7-Eleven Stores Implement New Age-Verification Program in California.

SACRAMENTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 8, 1997--Automated age-verification equipment is now installed in 1,169 California 7-Eleven stores to assist sales associates in verifying the age of customers purchasing age-restricted products.

The equipment, manufactured by VeriFone Incorporated, enables sales associates to swipe California driver's licenses and receive a message on a display telling them to allow or deny the sale.

A news conference announcing the new program will be held at 11 a.m., Tuesday, Dec. 9 at the 7-Eleven store at 5791 Broadway in Sacramento.

"This new VeriFone age-verification equipment is a practical new tool for helping our store personnel sell age-restricted products in a safe and legal manner," says Jerry Hook, 7-Eleven market manager in the San Francisco Bay area. "Our stores have a fast-paced environment with 1,000 to 1,500 customers in a typical day. This places a great deal of pressure on store personnel at the counter to accurately assess the age of customers from the birthdate on their photo ID. This new equipment will provide one more tool to assist our sales associates in making decisions related to the sale of age-restricted products, particularly in helping to prevent human error."

A special feature is that the equipment displays a message that tells the sales associate whether to make the sale, not simply the age of the customer. The equipment has three separate prompt buttons for the sales associate to press, depending on the item to be purchased: tobacco, alcohol or both. The read-out will then display the appropriate message based on the product to be purchased and the age of the customer such as, "OK To Purchase Alcohol," "OK To Purchase Tobacco" or "Denied -- Underage -- Do Not Sell Alcohol or Tobacco" or "Denied -- Invalid Card -- Do Not Sell Alcohol or Tobacco."

There is a feature on the equipment to allow the sales associate to input a date of birth manually when the customer does not have an ID with a magnetic strip, the strip has been deactivated or if the ID is from another state. These features help prevent errors by store personnel.

The six-inch by six-inch box is designed to be placed directly on the sales counter. It does not require a phone line. It is fast and does not create a delay for the sale to be completed. In addition to deterring the sale of restricted products to underage customers, the company hopes the new tool will diffuse the anger that is sometimes directed toward store employees when an illegal sale is denied.

"Threatening language and violence toward our store personnel are becoming more and more common when a sale is refused," says Hook. "We believe by telling the customer that the sale has been denied by the VeriFone equipment, we can reduce the tension in these situations."

The VeriFone equipment was developed specifically for 7-Eleven by VeriFone, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hewlett-Packard Company and the leading global provider of secure electronic payment solutions for financial institutions, merchants and consumers. VeriFone's electronic payment systems are used in more than 100 countries.

The age-verification equipment is the latest innovation at 7-Eleven to help ensure that only legal sales of age-restricted products are made at 7-Eleven's franchised and company-operated stores in California. The company has an extensive training program for store personnel called "Come of Age" that teaches appropriate methods for the safe and legal sale of age-restricted products. The program was updated in 1995 to reflect the increasingly sophisticated methods employed by underage customers to purchase restricted products, as well as techniques to be used by sales associates for diffusing potentially dangerous reactions from customers. The successful completion of the training program is required of all company-operated store personnel and new 7-Eleven franchisees. Franchisees are encouraged to use this training with their own store employees.

In addition, earlier this year, 7-Eleven provided its stores with a booklet that includes color photos of each state's driver's license plus tips on checking IDs. The booklets were produced and provided by Anheuser-Busch, Inc.

"The VeriFone equipment alone cannot guarantee that illegal sales will never be made," says Hook. "We still expect the store associates to practice all of the procedures taught in the Come of Age training, such as checking the photo ID to make sure it belongs to the person making the purchase and looking for obvious signs that the identification has been altered."

The California Department of Motor Vehicles (CADMV) began issuing driver licenses and identification (DL/ID) cards with the magnetic stripe in December 1990. In May 1994, CADMV, working with management from the retail grocery and alcoholic beverage associations and 7-Eleven management, modified the DL/ID cards to include color-coded bars for better age identification. The blue and red bars on the revised DL/ID cards provide information as to when the holder will be 18 and 21, respectively. The cards are designed specifically to make it easier for retailers to spot underage customers who want to purchase age-restricted products. In addition, the magnetic stripe makes the cards more difficult to counterfeit.

"Approximately 21 million Californians hold the magnetic stripe DL/ID cards," says Tony Walker, CADMV business planning advisor. "This represents about 92% of all DL/ID card holders. It is anticipated that complete conversion to the magnetic stripe DL/ID cards will occur by May 1999."

With approximately 17,000 convenience stores worldwide, operations of The Southland Corporation include more than 5,000 corporate and franchised 7-Eleven and other convenience stores in the United States and Canada. In addition, licensees and affiliates operate about 11,600 7-Eleven stores in the U.S., its territories and 18 other countries. 7-Eleven's home page is located at www.7-eleven.com .

CONTACT: 7-Eleven stores

Margaret Chabris

214/828-7345

or

VeriFone, Inc.

Robert Randelman

813/535-9200

[e-mail]