The Responsible Retailing Forum (“RRF”) seeks to develop a new intervention, Stop Service to Obviously- Impaired Patrons (“S-STOP”), to reduce the incidence and harm associated with overservice of alcohol.
Modeled after RRF’s effective program to reduce alcohol sales to minors using Mystery Shopper feedback on staff ID-checking conduct, SSTOP would (1) conduct “Pseudo-Intoxicated” Mystery Shop” (“P-I/MS”) inspections of serving establishments, employing actors who seek to purchase an alcohol beverage while showing obvious signs of intoxication, (2) provide licensees with confidential feedback on actual staff conduct and a video link to view the behavior of the P-I/MS that visited their establishments, (3) provide staff with brief online training in the recognition and skillful refusal of service to intoxicated patrons, and (4) provide communities with a measure of the prevalence of overservice.
The proposed study will:
- Determine the effectiveness of S-STOP in improving recognition and refusal to serve an obviously- impaired customer. To do this, we will implement S-STOP in 10 pairs of demographically matched college and university communities, employing a cross-over design. After a 3-month baseline, we will implement S- STOP in one community in each pair (Cohort 1), while the second community serves as a control (Cohort 2). After 6 months, we will end S-STOP in Cohort 1 communities but continue inspections to measure the effects of decay; and we will begin S-STOP in Cohort 2.
- Examine how licensees utilize the S-STOP program and the extent to which utilization moderates the effectiveness of the program. To do this, we will measure the number and percentage of managers who visit the S-STOP website and register their staff for training, measure the number of staff that complete the training, and conduct analyses to investigate the dose-response relationship between utilization of the S-STOP program and likelihood of overservice.
- Investigate why some owner/managers did not participate in S-STOP. To achieve this, we will interview 20 owner-managers who did not access the S-STOP website.
