Last month Woodlands Local pulled the shutters down on its tobacco display to see how sales would be affected. With the display ban now six months away, would other retailers consider going dark early?
Leslie Kilminster – Premier retailer
The whole process has been tough on retailers but we have to deal with it. Now it’s happening I’m actually looking forward to it – I don’t think there will be such a reliance on priced marked packs anymore. I’ve changed from non-PMP to PMP so sales have gone up a bit but profit has gone down. I would consider bringing it forward then; it’s going to happen so it doesn’t really matter when. I’ve had the dark planogram in place a while now. It’s 45% of my business so I like to keep a close eye on it.
Linda Williams – Broadway Convenience Store
Like a lot of retailers the actual date of compliance is out of our hands as our tobacco supplier will be looking after it. We’ve no control over the date we’ll go dark but I suspect it’ll be before April. It doesn’t really matter when it happens as it’ll still be difficult. The advantage of going dark earlier is that you’re more prepared. There could be dozens of stores doing it on 5th April, so being ahead of the game could be beneficial.
David Mitchell – KeyStore Broadloan
We have discussed it. It was after reading last month’s SLR and the fact Woodlands Local was going dark early that got me thinking, but we’ve got three or four other shops very close to us so we wouldn’t get a true ready of how it affects sales. If those other shops are all displaying PMPs and we’ve got the shutters down, I don’t think I’d get any significant answers. We need to go dark at the same time as our competitors and so we’ll be leaving it as late as we can, although the planogram is already in place.
Graeme Knowles – Nisa Retailer
We’re working with our gantry supplier so it’ll be them that determines timings. To be honest, it doesn’t bother me when it happens. I wouldn’t do it as early as Woodlands Local but come the turn of the year I don’t see what difference it will make. Leaving it until the 6th April seems a bit silly to me. I’d rather do it a couple of months before then and try to learn from it. We’ll certainly be cutting our range, but as long as shopper know we’re still selling tobacco it’ll be fine.