OPINION: Issues with going dark

It was an interesting week at the shop when we had the installation of our dark tobacco gantry.

I’ve had a few issues with the tobacco gantry and I think there are things that haven’t really been considered.

Quite frankly, going dark is just a pain and for more reasons than you may think. Previously, staff under the age of 18 were allowed to sell alcohol and tobacco if there was an adult staff member present to administer the sale.

But now under-18s aren’t even supposed to see the tobacco, so how are my staff meant to sell the products? I can’t take them away from the counter.

We don’t have to hide tobacco rolling papers away with the cigarettes, but you can display them among children’s sweets. Did they really think through this? I know it’s early, but sales haven’t dropped one iota. It’s backfired if you ask me, because we’ve had children showing more interest in wanting to know what’s behind the doors.

Counterfeit cigarettes are a big problem in my village and this isn’t going to help. My customers openly tell me they go back to France and buy cheap cigarettes.

I do understand why they do it, but there is one retailer who goes back to Poland every two weeks and stocks up on cheap cigarettes to sell here. The people who buy them cheaply are often the ones who smoke the most and they just want to save money.

If they start buying illegally-made cigarettes, who knows what’s in them.

How have you found the display ban so far? Leave your comments below.