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Scottish shopkeepers call on Holyrood to ditch plans for tobacco display ban

The Tobacco Retailers Alliance has called on the Scottish Parliament to abandon proposals to ban the display of tobacco in shops.

In its submission to the Parliament’s Health and Sport Committee, which is currently considering the proposals, the Alliance has outlined that a ban would:

·         Destroy the biggest single source of cash turnover and greatest driver of profits in corner shops

·         Remove one of the key draws which bring customers in to small shops over supermarkets

·         Introduce a sizeable shop refit cost at a time when many retailers are experiencing difficult economic conditions

·         Add to transaction times and increase queues in shops where customers expect rapid service and retail efficiency

·         Increase the lure of the black market

Fiona Barrett, the Scottish Representative for the Tobacco Retailers Alliance and a Glasgow shopkeeper commented:

“Corner shops - like most other small businesses - are going through their most difficult period in living memory. To inflict on retailers such an additional burden as a tobacco display ban across Scotland will not only cost jobs, it will cost votes.”

In May 2008, a Tobacco Retailers Alliance survey found that 53% of the public stated the main reason young people took up smoking was because their friends or family smoked and 38% thought it was because they wanted to look “cool”.

Fiona Barrett continued:

"The Scottish Government’s stated objective that a ban on tobacco displays will stop young people smoking is complete nonsense. We firmly believe a ban will displace smokers to obtain their tobacco either from supermarkets where customers know they can get a wide range of items, or to the black market where smugglers will sell you tobacco if you’re seventy or 7.

“In addition, recent international evidence supports dropping plans for a ban. A gantry ban in Quebec has resulted in 12 corner shops closing every week while 23 are closing every week in Ontario. Just six weeks ago, the New Zealand government announced that it would drop plans for a tobacco display ban because the evidence did not exist to justify the burden this would place on small shops.”

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Contact Katherine Graham on 0800 008282 / 07962 384 254 Katherine.Graham@tobaccoretailersalliance.org.uk / or Jonathan Hart 0777 55 66 908 hart.work@yahoo.com

Notes to editors

·        The Tobacco Retailers Alliance is a coalition of 26,000 independent retailers who sell tobacco products. For 26 years we have represented the rights of legitimate retailers to sell tobacco products in a legal and responsible way. The Tobacco Retailers Alliance is funded by the Tobacco Manufacturers’ Association.

·        A study by the Centre for Economic and Business Research found that if UK shops were forced to hide tobacco products out of sight 2,600 shops would cease to be profitable, causing a potential loss of 8,000 jobs

Katherine Graham

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