Red Buck and Richwood Tipped Cigarillos

Red Buck and Richwood Tipped Cigarillos

Tantus Tobacco, a company dedicated to bringing high-quality, value-priced filtered cigars, cigarettes and pipe tobacco to the market, has added tipped cigarillos to its product line. Red Buck Tipped Cigarillos are available in Pipe Tobacco, Wine Pipe Tobacco, Sweet and Wine. Richwood Grooves Tipped Cigarillos are available in Pipe Tobacco and Wine Pipe Tobacco. For [...]

Leveling The RYO Playing Field

Leveling The RYO Playing Field

In recent years, roll-your-own tobacco machines have surfaced at various retail locations putting convenience stores at a competitive disadvantage on price. By Howard Riell, Associate Editor America, and in particular its lawmakers, remains caught in a love-hate relationship with tobacco. That push-pull has resulted in very well-publicized attempts to dissuade Americans from using tobacco, or [...]

Understanding Today’s Tobacco Customers

Understanding Today’s Tobacco Customers

MSA and Paradigm Sample, in partnership with Convenience Store Decisions, examine the purchasing habits of adult tobacco consumers at U.S. convenience stores. By Trish Temmerman, Management Science Associates, and John Lofstock, Editor. The tobacco industry continues to face challenges on multiple fronts, namely ongoing legislative initiatives and the ever-present high rate of taxation. These persistent [...]

Eco-Cigs Prepares for Retail Expansion

Eco-Cigs Prepares for Retail Expansion

Industry veteran Roger Grogman joins the Illinois firm to help guide its expansion strategy into new sales channels. Eco-Cigs, Inc., a leading electronic cigarette company, has hired Roger Grogman as their Vice President of Sales & Marketing. Grogman will be responsible for the expansion and growth of the Eco-Cigs brands within opportunistic retail channels. “The [...]

Decoding Haverstraw’s Questionable Tobacco Display Ban

Decoding Haverstraw’s Questionable Tobacco Display Ban

With various federal laws banning or limiting certain cigarette product advertising, cigarette packaging itself has become a commercially accepted form of advertising. By John Lofstock, Editor. In early April, the Village of Haverstraw, N.Y., adopted a first-of-its-kind ordinance in the U.S. that requires retailers to keep tobacco out of public view. To learn more about [...]

Dispelling the Myths of Tobacco Control

Dispelling the Myths of Tobacco Control

A response to the recent misleading “Deadly Alliance” report implicating convenience stores. By Seth A. Mailhot, Special Counsel, Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP. This is the first of what will be a continuing series on the regulation of tobacco retailing. In future articles, I will address the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) regulation [...]

Mandatory Receipts at Convenience Stores?

Mandatory Receipts at Convenience Stores?

A Philadelphia City Councilman wants to make receipts mandatory at all convenience stores in the city. Philadelphia City Councilman Curtis Jones told CBS News that he is frustrated that not all convenience stores readily offer receipts. Some, he said in the report, are hoping to keep cash transactions off the records. Jones, in the report, [...]

Natural Cigarette Alternatives

Natural Cigarette Alternatives

Bluegrass Blends USA has introduced Rockfield Natural Cigarette Alternatives with no tobacco, no nicotine and no nitrosamines. Rockfield Natural Cigarette Alternatives sell for up to 70% less than traditional cigarettes and provide a low-cost alternative for consumers seeking relief from the high cost of traditional cigarettes. Benefits include no costly MSA tobacco taxes and higher [...]

GAO Suggests Equalizing Tobacco Tax Rates

GAO Suggests Equalizing Tobacco Tax Rates

A new report finds shift in using pipe versus roll-your-own tobacco and large cigars versus small cigars to avoid hefty taxes. This week, the federal Government Accounting Office (GAO) issued a report titled “Large Disparities in Rates for Smoking Products Trigger Significant Market Shifts to Avoid Higher Taxes.” The document shows the impact of the [...]

Redrawing the Battle Lines

Redrawing the Battle Lines

Separating nicotine from cigarettes and smoking could open new doors for tobacco. By Lou Maiellano. Imagine a natural ingredient so promising and intriguing that it is being clinically evaluated to address a variety of illnesses and conditions, including depression, schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s, Tourette syndrome, ADHD, anger management and anxiety. Think about it, an ingredient that would [...]

Battle Continues On Graphic Warning Labels

Battle Continues On Graphic Warning Labels

D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals hears arguments on FDA graphic warnings for cigarettes. On April 10, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia heard oral arguments regarding the constitutionality of the FDA’s graphic cigarette health warning labels. On Feb. 28, 2012, Federal District Court Judge Richard Leon issued a decision that [...]

Convenience Store Sales Topped $680 Billion in 2011

Convenience Store Sales Topped $680 Billion in 2011

Convenience store sales, both at the pump and inside the store, set new records in 2011, according to data released today by NACS. In-store convenience store sales grew 2.4%, reaching a record $195.0 billion. Combined with $486.9 billion in motor fuels sales, total convenience store sales in 2011 were $681.9 billion, or one out of [...]

High Expectations for Cigarettes

High Expectations for Cigarettes

While there are those who would like to see cigarettes go up in smoke, c-store operators can rest assured that this critical category will continue to be ablaze with activity. “Among the trends I see for 2012 is that there is going to be continued or heightened competition among the second tier brands,” said Bonnie [...]

Cigarette Warning Labels Upheld By Appeals Court

Cigarette Warning Labels Upheld By Appeals Court

Following a federal court decision that graphic warning labels were unconstitutional, an appellate court has ruled that requiring cigarette warning labels are not a violation of free speech, rather they fall under commercial speech disclosures, are disclosing the health risks of cigarettes and are reasonably related to the government’s interest of preventing the deception of [...]

New Report Attacks Tobacco Sales, Targets C-Stores

New Report Attacks Tobacco Sales, Targets C-Stores

Report by anti-smoking groups condemns c-stores for point-of-sale tobacco marketing. A new report, titled “Deadly Alliance: How Tobacco Companies and Convenience Stores Partner to Market Tobacco Products and Fight Life-Saving Policies” has been released by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, Counter Tobacco (a project that works to counter tobacco product sales and marketing at the [...]