There is a long list of people who are barred from entering the shop of
Edinburgh tobacconist Alan Myerthall. Gordon Brown, Alistair Darling, the
chancellor, and former first minister Jack McConnell are all at the top, due
to their support for the smoking ban, which tobacco retailers claim has been
a nail in the coffin of their industry.
Now, ministers in the new Scottish government will also be turned away from
the Leith Walk establishment if the proposed point-of-sale ban on the
display of cigarettes and tobacco goes ahead.
The smoking ban has seen the demise of a number of Myerthall’s peers,
including the 100-year-old Glasgow institution Herbert Love, but the shelves
in The Pipe Shop, Myerthall’s store, are a tobacco lover’s heaven. They are
stacked with thousands of products, all related to cigarette, pipe and cigar
smoking.
If the legislation goes ahead, retailers such as Myerthall, whose wife’s
family founded the tobacconist store more than 50 years ago, will be forced
to keep cigarettes, rolling tobacco and cigarette papers out of sight under
the counter, or behind a screen.
“Everyone in the trade is against it,” said Myerthall, who sells around £1m of
smokingrelated products a year. “I have already had to change my whole
business due to the smoking ban.”
The bill, which aims to reduce young people’s exposure to tobacco products and
cut the number of teenage smokers, has been granted first stage approval by
Scottish ministers, while a similar scheme for England and Wales was given
the go-ahead by Westminster earlier this week. It is now awaiting approval
from the House of Lords.
But although the ban is welcomed by health charities and education groups,
small businesses that rely heavily on cigarette sales are worried. Stores
such as newsagents and corner shops generate about a third of their sales
from tobacco, according to the Tobacco Retailers Alliance (TRA). They are
concerned not because the cigarettes themselves generate a large amount of
cash — high taxation gobbles up the majority of any profits — but because
they rely heavily on cigarette sales to bring customers in. A survey carried
out this year by the TRA claimed three-quarters of shopkeepers in Scotland
believe their businesses could be under threat as a result of the ban.
Although most retailers accept that regular customers buying their usual
brands are not likely to stray from their local vendor, they fear that
passing trade may favour supermarkets where they think they are more likely
to find their chosen product, resulting in a drop in ad hoc sales of milk,
bread and other groceries.
Fiona Barrett, spokeswoman for the TRA and a newsagent on Glasgow’s Byres
Road, said: “If we don’t sell their preferred brand, they will have to go
through the process of deciding on an alternative without looking at the
packets. If we don’t have their second choice, they will have to do the same
thing all over again, whereas at the moment, they can see what we have on
offer and can choose.
“Instead of going through all that, we are worried they will just go straight
to a big supermarket where they are more likely to get their first choice
straight off.”
She added: “The loss of trade may just push people over the edge who have
already been struggling to keep going.”
Retailers have also raised concerns about the ban increasing the time spent on
each transaction, as well as worries over security due to their having to
turn their backs on customers to access the products from behind a screen or
a shutter.
In a financial blow to cash-strapped businesses already hit by the recession,
compliance alterations would have to be made to existing “gantries” — the
cigarette display shelves used by retailers — and although some tobacco
companies have indicated that they may meet the bill for these, what that
would mean in practice is not clear.
While multiple retailers such as supermarkets would have to comply with the
new rules by 2011, small shops have until 2013 to prepare for the ban, which
the government claims will give them ample time to make the alterations in
the process of “normal refurbishment” to their shops.
“We are working with businesses as much as we can,” said a spokeswoman for the
Scottish government. “This is not about incurring extra costs for them but
is about getting the tobacco products out of the sight of children.
Otherwise, we are giving mixed messages to children, telling them that
smoking is bad, but when they walk into a shop, the products are lit up in
lights.”
In Ireland, where a similar scheme has been in place for four months, Philip
Morris, the maker of Marlboro, and the independent retailer Maurice Timony
recently filed a joint lawsuit with the High Court in Dublin seeking to stop
the ban, claiming it threatens business, fuels the smuggling of contraband
cigarettes and restricts their ability to provide trade and services,
violating Irish constitutional law and EU law.
An Irish study last week showed that 97% of stores were adhering to the new
rules, which if broken could mean a €3,000 fine or six months in prison for
the retailer.
While all sides claim to agree that reducing the number of teenage smokers is
a good thing, retailers are sceptical that removing products from shelves
will make a difference.
But Sheila Duffy, chief executive of ASH Scotland, disagrees. “We know from
many years of research that advertising by the tobacco industry encourages
young people to experiment with smoking, experimentation which frequently
results in a lifelong addiction to a product that kills half of its
long-term users,” she said.
“Since most forms of tobacco advertising and event sponsorship by the tobacco
industry were banned in 2003, we have seen an explosion of brand variants
from tobacco companies.
“This tactic enables big tobacco [companies] to take maximum advantage of one
of their last remaining marketing opportunities — the increased brand
presence on their brightly-lit and enticing retail gantries, familiar sights
in shops across the country.”
In a unique dispensation, under the Scottish rules, specialist tobacconists
such as The Pipe Shop would be allowed to leave smoking paraphernalia and
cigars on show, but they would still have to remove from sight
non-specialist cigarettes and rolling tobacco.
With just 20% of his turnover coming from the products he will have to hide,
Myerthall, who has already shifted his focus to pick up more mailorder trade
from overseas in the wake of the smoking ban, is confident that he will
overcome the new legislation. He believes there will be loopholes in the
law, having heard of shops in Ireland covering up the offending items with
opaque plastic sheets, allowing the branding to be clearly seen underneath,
or painting the brand names on top of a cover.
Whether such sneaky methods will slip through the net of any new law in
Scotland remains to be seen. The details of the legislation will be
finalised as the bill completes its passage through parliament over the next
few months.
“We will find a way around it,” said Myerthall, optimistically. “We might not
be as educated as these MSPs, but we’re more wily.”
jane.bradley@sunday-times.co.uk
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