Rise in arrests of women drunks

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Title – Rise in arrests of women drunks
Source – www.bbc.co.uk
Date – 2nd May 2008

The demographics of alcohol consumption has certainly shifted in the last decade and licensed retailers have noticed this change and have catered for it by providing ‘female friendly’ premises and sourcing their product lines to better suit this potentially lucrative market. However they also have a responsibility to do so in a responsible manner and to provide the safety net many are still only comfortable in providing to their male customer base.

Just yesterday I had arranged to go out for a drink and a meal with three male friends to a bar / restaurant in central London. On arrival the Door Supervisor treated us with complete contempt, to the point where had I been on my own I would simply have walked away. But we had a reservation and on a Friday night in London sometimes you have to take a seat where you can get it.

We were viewed with suspicion, held literally at arm’s length and told in no uncertain terms to wait while he checked out our story; he turned his back on us and spoke into his radio mic. Now I felt like I was really unwelcome. The point is that the four of us hardly cut the classic image of violent trouble makers, after all my speciality is in the management and resolution of conflict, one of my friends is a serving policeman, the other works for the government in a capacity that means he keeps a low profile at a church fete and the other works in the city (Ok so one out of the four of us may be considered slightly higher risk…). Yet while we were being scrutinised several groups of women accompanied in some cases by male friends, were simply ushered through without a second glance….

Now this will not be a new story to most men, but it is exactly the sort of experience that undermines Door Supervisors. Poor customer service skills, prejudice relying on very outdated dynamic risk assessment and a complete failure to understand the society in which they work. There are undoubtedly situations where large groups of men going into a bar may present a higher risk, but the criteria for the assessment must go further then male / female.

The figures highlighted in this article demonstrate that not only must the threat assessment between male and female change, the industries capability to deal with aggressive or violent female customers must be recognised and addressed and it must take a much more responsible attitude towards retailing alcohol to this demographic. We can no longer assume that the consequences, for example, of promoting brands to female customers carries less risk then similar promotions towards male customers does.

The licensed retail sector evolves alongside our society generally and it is vitally important that those working within the sector maintain their awareness of these changes and evolve their systems to cope with, as well as to benefit from, this evolution.

At Beyond The Blue we offer our customers the portfolio of BIIAB licensing and security courses including the National Certificate for Personal Licence Holders (NCPLH) and the Award in Responsible Alcohol Retailing (ARAR). For those people seeking to obtain their Door Supervisor Licence we run the National Certificate for Door Supervisors (NCDS) course as well as providing employers with bespoke training specific to their premises with our In-House Security Induction Training (IHSI).
Please visit our website at www.btbl.co.uk