Plain-English definitions

Glossary

An A to Z reference for the vocabulary of age-restricted retail and compliance. Definitions are short, practical, and written for operators, compliance teams, and legal counsel. Start with the two terms people mix up most: a compliance check and a government sting are not the same thing.

BARS Checker

An independent, verified shopper who carries out a BARS compliance check. The Checker is of legal age, and that age is verified and recorded against every visit. A Checker never completes a purchase. They bring an age-restricted product to the register, the associate either asks for ID or does not, and the interaction ends there.

Company Carding Policy

The retailer's own written rule for which customers get asked for ID, and how. BARS compliance check procedures reinforce this policy rather than replace it. The standard being measured is the one the operator already wrote. Most policies set the trigger well above the legal age, commonly at any customer who appears under 35, so the associate is never guessing at the line.

Compliance check

A structured visit in which a Checker brings an age-restricted product to the register to see whether the associate asks for ID. No sale is completed and no money changes hands. The result is recorded and the associate is handed a Green Card or a Red Card on the spot. Regulators use the same phrase for their own enforcement visits, which do complete a sale and do carry penalties. See "FDA compliance check" and "Sting."

Decoy

The person a regulator sends into a store during a sting. A decoy is usually under the legal sales age, which is what turns a completed sale into a violation. This is the sharpest line between government enforcement and a BARS visit: a decoy buys, a BARS Checker does not.

FDA compliance check

A federal enforcement visit at a tobacco or vape retailer, carried out with an underage decoy under FDA contract with a state or local partner. A sale to that decoy produces a warning letter, a civil money penalty, or a no-tobacco-sale order, depending on the store's history.

Green Card

The trademarked BARS coaching card handed to an associate who asked for ID. It is given in the moment, at the register, by the Checker. The Green Card is also the reveal: until it is in the associate's hand, they do not know which customer was the check.

Mystery shopping

The broader practice of sending an anonymous shopper to record how a store performs. A BARS compliance check is the age-verification form of it, focused on the carding moment. On the same visit, BARS can also capture store operation feedback, the cleanliness, service, and merchandising elements of a traditional mystery shop.

Overt program

A compliance program the staff know about. BARS is overt by design. Operators tell associates that checks happen, on an unannounced schedule, at every location. What stays anonymous is which shopper is the Checker, until the card comes out. That is the point: if any customer might be the check, you card every customer, every time, on all 30 days of the month rather than on visit day.

Red Card

The trademarked BARS coaching card handed to an associate who did not ask for ID on an age-restricted item. It names the behavior, not the person, and carries the coaching moment with it. A Red Card costs a conversation. The same miss in front of a state inspector costs a fine.

Secret shopper

A common name for a mystery shopper. It describes the shopper's anonymity, not a hidden program. In a BARS program the shopper is anonymous but the program is not, and the anonymity ends the second the card is handed over.

Sting

A government enforcement operation. An agency sends an underage decoy into a store to attempt a real purchase, and a completed sale carries a fine, a warning letter, points against the license, or revocation. This is the exam. A BARS compliance check is the rehearsal for it.

Tobacco 21

Federal law, enacted in 2019, raising the minimum legal sales age for tobacco, vape, and nicotine products to 21 nationwide. State and local rules can be stricter, and many are.

We Card

A leading industry training and reinforcement program for tobacco and vape carding, and a long-standing BARS partner. We Card trains the behavior. BARS measures whether it held.

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