Several shops in the Exeter area have received warnings from Trading Standards after being caught selling alcohol to young people without checking their age.
The legal age for buying drink is 18 but as a condition of their licence, retailers should ask any customer who appears to be under 25 for proof.
Trading Standards sent 18-year-olds who looked under 25 to buy alcohol in 80 shops in Devon and Somerset - and half of them failed to check.
They included premises in Exeter, Dawlish, Honiton, Crediton and Cullompton - all of which will now be monitored in case they end up selling to someone genuinely underage.