Weight-Based Taxes Level the Playing Field and Preserve Retailer Profits By Robert L. Shepherd with Shepherd, Williams & Associates LLC Without question, moist smokeless tobaccois a profitable, growing and dynamic category.However, category and retail profits are at risk due to customer down-trading from premium to price-value products.Opponents of weight-based taxes have done much to muddy…
mst taxation myth vs reality
Ad valorem state taxation maintains a growing and competitive marketplace for moist smokeless tobacco. by Joseph R. Augustus, Senior Vice President of External Affairs for Swisher International Inc. Tobacco Taxation Counterpoint — This is the second of a two-part series on smokeless tobacco taxation.Part one ran in the Dec. 2006 issue of Convenience Store Decisions.…
csds tobacco webcast to focus on taxes regulations
Industry experts will come together Nov. 30 to discuss the current state of tobacco and its outlook for 2007. Prior to the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement, tobacco held a more than 40% share in just about every market in the U.S. Since the agreement, the numbers have slowly faded as regulation and taxation have taken…
moist smokeless sales continue gains
Category is the only tobacco segment to record year-on-year spikes since 2002. The moist smokeless tobacco(MST) category is the only growingtobacco category, and has been increasing at 4-6% per year consistentlysince 2002. Over the past few years, theMST category has developed three distincttiers (See Figure 1). Tier one (premium)accounts for more than 59% of MST…
know whos buying tobacco
Sales to minors are needlessly costing retailers thousands in fines, and some are facing the loss of their tobacco license. State and local governments, under the guise of public safety, are continuing to pursue “sting” operations to identify irresponsible convenience store clerks that are selling tobacco products to minors. While safety, I’m sure, is part…
smoke signals
Besieged by taxes and a decline in gross profit margins, there are signs that import and specialty brands could be the key to tobacco profitability. Though there have been calls by industry expertsfor convenience store companies to reduce their dependencyon cigarettes, the industry overall is becoming more reliant ontobacco sales. The National Association of Convenience…
cigar sales smoking
Retailers report strong sales and profits in OTP boosted by cigars. According to the National Association of Convenience Stores’ 2006 State of the Industry (SOI) report, retailers can expect the other tobacco (OTP) category to keep on growing with flavored cigars driving that growth. Cigar sales last year jumped 5.2% and accounted for 30.48% of…
jaded in new jersey
As New Jersey faces its fourth excise tax increase in four years, retailers are watching their dwindling tobacco sales head across state lines. Every state has its own issues to deal with, but it seems that New Jersey has been dealt a particularly difficult hand. “New Jersey is a difficult state for convenience stores to…
dipping into new profits
Premium products driving the moist smokeless tobacco business, U.S. Smokeless Tobacco said. An influx of deep-discount products is leading retailers to change the way they merchandise moist smokeless tobacco (MST) products, and experts are concerned that these changes are adversely affecting moist smokeless profitability. As the deep-discount segment has grown in volume, it is compressing…
saluting the industrys top suppliers
Convenience Store Decisions’ Reader’s Choice Awards honor the top performers in more than 20 in-store categories. “Honesty,” “integrity” and “committed to the industry.” These were just a fewof the glowing accolades industry-retailers had for their supplier partnersin Convenience Store Decisions‘ first annual Reader’s Choice Awards. “We consider our relationships with retail and wholesale partners to…