Harry Goraya – Nisa Local, Northfleet

Harry Goraya has done a lot around responsible retailing and has even brought in some technology to help him.

“If there is a long queue in the shop, the staff will often be concentrating on serving the customers as quickly as possible and may forget about checking age-related products.

So we have introduced an automatic prompt. As soon as the product is scanned, it will come up on the till that they need to ask for ID if the person buying the product is of questionable age.”

Mr Pabari has also built up links with police community support officers who visit the store every couple of months and will explain to young people who are turned away by the store for not having ID, that it is a legal requirement for the staff to check.

“We would like fellow retailers to do something similar. It is a really good scheme and the officers have said they are pleased we are following procedures.”

Another thing the store has done is set its own self-imposed restriction on energy drinks.

“We put this in place as we sell an energy drink for 35p and we noticed that children aged around seven were coming into the shop and buying four or five. So now we say they can’t buy energy drinks unless they are 13 or over,” says Mr Goraya.