As e-cigarettes and tobacco harm reduction continue to garner discussion, convenience stores are positioned to play a role.
By Carl V. Phillips
As the most convenient place to buy smokeless tobacco, convenience stores have been at the center of tobacco harm reduction (THR)—and the substitution of low-risk alternatives for cigarettes—before anyone really spoke about the THR topic.
Of course, the choice to sell those products, or buy them for that matter, is seldom about THR. Most Americans who choose smokeless tobacco products over cigarettes do so simply because they prefer them. Few consumers, including those who use the products, realize just how low-risk they are.
Then there are e-cigarettes. Both categories of smoke-free alternatives are about 99% less harmful than smoking (with smokeless tobacco probably being slightly lower risk than e-cigarettes, despite widespread belief to the contrary). But most consumers of e-cigarettes are choosing them because of the low risk, as a partial or total substitute for cigarettes. Merely by virtue of selling e-cigarettes, the c-store channel has become part of this.
The question is, then, will that role be something more than as a glorified vending machine that dispenses the products?
Obviously, the role of retailers is quite limited. Customers are interested in a particular product category and will seek it out. Demand creates supply, not the other way around (notwithstanding CVS’ self-serving and rather absurd claims about having single-handedly reduced smoking by ceasing cigarette sales).
But retailers can influence decisions to some extent via shelf placement and point-of-sale advertising.
C-STORES CAN INFLUENCE
Since e-cigarettes are replacing a substantial portion of cigarette sales, retailers who sell both products, primarily c-store, can influence the product mix. As I’ve noted in previous articles, it remains to be seen whether e-cigarettes will benefit c-stores by expanding the tobacco product market or will hurt them by diverting sales to other outlets.
But it seems likely that any effort by the c-store sector to claim more of that market will also benefit consumers and public health.
While placement and point-of-sale advertising are often controlled by manufacturers and distributors, retailers have some latitude to communicate to their customers, ‘this is not just a place to buy your cigarettes; it is also the place to buy e-cigarettes if you are thinking about switching.’
C-stores face a lot of competition for that market from specialty retailers (vape shops and online merchants), but need not cede the space. The specialty retailers will always be preferred by those who have turned e-cigarettes into not just an alternative to smoking, but also a hobby.
But, continuous improvements in the quality of the smaller “closed system” products, including “cigalikes” (e-cigarettes that have the form of regular cigarettes) make some of those products an increasingly viable substitute for smoking or higher-end e-cigarettes.
Refill liquid for “open systems” is also a viable market for convenience retailers. Retail outlets are not just bystanders in this change; now is the chance to influence whether c-stores will be a major outlet for e-cigarette sales.
Moreover, many smokers who might switch to e-cigarettes will never set foot in a vape shop, but if c-stores make the option more evident and attractive—as part of their own category management, trying to increase their share of this growing market—it will be good for their customers’ health.
With CVS’ decision pressuring other major chains to stop selling all tobacco products—high-risk and low-risk products alike—c-stores could become the one place where a customer is standing in front of a display of both cigarettes and e-cigarettes, deciding which one to buy today.
If c-stores make it a point to identify and stock the highest-quality convenient e-cigarette products, those that are consumer packaged goods that fill the exact niche that cigarettes do, and send the signal to their customers that this is the place to buy them, then they can hang on to—and potentially expand—that market.
Then when a customer makes the healthier decision, the convenience retailer need not consider this positive turn of events to be a loss.
Dr. Carl V. Phillips spent most of his career as a professor of public health science, working as an epidemiologic, economic consultant and chief economist for the Humane Society of the United States. In 2012, he joined the Consumer Advocates for Smoke-free Alternatives Association (CASAA), where he now serves as scientific director. He can be reached at [email protected].