CStore Decisions June 2023 Digital Edition is sponsored by MOJO .

As the battle against Big Tobacco continues to wage, c-store retailers are bracing against pending Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations, an onslaught of state and local legislation and rising inflation, all the while working to adjust their backbars to comply with the latest mandates and still maximize sales.

As potential restrictions from FDA on nicotine levels, menthol and characterizing flavors in cigars, as well as pending premarket tobacco product applications (PMTAs) and proposed local
flavor bans, weigh heavily on c-store retailers, tobacco category managers are considering what they may have to replace on the shelf and how to fi ll the gaps.

“We are expecting a full flavor ban sometime in 2024 in our state, and by county level it could be sooner. We are definitely strategizing now to fi nd options that can fi ll the backbar and ensure our customer has a good selection of available choices,” said Jon Manuyag, director of marketing for Plaid Pantry, which operates 106 stores in Portland, Ore., with three of those stores in Seattle and Vancouver, British Columbia. “We are also looking at other categories outside of tobacco to fill up the tobacco backbar space,” he added.