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Tobacco display ban will ruin newsagents

7:00pm Monday 12th January 2009 in


A NEWSAGENT in Wareham has launched a campaign to save his shop in the wake of tightening government legislation.

Mark Howlett, who runs Farwells in North Street, says banning displays of tobacco will be “the last straw” for retailers like him.

Mr Howlett, who is also chairman of Wareham Chamber of Trade, said: “Local shops like ours are at the sharp end of this credit crunch and being forced to hide our tobacco out of sight will be the last straw for many.

“It would cost us thousands just to refurbish the shop.

“For the average small shop, tobacco sales represent around a third of turnover and anything that restricts our ability to sell tobacco is a threat to our livelihood.”

The campaign by the Tobacco Retailers’ Alliance aims to highlight the effect that the display ban would have on retailers and is urging government to address youth smoking in other ways.

Westminster announced in December that the display of tobacco products would be banned by 2013 in a bid to stop young people in particular from starting the killer habit.

The alliance says statistics from the Centre for Economic and Business Research show the ban could cause 2,600 shops to close across the UK.

Mr Howlett added: “Tobacco is a legal product and retailers have a right to display it openly. It is very difficult to sell something that your customers can’t see.

“The government rakes in millions of pounds each year in tax revenue from tobacco so they won’t ban it, yet they are prepared to put this burden on small businesses just for selling it.

“There are more effective ways to tackle underage smoking which won’t jeopardise small shops.”

Comments(15)

cooperman says...
7:45pm Mon 12 Jan 09

well Mr Howlett if you are in the business of dealing in the sale of products that kill its inevitable that in an aware and responsible society that restrictions will be placed on you - the sooner smoking is consigned to history the better and I used to be a 60 a day man so I am well qualified to make a judgement - it is a filthy,un-nessesary,
expensive,habit that needs to be made difficult to pursue ,i think cigarettes ought to be £20 a packet or more and hidden from view - definatetly. the government may earn lots of money from taxes on tobacco but it also costs very much more to process the illness this causes through the national health service

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alasdair1967 says...
8:15pm Mon 12 Jan 09

this is yet another underthought governmental decision that will cost the retailers money currently the ciggerete display cabinates double as a security device ,what about the traditional tobacconist will they now have to have blacked out windows the same as a XXX sex shop nanny state gone to far as for trying to ban vending machines well why cant they adopt the same as in europe where the retailer has a remote control device that needs to be activated to allow the machine to vend thus preventing children buying ciggerettes but at least in europe you still have a choice !!!! clarkson hit the nail on the head when he stated you could do more in a communist country than what we can do now

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john_the_voice_has moved says...
8:25pm Mon 12 Jan 09

Cooperman, was that 60 man a day, wow your busy!!!!

Any thing that stops people killing themselves and other is a good idea.

The sooner these things are removed from the earth the better.

Nothing to do with a nanny state, why should you kill me and others because you have a weak mind??

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alasdair1967 says...
8:37pm Mon 12 Jan 09

most european countrys give the choice to publicans as to whether they are a non smoking or smoking establishment if they choose to be a smoking establishment it is under strict legislation what is wrong with having a clearly marked bar its about choice non smokers could walk by and go to there bars without having to walk past the smokers shivering outside as i said we are supposed to live in a democratic society and part of living in this socity is a word called CHOICE it really annoys me that the members of parliment that voted on this ruling can drink and smoke to there hearts content in the bar at parliment

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2Much...again! says...
8:23am Tue 13 Jan 09

cooperman wrote:
well Mr Howlett if you are in the business of dealing in the sale of products that kill its inevitable that in an aware and responsible society that restrictions will be placed on you - the sooner smoking is consigned to history the better and I used to be a 60 a day man so I am well qualified to make a judgement - it is a filthy,un-nessesary,

expensive,habit that needs to be made difficult to pursue ,i think cigarettes ought to be £20 a packet or more and hidden from view - definatetly. the government may earn lots of money from taxes on tobacco but it also costs very much more to process the illness this causes through the national health service
There's always someone who will let the judgemental side rule all else. Just because you smoked like a steam engine..not everyone does!
Alasdair1967 has rightly pointed out that yet again this country has nannied us and brainwashed the general public in the meantime by thinking it's right to take away choices.
This is why this country is in the mess it's in..not because we don't have a choice to smoke where we want, but because people are totally sucked in by the media and propaganda on what's right & wrong!
Smokers are not hurting anyone now..so leave alone and fight for a cause that's obviously more worthy of your efforts!

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O'Really says...
9:47am Tue 13 Jan 09

Another appalling decision by The Government.

Why oh why oh why?

In these increasingly tough economic times innocent newsagents should be encouraged to expand their standard product base (fags, newspapers and sweeties) to include other popular products like heroin, crack and televisions so as to maximise their profit-taking.

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GB916 says...
10:14am Tue 13 Jan 09

Dont you just hate some of the ex smokers,im sure you did not care about everyone cooperman when you were smoking 60 a day,yet here you are having a go at smokers,you quit the habit welldone,but dont harp on how bad it is when you use to smoke yourself,i quit myself over 3 years ago,i dont care if people still smoke,it's there choice,and if this government was serious about the smoking issue they would have banned it completely,but surprise they wont,they make too much cash from it,i feel sorry for the newsagents,they are being hounded out of business,hit form all sides,the government,the supermarkets etc

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djd says...
1:40pm Tue 13 Jan 09

Stupid decision by the Government, another of Gordon's 'good ideas'.
If people want to smoke they will but tobacco products.
I think it is a filthy unhealthy habit but if people want to smoke let them.

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Mike Pickering says...
3:10pm Tue 13 Jan 09

Really I don't see what the problem is with having all tobacco signage done away with.
The tobacco industry itself maintains that the only purpose of advertising is to persuade current smokers to switch brand, not to encourage people to take up smoking in the first place, so if a current smoker wants to buy a packet of cigarettes, then all they have to do is go into a newsagent and buy them. I don't for one minute think that someone who is craving a smoke will not seek out buying some cigarettes because they don't see a sign - I too am one of the painfully pious legion of ex-smokers, and I know full-well the crazed mind-set that can come on when nicotine levels get low.. If I was outside the newsagent and didnt see any tobacco signage it would not have put me off going in to ask.
There will still be just as many smokers, determined to get their cigarettes from the same places they always did.
What we have a chance of doing by hiding the trappings of the tobacco industry from children, is making it less familiar to them. One of my first memories is of the branding of the Players No6 packet from the early 70's, and that frankly, is atrocious and something I would gladely stomp upon the sensitivites of smokers to prevent happening to any future generations.
Smoking is a choice that should only be made by adults to choose to begin to do, I defend the legality and availability of tobacco and our right to consume it, but it is something it is our collective responsiblity to ensure that children are barely even aware of. Don't talk about, demonstrate, or even smoke tobacco around children if you have any sense of propriety or consideration for them - it is a deadly, nasty, pointless exercise of which they should know nothing.
Take down the advertisements and branding that normalises it in their minds, and keep it to yourselves, just as you do every other 'adult' activity.

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djd says...
3:40pm Tue 13 Jan 09

The first introduction to smoking and tobacco products is, more often than not,in the home.
Parents smoke - children take cigarettes from parents. Peer pressure is also a contrbutory factor to children smoking.
It has to stop somewhere, but like alcohol, if it is available at home, abuse will continue.

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amused says...
9:37pm Tue 13 Jan 09

the only thing we will do by hiding or banning advertising is to make it more interesting to the kids and while we are about it lets not display sweets in a shop window because they cause obesity and cavities

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ski says...
2:05pm Wed 14 Jan 09

I know smokers are stupid but would they forget that their local shop sells cigaretts just because they cant see them displayed,the shop will still sell the ridiculous product to the smokers.

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GB1980 says...
9:23pm Wed 14 Jan 09

What an annoying piece of legislation - all this is going to do is cost small businesses a small fortune and cause people to start going into inappropriate places (chemists, health food shops, shoe shops etc) and start asking if they sell cigarettes.
Tobacconists will still be allowed to have a 'tobacco menu' so what is the difference? I'm against children smoking, but I'm also against introducing pointless legislation just for the sake of showing that a cause has been recognised.

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2Much...again! says...
9:55pm Wed 14 Jan 09

When they get rid of MacDonalds..and cruddy food in supermarkets..then I'll back the initiative on this..until then, the government can carry on being hypocrites!

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paul.p says...
6:42pm Sat 17 Jan 09

Wave your little red books everyone, wave your little red books.....

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