In a recent study, scientists from UC Berkeley led by Matt Francis have demonstrated how to program tobacco plants to take advantage of the efficient way that they collect sunlight. Rather than attempt to reprogram all the cells of a mature tobacco plant, the scientists genetically engineered a virus called the tobacco mosaic virus to do the job for them.

The researchers sprayed the modified virus on a crop of tobacco plants, and the virus caused the plant cells to produce lots of artificial chromophores, which turn photons from sunlight into electrons.

In order for the chromophores to work, however, they must be spaced at a precise distance from one another – about two or three nanometers. A little closer or further apart, and the electric current will either be halted or the electrons will be very difficult to harvest.

Thankfully, tobacco plant cells have evolved to space chromophores at this exact distance, lining them up in a long spiral hundreds of nanometers long. By exploiting this structure, the researchers could take advantage of billions of years of evolution to grow perfectly spaced strands of chromophores.

“Over billions of years, evolution has established exactly the right distances between chromophores to allow them to collect and use light from the sun with unparalleled efficiency,” said Francis.

Since the modified tobacco plants themselves don’t generate electricity, the researchers must harvest the plants and extract the chromophore structures. Then, the scientists can dissolve the structures in a liquid solution, and then spray the solution on a glass or plastic substrate to create a solar cell. So far, the scientists have not yet demonstrated that the resulting solar cells can turn light into electrical energy.

Compared with traditional solar cells, those made from plants could have several potential advantages. For instance, they don’t require the use of toxic chemicals, they’re biodegradable, and they’re inexpensive to produce. On the other hand, bio-based solar cells would likely have a shorter lifetime than silicon solar cells.

In addition to using tobacco, the researchers also demonstrated how to manipulate E. coli bacteria to produce chromophore structures. In this case, the researchers didn’t use a virus, but modified the bacteria directly.

More information: Michel T. Dedeo, Karl E. Duderstadt, James M. Berger and Matthew B. Francis. “Nanoscale Protein Assemblies from a Circular Permutant of the Tobacco Mosaic Virus.” Nano Lett., 2010, 10 (1), pp 181-186. doi:10.1021/nl9032395
Via: Discovery News
© 2010 PhysOrg.com

NEW YORK – Injectable birth control is known to lower bone density, but women may be able to limit the loss by not smoking and getting even moderate amounts of calcium, a new study hints.

Health

The findings, say researchers, show that not all women are at equal risk of bone loss from using depot medroxyprogesterone (DMPA) — better known by the brand-name Depo Provera.

DMPA is given by injection about once every three months, and is generally considered an effective, convenient and low-cost form of birth control. The contraceptive can, however, lead to significant bone loss.

While research has shown that this lost bone mass is often regained after women stop using DMPA, there are still concerns about whether substantial bone loss is completely reversible. So limiting the decline in the first place would be ideal.

In the new study, researchers found that among 95 women who used DMPA for two years, those who smoked or had a low calcium intake were at particular risk of significant bone density loss — defined as a decline of at least 5 percent in the spine or hip.

Current smokers were nearly four times more likely to lose that much bone mass as non-smokers were. On the other hand, the risk declined by 19 percent for every 100 milligrams (mg) of calcium a woman got each day.

Drs. Mahbubur Rahman and Abbey B. Berenson, of the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, report the findings in the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology.

The study included 95 black, white and Hispanic women who were 24 years old, on average, at the outset. Their bone density was measured when they began using DMPA and two years later.

Overall, 47 percent of the women showed at least a 5 percent decline in bone density in the spine or hip.

Of those women, 44 percent were current smokers, versus 32 percent of women who lost less bone mass. The average calcium intake in the former group was 484 mg per day — less than half of the recommended 1,000 mg for women their age.

According to Rahman and Berenson, the findings suggest that not smoking can go a long way toward limiting the bone loss associated with DMPA. The same appears true of even moderate calcium intake; women who got more than 600 mg of calcium per day had lesser bone loss — about 2 percent or less over two years.

In other findings, women who had ever had a child were also at lower risk of significant bone loss. They were half as likely as childless women to see their bone density decline by 5 percent or more.

The results suggest that for DMPA users who have had children, do not smoke and get at least 600 mg of calcium day, “concerns about bone health are minimal,” write Rahman and Berenson.

But when women do smoke or get little calcium, they add, doctors should offer them help with smoking cessation and counsel them on eating calcium-rich foods and taking supplements if needed.

SOURCE: Obstetrics and Gynecology, January 2010.

A breath of fresh air. That’s what one developer is offering New Yorkers at 1510 Lexington Avenue. The new luxury rental high-rise is the first residential building in the city to ban smoking in all its units as well as its public spaces.

Tenants and their visitors are also banned from smoking within 25 feet of the building. Developers Kinnie Yon and her brother Neal Sigety are principals at Kenbar Management. They say the decision to go non smoking in the development came with the choice to acquire LEED certification, the benchmark for green buildings.

“As part of LEEDs there is a requirement that you control tobacco smoke so that it doesn’t infiltrate other apartments in the building, and we said we’re building this LEED certified green healthy building why do we even allow smoking?” Yon said.

The 298 unit rent stabilized building, ranging from studios to three bedrooms, is slated to open next month. Each apartment features floor to ceiling windows and a washer and dryer. Amenities will include a cafe, fitness center and a children’s playroom. Developers say even in this soft rental market, they are confident they will attract tenants.

“If you are a smoker and you want to smoke at home, there are many buildings that would love to have you as a tenant today and that we believe that people who would like to live in a non smoking environment should also have a place,” Sigety said.

Citing health concerns over secondhand smoke, 1510 Lexington is not alone in the movement to ban smoking at home. Other buildings like the Tribeca Green in Battery Park City have started to take similar measures, enforcing a no light up policy for new tenants and their guests.

In a city where smoking is not allowed in restaurants and bars and may one day be banned in parks and beaches, New Yorkers seem to have mixed opinions about this new direction in housing.

“I think it’s trying to keep the air clean for everyone in the building and that’s a good thing,” said one New Yorker.

“Non smoking in my home? Well I don’t really agree because it’s my own home, it’s my own privacy. I should be able to do whatever I want,” said another New Yorker.

Still, the developers are optimistic smoke free multifamily housing will become commonplace in New York.

By: Shazia Khan, 11.29.2009, Ny1

Even smokers support bans to prohibit lighting up in the workplace, according to a new survey.

The international poll of nearly 5,000 people by research institute RTI International and Harris Interactive showed that nearly three-quarters of workers who smoke and 87 percent of employers support a smoke-free work environment.

“Although there was widespread variations among countries, overall the results demonstrate global support for workplace smoking bans,” said Michael Halpern, of RIT who is one of the authors of the report.

“This study shows support for additional programs and policies to increase those bans and assist employees with smoking cessation,” he added in a statement.

The strongest support for smoking bans was in India where 85 percent of people voted for smoke-free workplaces, followed by Japan with 75 percent. But only one-third of Germans and 27 percent of Poles thought bans should be in place.

The researchers also found that smokers estimated that they spent about one hour a day puffing on cigarettes, although the majority of people polled did not think the habit had a negative financial impact on the company.

“Several previous studies indicate that despite the beliefs of smoking employees and some employers in our study, smoking does have a substantial negative impact on a business’s finance,” Halpern added.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has been a champion of a global ban on smoking at work. Many countries, including France, Spain, Ireland and Portugal have introduced bans to prevent workplace smoking.

Smoking is a leading cause of preventable death. The WHO says some 200,000 workers die each year due to exposure to smoke at work, while around 700 million children, around half the world’s total, breathe air polluted by tobacco smoke, particularly in the home.

According to the WHO almost one billion men and 250 women worldwide smoke some form of tobacco.

South Korea, Japan, China, Taiwan, India, Britain, Italy, Sweden, France, Germany, Spain, Poland, Turkey and Brazil participated in the poll which involved 3,500 workers, smokers and non-smokers, and more than 1,400 employers in the 14 countries.

November 17, 2009

A small group of students at Indiana University Southeast protested the university’s tobacco-free policy by lighting cigarettes and smoking on campus Thursday afternoon.

Three students received referrals after campus police asked them to put out their cigarettes and they refused, but the protest remained peaceful. Another half dozen students joined in the protest or carried signs but chose not to smoke.

Ian Girdley, a sophomore English and journalism major, organized what he called the “act of civil disobedience.”

“We ask the IU Board of Trustees to give us a reasonable place to smoke while still protecting students from unwanted secondhand smoke,” Girdley said.The students walked from the free speech area near the clock tower about 50 yards to a nearby field to smoke. The campus policy is that students can only smoke in vehicles.

“I think most of us would just like a designated area to smoke — maybe one on each end of campus,” said Katelyn Dowell, a junior majoring in psychology.

Tristan Williamson, a junior English major, does not smoke, but marched with the demonstrators. He said it is “ridiculous” that smokers do not have a place to go.

Former IUS music professor Jamey Abersold argued with the protesters, accusing them of distorting the truth about the harmfulness of tobacco. Abersold now does anti-smoking presentations at local schools.

“I don’t think people should be allowed to smoke anywhere,” Abersold said.

University spokeswoman Jenny Johnson Wolf said the students who chose to smoke will be referred to the vice chancellor for Student Affairs, which is university policy for anyone caught smoking.

There is a judicial hearing to determine any discipline. Wolf said there is no minimum or maximum penalty for violating the smoking ban and that each offender is treated on a “case- by-case” basis.

In two years of the restrictions, less than 20 students have received referrals for smoking, Wolf said. Many of the students at the protest say they smoke in the parking lot, and no one has ever told them to stop. Girdley said he has received verbal reprimands for smoking on campus, but was never issued a referral before Thursday.

He said one reason they chose to demonstrate now — two years after the Indiana University Board of Trustees mandated the campus become completely tobacco-free — is because of concern the university was planning to start stricter enforcement of the anti-smoking policy.

Wolf said the university is discussing how to better enforce the rules, but that no formal proposal has been made and no date is set for changes to take place.

“The campus, with feedback from our Executive Council and students, is reviewing options to improve the effectiveness of the tobacco-free compliance, Wolf said. “This includes the possibility of fines and/or community service being assigned to those who break the tobacco-free policy.”

Student Government Association President James Bonsall said he will meet today with administration officials to discuss how to better enforce the tobacco-free policy. He said the university is considering issuing citations that would be similar to parking tickets, rather than having students go before a judicial board.

“Basically, nobody has ever had to enforce the smoking ban so far,” Bonsall said.

He said the problem with the current system is that some students do not have vehicles on campus and therefore cannot smoke. He supports having designated smoking areas away from building.

“I don’t believe nonsmoking students should be subjected at all to smoke,” Bonsall said.

He said it was good to see students out protesting, although he disagrees with them violating university rules to do so.

October 29, 2009
By MATT THACKER, News-tribune

A new study on pollution in Boise, Meridian and Garden City bars is the latest chapter in Smokefree Idaho’s 18-month-long campaign to protect workers and patrons.

So far, the campaign has not succeeded in getting any Treasure Valley cities to ban smoking. Eagle came close, but ultimately backed off. But the campaign leaders say they will not stop trying.

“As long as there are workers that are not protected, we are continuing on,” said Heidi Low, Idaho director of government relations for the American Cancer Society’s Cancer Action Network.

Air in bars on average is 15 times more polluted than air in restaurants, where smoking is prohibited by state law, the coalition said in a news release.

The project is the first scientifically based study of its type to measure the impact of smoking on the indoor air quality in Treasure Valley workplaces, according to a news release from the group.

Volunteers conducted the study under the supervision of the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, N.Y., known for its studies of indoor air quality.

Monitors measured levels of fine particle air pollution. Secondhand smoke is a major source of fine particulate pollution, according to the Coalition for a Healthy Idaho, which is running the Smokefree Idaho campaign.

The coalition is made up of 30 health-related groups, including Blue Cross of Idaho, the Idaho Academy of Family Physicians and the Boise State University Center for Health Policy.

The study found that full-time bar workers are exposed to more than four times the average annual limits of fine particulate air pollution recommended by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

At least 24 states and more than 350 cities that have comprehensive bans on smoking at workplaces, restaurants and bars, Low said.

The coalition is trying to plug remaining holes in Idaho’s state anti-smoking law, which bars smoking in restaurants and most workplaces, but not bars. The line between a bar and a restaurant is a gray area in state law, Low said.

Colleen LaMay: 377-6448

By Colleen LaMay, Idahostatesman

For those of you wondering how the tobacco ban will be enforced at Commonwealth Stadium, just look at the way it will be enforced on the rest of campus. Essentially, the same problems that have crept up at the hospital and have been predicted to pose an issue on campus have a strong potential to be mirrored at the stadium.

UK Hospital has enforced its tobacco-free ban since Nov. 2008 and still encounters far more violations than should occur. General campus is set to implement the ban Nov. 19, and the enforcement, while becoming a little clearer every day, is still hazy at best.

Policy-wise, the idea remains the same at every venue: to promote smoke free air and help rid campus of cigarette butts gratefully adorning campus. But this still leaves smokers with no place to go.

As for those caught ignoring the ban, employees would be referred to Human Resources, students would be dealt with via the code of conduct and visitors would be asked to leave.
While it’s not the strongest stance, at least there is some method of punishment in place for the tobacco ban.

However, the tobacco ban is difficult to monitor and therefore difficult to enforce. Essentially, smokers will be expected to honor the ban, non-smokers will need to report violations and UK Police will “approach” individuals who violate the ban. See where there could be issues here?

In a Sept. 30 Kernel article, Anthany Beatty, vice president for public safety, said violating the ban is not a criminal offense and police officers will not be involved until the situation escalates to an issue of public safety. But by the time an issue deserves police attention, it could be too late.

Brendan Space, a finance sophomore and smoker, said the ban would not stop him from smoking at the stadium and does not think it will be possible to enforce the ban.
Sporting events crowd thousands of fanatical fans in a small, volatile area, and the mix of high adrenaline, alcohol and intolerance toward the ban could present a problem. Leaving a passionate fan responsible for policing UK’s ban could prove risky.

The silver lining for UK in this situation is the fact the ban will not take effect until the final football game versus Tennessee on Nov. 28. This gives UK a little over a week after the ban is implemented campus to find problems, test out the ban before it is fully implemented next year and prepare to combat non-compliant fans.

With any luck there will be a smoother transition at Commonwealth Stadium than at the UK Hospital, but don’t count on it.

October 5, 2009 Kykernel

Smoking bans are spreading from planes, trains and buses to another mode of transit: rental cars.

Beginning Oct. 1, Avis and Budget will become the first major rental-car companies to ban smoking in their entire North American fleets and to impose a cleaning fee of up to $250 on customers who smoke in the cars.

“The No. 1 request we get is for a smoke-free car,” says John Barrows, spokesman of the Avis Budget Group, the parent company. He says a common customer complaint is a car that smells of smoke, adding, “We’re addressing both concerns.”

Barrows says employees who drive the vehicles are no longer allowed to smoke and the cars will undergo a new inspection upon return. He says it costs the company more to clean a smoky car, because it often has to be taken out of service longer.

Avis is following a smoke-free travel trend that took off two decades ago. In 1988, Congress banned smoking on short domestic flights and in 1990 expanded that to flights of up to six hours. That year, it also banned smoking on interstate buses.

In 1994, Amtrak banned smoking on short and medium-distance trips and now allows it only in a designated area of the Auto Train, which runs from outside Washington, D.C., to the Orlando area.

Other car-rental companies have taken more limited steps to address smoking. Hertz allows customers to request a smoke-free car but doesn’t guarantee it, says spokeswoman Paula Rivera.

Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Alamo Rent A Car and National Car Rental do not have an “across-the-board” smoking ban but many of their locations restrict smoking, says Laura Bryant, spokeswoman of parent company Enterprise Holdings.

Anti-smoking groups hailed Avis Budget Group’s ban. “Avis is protecting the rights of all of its customers to breathe clean air,” says Matt Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.

Secondhand smoke is significantly more concentrated in cars than it is in bars, restaurants and other public places, according to a study released last month by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Philip Morris USA, the nation’s largest cigarette-maker, believes private business owners “should have the opportunity to make their own smoking policies,” says spokesman David Sutton.

“It’s disappointing but it’s their private property,” says Gary Nolan of the Smoker’s Club, a part of the Citizens Freedom Alliance, which aims to protect private property rights. Nolan, a smoker, says he used to rent often from Budget, adding, “I won’t rent from them again.”

Barrows says Avis Budget Group, based on customer research, expects its smoke-free policy will help its bottom line. He says, “We think we may gain more business than we lose.”

Copyright © 2009 Usatoday

A small butane lighter that’s the size and shape of a cigarette. That’s what this is. It even looks like a cigarette! Buy a new pack of cigarettes, take one out, light it with this lighter, then put the lighter BACK IN THE PACK!!! That way, you’ll always have a lighter with you but you won’t have to give up precious pocket space.

It’s a simple $1.50 solution to a not-so-complex problem. You’re on your own as far as finding somewhere to smoke is concerned, as you can no longer legally smoke inside, outside, underground, underwater, or in the future — only back in time and inside a smoking helmet.

Drinking his afternoon coffee, Jorge Padron usually lights a cigar that has his name on the side. The company founded by his late father Jose Padron back in 1960s has seen a constant growth for four decades in a row.

But now everything has changed. Cigar industry that provided thousands of workplaces for unskilled workers and supplied aficionados with fine products is coming across difficult times just due to the economic downturn. The implementation of bans on smoking throughout the nation and larger-than-life tax increase played a major role in the declined of cigar sales.

The largest plant to close to his moment has been the Hav-a-Tampa factory in Tampa that is going to stop production within two months and already began laying off workers. American Cigar Association chairman Norman Sharp, admitted that many companies are as well cutting on salaries and firing workers.

Cigars have been perceived as an integral part in lives of American people. Cigars are presented when kids are born or during the wedding ceremony. They have been smoked celebrating victories in NBA and NFL and on many other occasions.

However, currently average smoking rates are dropping as almost 20,000 American cities and localities prohibited smoking in public places. Moreover, more than 100 proposals to increase tobacco taxes have been introduced across the country.

Sharp said that although they have not made a comprehensive market research, reports demonstrate that sales had dropped by 10-12% last year, as people began cutting the expenses on cigars.

According to industry experts, the principal reason of the decline is enormous tax hikes.

The tobacco taxes have seen a massive increase on April 1, when the federal tax increase made large cigars cost 35 cents more. In addition, 12 states have approved tax hikes on tobacco while 25 are in the process of consideration.

Mitch Dolman, one of the editors of Cigarcyclopedia.com, confirmed that small cigars have been hurt the most, because they had been intended to be much cheaper than large counterparts but with a $1-per-pack tax hike the sales have fallen significantly. Premium cigars, which cost $20-30 have not been affected that much, since they are bought mainly by wealthy people.

Jorge Padron said that they have to pay approximately $40.000 for each shipment of 100.000 cigars, from the initial $5.000.

He added that they still use manual labor to roll several cigar brands and with the decline in sales he was forced to cut salaries for his workers. He said that if lawmakers hadn’t stopped considering cigars as a source of easy money it would become a devastation for the whole industry.

“They simply don’t understand that at the end they would not achieve their target – generating more taxes, if our sales continue to drop and we will be forced to fire people,” Pardon mentioned. .

American Cigar Association chairman stated that layoffs will be a disaster not just to the company owners but especially for those simple people, who had been working at the plants for decades. He said the overwhelming majority of the workers barely graduated school and would have hard times finding another decent job.

Mitch Dolman said that public health groups, which advocated for comprehensive smoking bans simply do not understand the difference between cigarettes and cigars, since a cigarette can be smoked in 2 minutes outside a bar, but it is not possible in case of cigars.

” Cigar smoking requires a quite and peaceful place, where people relax and think about the beauties of the world that surrounds them, .”

Almost all the countries banned smoking in public places. One of these countries is Japan. It has banned smoking from most public places, including many city streets, but one company has given shelter to the decreasing ranks of tobacco smokers, by opening smokers-only cafes.

Today thick cigarette smoke flies through the ‘Cafe Tobacco’ shops in the heart of Tokyo which is filled with office workers and shoppers looking to take a quick puff, a habit increasingly scowled upon in a country long seen as a smokers’ paradise.
Tadashi Horiguchi, a board director of the coffee shop operator Towa Food Service Co, said: “Nowadays smoking is considered an evil. That’s why we want to provide an oasis for smokers”.
Outside, a red sign with a picture of a smoking cigarette attracted more clients, approximately 600 a day.
In such cafes, smokers don’t have to feel guilty because they smoke and they feel freer because they are surrounded by other smokers, all of them aged over 20 as stipulated by a sign outside.
Not everyone, especially non-smokers, is as enthusiastic about the new tobacco-friendly cafes as are smokers. They reported that it is not healthy to extend smoking places.
For example, Yosuke Hagimori, a health ministry official, said that: “Tobacco contains toxic substances and increases health risks”.
However Japan’s smoking rate is on the decline but still higher than in other developed countries, with some 40 percent of men and 13 percent of women lighting up.
Instead many local governments and institutions have taken anti-smoking measures themselves. Central Tokyo districts have prohibited or strongly discouraged smoking on the streets except for designated areas.
Smoking has also been banned in most Tokyo taxis since last year and in railway stations as of earlier this year. Many bars, cafes and restaurants, however, still have smoking sections, to the annoyance of health campaigners.
Japanese law still stipulates the goal of a “healthy development” of the tobacco industry to evolve income and for stable tax revenue.
Cigarettes now carry warning labels, but they remain much cheaper in Japan than in most other developed countries, with a pack of 20 cigarettes selling for about three dollars.
In general smokers-only cafes help protect the health of those around the smokers but would it help smokers?

The impact of the latest federal excise tax (FET) increase on tobacco retailing was one of the hot topics discussed during the annual Convenience Store News Tobacco Best Practices Roundtable, held in New Orleans the day before the start of the Tobacco Plus Expo in May.

Guest speaker David Bishop, managing partner of Balvor LLC, a leading c-store consulting firm, presented the results of a new Balvor/CSNews Tobacco Retailing Survey that polled convenience retailers on their expected reactions to the April 1, 61-cent FET increase to $1.01 per pack of cigarettes.

When adding in the mean average state excise tax of $1.20 per pack, cigarette consumers pay $1.44 more per pack in taxes compared to what they paid as of Jan. 1, 2001, which doesn’t even reflect the increased cost associated with changes at the county or city level.

Near term (within the current calendar year) implications cited by Bishop included:

Retailers, especially smaller ones, will likely reduce tobacco inventory as higher inventory cost puts a strain on cash flow. The reductions will come from a combination of SKU rationalization and inventory optimization across all brands;

There will be greater attention paid to value brands as consumers respond to increased prices, especially during such a tough economic time; and,

Shelf space will be reallocated as retailers primarily attempt to capture further growth from the other tobacco products (OTP) side of the business.

For the longer term, Bishop told retailers at the roundtable to expect shifts in market share as some lower volume traditional retailers, namely supermarkets, exit the category at an accelerated pace. There also will be further supply side consolidation, whether via acquisition or internal restructurings, as U.S. manufacturers leverage further synergies to strengthen their bottom lines, he predicted.

Retailers discussed best practices in merchandising, promoting and staying in stock. Retailer guests included representatives from BP/ampm, Certified Oil, Mac’s Convenience Stores, Mother Hubbard’s Cupboard, Plaid Pantries, Royal Buying Group, Smoker Friendly and Worsley/Scotchman Stores.

The 2009 Tobacco Best Practices Roundtable was sponsored by McLane Co.

Retailers at the roundtable were highly vocal in their opposition to the government’s intrusion on the freedom of businesses to sell and people to use a legal product. They didn’t have to use their imagination to see where the cigarette category could go in the near future, and only had to look north to Canada, where much of the country has “gone dark” — meaning no tobacco product or signage can be visible to customers within or outside the store.

Peter Chappell, senior category manager for Mac’s Convenience Stores, based in Ontario, shared the “going dark” experience with roundtable participants from the perspective of someone who lived through it.

Displaying tobacco product or point-of-purchase advertising is now banned in almost every province and territory in Canada — with the product usually hidden from view behind blank flaps, cupboard doors or, in some cases, curtains. By the end of this year, only New Brunswick and Labrador are expected to still allow visibility of tobacco products in the store.

Chappell said Mac’s, a division of North America’s largest company-operated convenience store chain, Alimentation Couche-Tard, experienced some negative impact on sales for the first three months after going dark. He advised against decreasing the number of tobacco SKUs carried in the store, as this action just accelerated the sales decline after cigarettes were hidden in the Canadian stores.

Another frustration for Canadian retailers today is the decreasing opportunities for merchandising activities, noted Chappell.

The frustrations for customers are also obvious: longer service time than before as clerks have to search for the brand and product ordered, and the uncertainty of the product’s availability before ordered.

Chappell said Mac’s experience varied by province. In Saskatchewan, which went dark in 2006, the chain had a marginal sales decrease in the first four weeks following the effective date of the dark market. Four weeks after, sales remained on the national trend.

With the product now behind flaps, Mac’s utilizes the space for more promotional signage of other products, such as chips and beverages, said Chappell.

Other advice from Chappell:

Make the store a destination for tobacco.

Do not cut down the selection of brands. Keep the same listing as before the dark market because product availability will become the first criteria in the store selection for a customer, followed by price.

Instruct store staff on legislation to avoid fines.

Set retail prices low prior to the dark market because customers will remember the low price and return for future purchases.

While going dark on tobacco is not an immediate concern to most U.S. convenience store retailers, the panelists at the roundtable were certainly not totally discounting the possibility — especially under the current Obama administration and its very aggressive stance in favor of increased government regulation of practically everything — from the auto industry, banking and even food ingredients.

Jesus Delgado-Jenkins, CEO of Mother Hubbard’s Cupboard, a regional c-store chain in the Quad Cities area of Illinois and a former government official himself at the Treasury Department, was at a loss to explain the rationale for the ever-increasing taxes on tobacco products. “If you keep increasing the tax on cigarettes, fewer people will buy them, which means sales in the store will decrease,” observed Delgado-Jenkins. “Retailers have to make up that sales decline somewhere. What are they going to do, raise gasoline prices? By taxing cigarettes, you’re also supporting an indirect gas tax hike — is that something you want to do in this economy?”

Of almost equal concern to retailers as taxes was the likelihood of increased theft and security issues as the value of a carton of cigarettes skyrockets — CSNews’ 2009 Forecast Study projects the manufacturer list cost for a carton of cigarettes to top $31 this year, with retail prices in high tax states such as New York soaring above $95 per carton.

To combat shrinkage of this expensive inventory, Mother Hubbard’s started doing surprise audits of the category in April. “Every shift there’s a cigarette count,” said Delgado-Jenkins.

In the process, Mother Hubbard’s reduced inventory by $10,000 to $15,000 per store and taken days of supply down to an average of about three to four weeks for the 13-store chain, although three or four of the stores are operating at two-and-a-half weeks supply, which is the goal.

On a similar note, Worsley/Scotchman Stores also instituted new security policies for better oversight of deliveries in an effort to reduce theft, said Karl Beem, marketing manager.

Asked to name a few of the best-selling new products in the category, most retailers seemed to agree on Camel Crush, a regular cigarette that contains a small capsule in the filter that when crushed, transforms the cigarette into a menthol. However, one retailer said the novelty of the product appears to be waning in his markets.

In terms of pricing strategies, Delgado-Jenkins reported how his strategy has turned 180 degrees from what it was a year ago. “In 2007, we did a lot of promotions. The previous owner took every allowance he could get. Last year, we decided not to promote as much and we saw our total transactions and volume in cigarettes dip,” explained the convenience store retailer. “This year we are going back to the old way and taking every allocation. So far, sales are up 2 percent to 3 percent — not including the price increase.”

Jeremy Weiner of Smoker Friendly said value packs, such as “two-fors,” are selling out for the Colorado-based tobacco chain. Bishop noted many retailers are successfully offering a third pack at a price of $3.99 when the customer buys two at regular price. Chappell said Mac’s in Canada promotes two packs for $17.99, while single packs sell for $10.25. “Fifty-five percent of my cigarette sales are in two-packs,” he noted.

Wayne Wills, merchandising manager for Columbus, Ohio-based Certified Oil, said his convenience stores offer state minimum pricing on cigarettes.

Retailers also discussed the growth of the OTP category (see story, page 35) and the newest category sensation, the electronic cigarette or e-cigarette.

Available from a handful of suppliers, the e-cigarette is a battery-powered device that provides inhaled doses of nicotine through a vaporized solution. It also provides a flavor and physical sensation similar to smoking a regular cigarette, but no tobacco or smoke is involved.

Weiner of Smoker Friendly noted even at the high price of between $57 and $70 for a starter kit containing the device and several refill cartridges, e-cigarettes are “flying off the shelf.” Smoker Friendly sold 67 starter kits in a recent three-week period, said Weiner, who added margins on the starter kit are about 20 percent and margins on the cartridge refills are as high as 40 percent.

Wills said Certified Oil — a more traditional convenience store format than the tobacco outlet Smoker Friendly — sold 80 of the starter kits in its 45 top stores.

Retailers did express concerns that FDA regulation of tobacco could put the brakes on the sale of the product as the government agency investigates it more.

Given all the other governmental and regulatory hurdles in the tobacco category, such a move would hardly surprise these convenience and tobacco retailers.
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