NZ Dairy owner ditches cigarettes, business goes up

[bilateralrope]

TV3 news

Anti-smoking groups say a Whanganui dairy's decision to stop selling tobacco highlights a growing trend of retailers no longer stocking cigarettes.

The Glasgow Street Dairy took cigarettes off its shelves earlier this month and its owner says business is booming.

Customers visiting the Glasgow Street Dairy can't miss the signs; those wanting smokes will have to go elsewhere.

"I just thought it was time to make the jump and give it away," says dairy owner Nicholas Gordon.

Mr Gordon says smoking companies became harder to deal with and he was sick of selling cigarettes when children came into his store.

"[Dairy owners are] led to believe we can't survive without them in the industry, but I think I can," he says.

Mr Gordon admits he didn't sell lots of tobacco, but getting rid of it has helped his business as it's attracted more customers.

"We get a lot of different faces in here. We haven't lost smokers. They come in and just buy smokes elsewhere."

The dairy's thought be one of a handful nationwide that have ditched tobacco sales. But the Cancer Society says smoke-free dairies are increasing as smoking declines.

"With fewer people smoking, and we know that from the latest census, it'll be more hassle to stock the full range for the few people coming in," says Cancer Society health promotion manager Dr Jane Pearson.

Associate Health Minister and local MP Tariana Turia says it'll help the fight against tobacco because smokers find local stores so convenient.

"This gentleman has made a huge stand, and it would be great if others followed suit," says Ms Turia.

A new report from the acting US Surgeon General will encourage quitting. It's added type 2 diabetes and liver cancer to the long list of diseases caused by smoking.

3 News

Business going up is a welcome surprise. I'm hoping it's repeated at other stores.

As for cigarettes being necessary for dairy owners, that now sounds like just another lie from the tobacco industry.

[Simon_Jester]

On the other hand, this will hit diminishing returns. If you're one of a handful of stores that doesn't sell cigarettes, it gets you publicity and brings in the relative handful of people who hate smoking so much that they'll go to a whole different store just to avoid being in the same room with the cigarette.

If you're one of the 50% of stores that doesn't sell cigarettes, nobody notices and your sales pattern is nearly identical to what it would be otherwise, except for the rare occasion when someone stops at someone else's store on a cigarette run and impulse-buys something else.

It's like beer. If all supermarkets sell beer in a given area, and one stops doing so, they get all the teetotalers within a ten mile radius. If only one supermarket sells beer in a given area, they get a lot of customers who will drive a few minutes farther each way to shop there, because that way they don't have to make a separate stop for beer.

If half of all supermarkets sell beer and half don't, then there's very little net effect, and if there is any it will tend to favor the beer-sellers.