A ruling by a federal judge is set to decide on whether retailers will be required to post displays from the tobacco companies. The displays will carry apologies for being deceitful about the effects of smoking, and will have to provide information on the health effects of smoking, including the statistic of 1,200 deaths per day.
Some retailers, under the National Association of Tobacco Outlets, are resisting the possible decision, which will be ruled on later. The requirement of posting large displays in stores is seen as taking up valuable space that could be sold.
The effect of refusing to put up displays will include loss of millions in rebates given by tobacco companies to help display products prominently and lower prices of cigarettes. The president of the outlets association says that taking up selling space that affects the bottom line just to achieve goals of getting corrective statements to the public was not acceptable. The corrective statements were ordered last month by court rulings when it was found that tobacco companies had lied about smoking dangers.
Under its umbrella, the association has approximately 20,000 convenience stores, smoke shops, and other stores that carry tobacco products. An owner of such stores numbering 50 in Indiana has agreements with three top cigarette makers. In 1 year, the stores received almost $1.8 million in rebates and free promotional fixtures and displays, according to documents filed in court. Retailers have estimated $82 million as the amount per annum in sales. This is per square foot for the space filled by the displays and signs.
Papa’s Healthy Food & Fuel owner Larry Southard says that if the government wanted to enforce laws against tobacco companies then it should affect the companies alone. Southard notes that there are already many laws and a lot of information on the impact of smoking, so it seemed the purpose of the new law is to punish retailers. The retailers also argue that the signs may also affect the sale of other impulse items such as gum or candy.
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