By Glenn Hicks

Store ends restricted hairspray sales policy

Dec 20, 2017 | 11:00 AM

Despite good intentions, a Prince Albert retailer has ended its local policy restricting the sale of alcohol-based products such as hairspray and mouthwash.

The move by Shoppers Drug Mart comes amidst accusations by some that the policy was racist, although that allegation is being denied. The policy of selling these products only if the purchaser bought other goods at the same time had been in place on the recommendations of the multi-stakeholder Hub and COR Community Mobilization Prince Albert group. The group is trying to tackle the social problem of denatured alcohol-based product ingestion, which can be very dangerous or even deadly.

Shoppers was one of the only retailers in P.A. still restricting the sales. A person with knowledge of the retailer’s decision, who spoke with paNOW on the condition of anonymity, said the move to end the restrictions followed a social media backlash from customers.

“A lot of people were very upset by the policy, feeling it wasn’t a retailer’s obligation to care about why or how the products sold were being used,” the insider said. “People felt that the policy was racially motivated, which it definitely was not, and went to social media to air their grievances.”

In one social media post, a Facebook user said they felt discriminated against because they were told they could not buy hairspray only and needed to purchase something else.

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The reaction to the in-store policy wasn’t all negative, claimed the anonymous source, who said some customers supported the move.

“After the policy was explained to them and why it was in place, they said it made sense and was a good policy, but it was getting so much negative press because of the way it was being portrayed by other people,” the source said.

A shopper contacted paNOW to relate what she saw.

Al Grigori is an indigenous social work student at the First Nations University. She identifies as Métis and said she witnessed an Indigenous person treated very abruptly at the Shoppers when they tried to buy hairspray.

“They were denied the purchase of the denatured alcohol without any option to buy something else [as per the store’s local policy],” she said. “They were just told by the clerk ‘no you can’t purchase that’ …with no explanation whatsoever.”

Grigori said later, people she knows who were “light skinned” had no problem buying the products.

She believes the recommendations to retailers by the community alcohol strategy is “100 per cent good-hearted” but doesn’t know what the answer to the problem should be, except to put pressure on corporations to stop putting toxins in products like hairspray.

Advocate disappointed by end to restrictions.

Sgt. Troy Dumont, police officer and executive director of Community Mobilization Prince Albert, said it was disappointing management chose to end its sales restriction policy.

Following on from the community alcohol strategy that promotes safe and responsible alcoholic beverage consumption, he said the group made recommendations to stores on how to combat abuse of so-called denatured alcohol toiletry products. Dumont said they recommended retailers keep the products behind the counter for sale by request, or require a minimum purchase of $30 to try to keep the products out of the wrong hands.

“[This was] not to discriminate or target specific people,” Dumont said. “It was to target the issue of the consumption of denatured alcohol, which is poisonous. We went to various retailers and said ‘hey, how can we help you with your sales of Listerine and hairspray? What can we do to better it?”

While Dumont expressed frustration at the end of the restrictions, he said strides have been made to help cut down on consumption of the products elsewhere. Some stores, he said, stopped selling the items altogether.

paNOW reached out to various retailers in the city to learn more. Some said they had no policy restricting hairspray and mouthwash sales, but others told us they had eliminated those items in light of the social and health problems associated with their ingestion.

“Maybe the city could implement a bylaw,” Dumont said. “Why do we sell a great big bottle? I mean, how much Listerine do you need, right? Yes, it’s challenging for us, but we’re just trying to work with the community to make that change.”

The person with knowledge of the Shoppers decision said the situation “will be monitored, revisited and tweaked in those specific sections of the store, while continuing the care for the community and being available for customers.”

Indigenous resident welcomes end to store policy.

Meanwhile 2016 Prince Albert Citizen of the Year Sheryl Kimbley with the Prince Albert Grand Council, is welcoming the decision by the retailer to end the restricted sales policy.

Speaking on behalf of her family and as a private citizen, she said it was not for retailers to make policy and decide who gets to buy products.

“Any skin colour could be going to buy that stuff and they might slip by, but the person with my colour of skin doesn’t,” she said.

She recalls a situation a number of years ago in the downtown when she witnessed an elderly, shaking, Indigenous man in the store line-up she was in. He was buying toiletries and had them in his basket along with a couple of bottles of mouthwash.

“The store clerk said to him ‘no put those back, we know what you’re going to do with those,’” Kimbley said. “I will be so angry if I continue to see that. Sometimes there are people with medical conditions who are shaking, or people who can’t speak for themselves who are used to being treated like that who are going to say ‘OK, I’m going to put it back.’”

Asked what could be done to address the issue of ingestion of denatured alcoholic products Kimbley said any policy would be a long process and there would need to be a way to effectively police it.

“But you also can’t have a breathalyzer for mouthwash at every check out. It’s a very tough situation and the decisions can not be made by retailers,” she said.

glenn.hicks@jpbg.ca

On Twitter:@princealbertnow

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