A major national grocery store chain that operates 19 convenience stores in Iowa has agreed to a series of tighter controls on the sale of tobacco. Bob Brammer, a spokesman for the Iowa Attorney General’s office, says Kroger has agreed to the plan for its Kwik Shops in Iowa.
Brammer says the company is going to take some "vigorous" action to keep company employees from selling tobacco to minors. The steps include training employees, internal and external checks to see if employees sell tobacco to minors.
Brammer says this is the 11th agreement with a company to do more to keep tobacco from kids. He says they have a ball rolling, with Wal-Mart, Walgreens, Phillipps 66 and Exon have all agreed to the procedures and policies to prevent selling tobacco to kids. Brammer says cutting kids off from their sources of tobacco makes a big impact.
Brammer says most adult smokers started when they were kids, eight-out-of-ten adults started smoking when they were kids. Brammer says kids can become addicted after smoking just once, and he says the convenience stores are often the source of their cigarettes. Most of the Kwik Shops are in eastern Iowa with nine in Davenport, one in Eldridge, four in Cedar Rapids, one in Hiawatha, one in Council Bluffs, one in Carter Lake, one in Ames, and one in Glenwood.