Anne Baye Ericksen

ENDS stands for electronic nicotine delivery systems. According to the Consumer Advocates for Smoke-Free Alternatives Association (CASAA), the first e-cigarette-like product was submitted to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1998 for consideration as a drug delivery device. Despite the agency denying the application, it wasn’t long before e-cigarettes and other electronic nicotine delivery…

They’re both classified as modern oral nicotine products. They’re both tobacco-free. They’re both odorless and spitless. But for convenience store tobacco category managers, there are some key differences to nicotine pouches and nicotine lozenges. Nicotine Pouches Nicotine pouches hold nicotine that has been extracted from tobacco plants and crystallized into salts. The pouch measures about…

Generally speaking, toothpicks are one of those classic utility items that people don’t expect will ever change. But there have been changes. Introduced to the U.S. market around 2013, nicotine toothpicks serve a different function than simply dislodging food bits stuck between teeth. Oftentimes touted as a smoking cessation option, “nic picks” certainly can substitute…

For years, the tobacco category has been firing up in-store sales for convenience stores, accounting for more than one-fourth of all merchandise sales in 2019, per the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS) annual State of the Industry report. Of course, cigarettes always landed No. 1, but in recent years, other tobacco products (OTPs) have…

“Shrink” has become the retail industry’s nomenclature for when inventory, register tills or bookkeeping accounts don’t add up. It’s the catchall term that describes loss of product or cash, and that costs retail businesses, including convenience stores, billions of dollars every year. According to the 2020 National Retail Security Survey (NRSS), the average shrink rate…

When the term first came about, EMV stood for Europay, Mastercard and Visa. EMV is now a registered trademark in the U.S. owned by EMVCo LLC. EMV — managed by EMVCo, whose members include Mastercard, Visa, American Express, Discover and other card networks — started with debit and credit cards, but now has expanded to…

The premarket tobacco application (PMTA) is the process by which tobacco-product manufacturers seek marketing authorization from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). It’s also a topic that’s generated confusion within the convenience store industry in recent years. To fully understand the PMTA process, one must go back to Feb. 15, 2007. According to the government,…

The overall tobacco category long has been a primary profit driver for convenience stores, but for years, there was limited product innovation. Then along came electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) such as e-cigarettes and vaping devices. Whereas ENDS offer combustible cigarette smokers an alternative experience, they don’t serve as a comparable substitute for smokeless tobacco…

The first year of Casey’s Rewards customer loyalty program didn’t go according to plan. “We had a great January and February, and then COVID hit,” said Art Sebastian, vice president of digital experience for Casey’s General Stores, headquartered in Ankeny, Iowa. No one at that time could foresee the impact the novel coronavirus would unleash…

This time last year, convenience store owners and operators were dealt a double whammy: First they had to adapt to the recently passed federal minimum tobacco purchase age of 21; then they had to pull product in accordance with the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) ban on most flavored electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS). Next,…