Starting from April 11, Countdown Grey Lynn will be forbidden to sell liquor for five days, after the store was caught selling alcohol to an under-age person last October.
“We made a mistake,” said Brett Ashley, operations general manager, Countdown, apologising to the chain’s customers for the inconvenience caused by the five-day sale ban.
Over the years, the supermarket giant has had several alcohol licences suspended across its 183 stores, most recently a three-day ban in Dunedin in 2015 due to over-discounting alcohol, and a seven-day suspension at Countdown Takapuna for selling liquor to a visibly intoxicated shopper.
Although the company has tried to improve its performances by introducing an ID25 policy and asking its employees to complete annual online training, unions blamed under-staffing and lack of training for those breaches.
