolls in and stocks up...
IN jeans and trainers, our schoolgirl investigator looked her age – yet 17-year-old Emma was able to stroll into shops and buy e-cigarettes with ease. The new law requires retailers to enforce strict age verification policies, yet only one of the 14 stores we visited asked to see her ID. Under the supervision of The Scottish Mail on Sunday, Emma visited supermarkets, high street chemists and specialist ‘vaping’ stores last week. Within a few hours she had amassed a haul of potent nicotine liquids in sweet-shop flavours such as ice cream, cotton candy and fruit ‘pastelle’, along with rechargeable vapour pipes.
Each of the supermarkets she entered displayed large ‘Challenge 25’ and ‘No ID, No Sale’ notices behind the tills, where the nicotine vapour products (NVPs) are stocked alongside tobacco products (although the latter must be hidden from view in plain packaging). Despite the signage, the staff didn’t bat an eyelid when Emma asked if she could have an ‘e-cigarette refill’, but many seemed unsure as to what it was.
The young man who served her at the Tesco Express store on Glasgow’s Argyle Street joked: ‘You will need to point to the right one as I don’t know anything about them.’
Emma chose a 10ml bottle of ‘Cirro’ liquid with 18mg of nicotine – the second highest strength available, meant for ‘heavy’ smokers.
At the Sainsbury’s local store, also on Argyle Street, Emma noticed an age verification request flash up on the till, but the male employee clicked the approval button. She was able to buy further high-strength eliquids at the Co-op store and Marks & Spencer Connect store on Pollokshaws Road in the Shawlands area of Glasgow as well as Asda Toryglen and Morrisons at Crossmyloof.
At the large Boots and Superdrug stores on Glasgow’s Sauchiehall Street and Argyle Street, Emma was advised to look in the ‘health aisle’ before staff realised the NVPs were behind the till.
Staff at Vape Monkey tried to tempt Emma to try their ‘tastiest’ flavours and gave her a loyalty card, while Vaporised offered her multi-buy deals.
She was persuaded to purchase a vape pen and four 18mg liquids at Star Gazor. Only Smoke Max in Union Street refused to sell without ID.