TRURO - Convenience store owners want consumers to stop purchasing contraband cigarettes that are crippling their industry and fuelling organized crime.
The illegal smokes are sold on street corners, out of trunks in plastic bags for about 20 per cent of the retail cost of legal cigarettes, says Atlantic Convenience Stores Association president Mike Hammoud.
"Convenience store operators, as many may understand, rely heavily on revenue generated by the sale of legal tobacco products and have experienced financial challenges as contraband manufacturing, smuggling and sales continue to increase," he said. "We as retailers, think enough is enough."
Last year, 285 convenience stores in Atlantic Canada, or 11 per cent, closed their doors. While Hammoud said the economy and other factors played a part, tobacco was a key component.
The top three sellers in convenience stores are tobacco products, lottery and gasoline.
"The problem with contraband tobacco to a convenience store operator is not the lost tobacco sale, it's the lost customer," he said, noting smokers would come to the store three to five times a week and pick up "add-on" items, like milk or juice.
It has launched a new initiative and is calling on federal and provincial politicians to sign on to help reduce the rate of illegal tobacco to below 10 per cent by the end of the year. And it is armed with new ammunition in order to try to force the change.
The association commissioned a study that discovered 11 per cent of butts found near Cobequid Educational Centre in April were illegal while 15.3 per cent of butts found near the Chignecto-Central Adult High School, located in the former Princess Margaret Rose Elementary School, were also contraband.
While the local results are not as high as data collected from near other schools in Atlantic Canada, Hammoud said: "these are still unacceptable numbers."
Smoking is not permitted on school property in Chignecto-Central Regional School Board. An independent firm collected the butts from where it was told students traditionally smoke near the schools.
Across Atlantic Canada the survey tested at least 150 butts from each site, which included areas near universities, high schools, government offices and high-traffic public areas.
Hammoud said the RCMP has told the association there are between 24 and 48 illegal tobacco factories across the country making product. "I think a great solution would be to shut them down," he said.
Hammoud applauded last Friday's announcement by the federal government's announcement to combat contraband, saying it was a "very good starting point."
But he would like to see fines in the range of $100 to $200 for people convicted of purchasing illegal cigarettes and jail time as a deterrent to those selling the product.
For more information about the initiative visit www.10-2010contrabandobjective.com
jmalloy@trurodaily.com
If store owners want to get their customers back, try chasing after our government who raised the taxes on smokes so high that if you aren't a working person, you can't afford to buy store bought smokes the taxes are far to high. The first week that the NDP was in Government in Nova Scotia, they raised the price of a pack of smokes $1.35 and store owners think that anyone in their right mind who can get their smokes cheaper should buy from them. Are they completely nuts?