Eight Cookeville Businesses Caught Selling Tobacco, Alcohol To Minors

Eight of 44 Cookeville businesses failed tobacco and alcohol compliance checks, a decrease from the most recent operation.

Power of Putnam Executive Director Bill Gibson said the Cookeville Police Department assisted by sending a minor to each store for an unlawful purchase.

“We felt like the compliance checks were very successful, because the vast majority of business that we check complied with the law,” Gibson said. “The clerks properly checked the I.D’s and denied the sale.”

Gibson said clerks that completed a transaction received a citation from police and have a chance to attend classes to enhance age verification skills. Gibson said the goal is to educate retail employees to help battle underage purchases.

“Sending a clerk to class is an attention getter,” Gibson said. “What we hope is that they will go back to work with some new skills like looking at fake I.D’s and a new appreciation for the importance of it. We hope after they go through the process that they are even better.”

Gibson said the compliance checks were conducted based on surveys of young students by Power of Putnam. Gibson said high school students indicate that retail establishments are used to obtain substances.

“We gather data from our eighth, tenth and twelfth graders, and the data tells us that underage drinking is something that we want to constantly be trying to reduce,” Gibson said.

The locations sited for failure are Super Gas on North Willow, Mapco Mart on North Willow, the Bread Box on West Jackson Street, Super Truck & Travel Plaza on Salem Road, Buck Mountain Market on Buck Mountain Road, Evolve Smokeshop on Jefferson Avenue, The Holistic Connection on South Willow and Saffire Vapor on South Willow.

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Gibson said Power of Putnam started the compliance checks in 2013. Gibson said each year at random, the organization and police department screen each business at least once.