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May 7th, 2008 - 14:42:52
The tiny, cramped store, which has been operated by the Cochrane family since the early 1950s, is never empty as streams of customers constantly file in. The store's shelves are jammed floor to ceiling with food stuff, but it's not the food that primarily brings people here, said owner Laverne Cochrane. "People come here to buy cigarettes. Then they buy something else," Cochrane said yesterday. With convenience stores earning up to 60 per cent of their revenue from tobacco sales, it's no surprise that Cochrane and other store owners are furious about a provincial law that comes into effect May 31 that will make it harder for them to sell tobacco. The new law requires Ontario's approximately 20,000 cigarette-selling retailers to hide the tobacco they sell and distribute it from a covered place. For people like Cochrane, that means spending $2,500 on a specially designed wall of small cabinets that can be individually opened and shut as cigarettes are sold. It's a cost that he said may cause him to raise the price of cigarettes. He fears it may chase away customers. Cochrane has been trying to get someone to build the type of storage cabinet deemed acceptable by the Smoke Free Ontario Act, but worries he won't have it installed by the province's May 31 deadline. If he's cited for breaking the law, he could be fined $4,000 for failing to comply with the act. Art Gordanier, owner of Fresh Mart grocery store in Elgin, also hasn't yet installed his cabinet. Gordanier feels it's unfair that the provincial government is picking on retailers. He said it should instead go after the people who are selling cigarettes illegally. "It's easy to push the honest guys around," he said. He pointed out that a large percentage of cigarettes come from the black market and he suggested that authorities should put more effort into dealing with illegal tobacco sellers. "I don't think the government is giving us a fair shake when you can buy a carton of cigarettes [illegally] for $10," he said. About five years ago, Fresh Mart installed a roll-down shutter over its cigarette display that is only lifted when cigarettes are sold. Gordanier installed the device of his own volition and at his own cost because he didn't like the way cigarettes were displayed in his store. The act's guidelines indicate this type of covering isn't good enough because they display too much tobacco product. Peter Yoo, owner of Pat's Grocery, at John and Patrick streets, doesn't expect to pay a penny for his cabinet wall. Working with the Kingston Korean Business Association and the Ontario Korean Business Association, he has arranged to have an advertising company install and build his cabinet. In exchange for the free case, the company will place ads on it, including a flat-screen TV. Yoo is actually looking forward to the renovation. "It will make my store look fancier," he said. All the same, Yoo said it angers him that convenience store owners are being persecuted for selling cigarettes. "The government is looking at us as if we're responsible ... that people are dying of cancer," he said. His cabinet wall hasn't yet been installed and he expects it may not go up until after May 31. He hopes he won't be fined. Dave Bryans, president of the Canadian Convenience Stores Association, said he has a member of the Ontario Korean Business Association on his board and is aware of the advertising plan. Bryans said no ads have been sold anywhere in Canada, even in Saskatchewan, which instituted a tobacco-display ban four years ago. He concedes that small convenience operators have become too reliant on the tobacco category. According to the association, tobacco sales represent 40 to 60 per cent of retailer business. Nonetheless, he said, convenience store owners are being unfairly targeted by organizations such as the Kingston Frontenac Lennox and Addington Health Unit, which police the Smoke-Free Ontario Act. "It's time they put their energy ... into the front of the store, where all the illegal activities are," he said. According to the association's website, 22 per cent of all cigarettes bought in Canada are sold illegally while 32 per cent are bought on First Nations reserves. "By 2010, well over 50 per cent of cigarettes sold in Ontario will be non-taxed [illegal] cigarettes," Bryans said. If health authorities don't start doing a better job of policing the sale of illegal cigarettes, convenience stores will eventually go the way of the dodo bird and consumers will have to jump in their car just to get a loaf of bread, he said. "We all know it [tobacco] is an unhealthy product, but is it fair to pick on the legal market when you know all the issues are in the illegal market?" he said. Dave McWilliams, manager of the tobacco control program for the local health unit, acknowledged that cigarettes sold on native reserves will not face the same stringent rules and that the playing field isn't level. McWilliams also acknowledged that those cheap, black market cigarettes shoulder some of the blame for why people continue to smoke. However, he said, tobacco promotion is also at fault and that is what is being targeted here. He pointed out that retailers have known for two years that the law was coming and they had plenty of time to prepare for it. Nonetheless, retailers probably won't be fined immediately after May 31, if they can show they are taking steps to follow the act. "If we have a retailer who is doing his level best to comply, we are not likely to beat up on him," he said. The act doesn't tell retailers exactly how they must store their tobacco products. However, it provides examples of what is acceptable and what is not. Curtains, garage-style doors and blinds are unacceptable, as are horizontal sliding doors, and large cupboards of flip-down cupboards that don't automatically close. Overhead containers, below-counter drawers and top-hinge, flip-up covers that automatically close and are no larger than 30.5 centimetres wide and 61 centimetres high are acceptable. So are slim drawers that open in sections and show only the spines of cigarette packages. McWilliams suggested that store owners don't have to break the bank to find solutions and can even use cardboard boxes under the counter, as long as the cigarettes are not visible to customers. Whatever method retailers choose, he said they should get used to the challenges of the changing climate for selling cigarettes. "If you want to continue selling tobacco, there will be challenges," he said. © Copyright 2006 by DiscountCigarettesBox.Com Top of Page |
