Pressing mandates involving tobacco products aren’t just playing at the federal and state levels anymore. Increasingly, local ordinances are having a direct impact on tobacco sales within the convenience store channel.
By Mary Szarmach
When Convenience Store Decisions asked me to write an article about state and local issues regarding tobacco products, I wasn’t quite sure there would be enough pages in the issue to cover everything that’s happening.
For Smoker Friendly and our 103 stores located in the five states where we do business, an issue that poses a threat to our livelihood, comes up nearly every day. If you aren’t paying attention, state legislators, county commissioners or city council members are busy with social engineering, creating a nanny state right before our eyes.
Ironically, it’s hard to comprehend while it’s happening, and certainly hard to deal with after the laws are passed. Often these ordinances are borne by local tobacco control projects, spearheaded by community-based organizations and local health departments.
The prevalent policies and organized campaigns that increasingly threaten tobacco commerce in the U.S. include: flavor bans, coupon restrictions, local taxations, vapor bans, proximity of stores to schools and continued smoking bans in public places.
21 AND MORE
State legislation has been very similar, with age 21 initiatives and increased taxes leading the charge. More states and local municipalities are influenced by Tobacco 21, a national campaign aimed at raising the minimum legal age (MLA) for tobacco and nicotine sales in the U.S. to 21.
As part of the National Association of Tobacco Outlets (NATO), stakeholders fought tax increases successfully in Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska and Florida. We beat proposals to raise the minimum age requirement to 21 in Nebraska and Florida. We were lucky to win a ballot initiative for a tax increase in Colorado in November, but likely will have to fight it again.
You might wonder how do we get these wins? Working with NATO, the International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers of America (IPCPR) and other organizations within the tobacco industry is a great start. Not all retailers roll up their sleeves to help fight these battles on a grassroots level. The local battles are widespread and sometimes passionate—on both sides.
Together, however, we have shown if you stand up to legislators and other challengers, you can win a majority of these battles.
Many manufacturer and distributor partners will also lend a hand; I work closely with state people from Altria, R.J. Reynolds, Swedish Match, Swisher, and several Vape and premium cigar companies, and they can be of great help in these overzealous regulations.
It takes some time and energy to put your story together and properly present it, but when you show them that you are a legitimate business person, a good employer and a law-abiding company, it becomes difficult for them to disagree. We are a highly-regulated and highly-taxed industry and experts at selling legal adult commodities. We should be proud that we do it right, and tell legislators just that.
GETTING INVOLVED
I urge everyone who sells tobacco products—no matter what trade class your store is in—to join NATO, and keep yourself informed. It’s the only organization that tracks local level tobacco issues and reports regularly to the industry. In many cases, these pop up overnight, and there’s virtually no time to spare getting your war chest in order.
Local tobacco ordinances aren’t going away. In fact, the pace that local legislation is being introduced in town halls and city council chambers across the country is just increasing. And for every piece of tobacco legislation that is passed, there is a retailer, who sells tobacco, sure to be affected.
Grassroots work does work and we should all take part, to help keep our industry safe from well-funded and well-spoken anti-tobacco proponents.
Mary Szarmach is vice president of trade marketing and government relations for Smoker Friendly International, based in Boulder, Colo., and the immediate past president of the National Association of Tobacco Outlets (NATO).