By Jay Pugazhenthi
Cigar shops are collateral damage
Trae Zammit owns the Smokin’ Cigar shop in Toronto. As the war on Big Tobacco rages on, cigar shops like Trae’s are caught in the crossfire.
The new plain packaging legislation is beating the tar out of his business. Zammit predicts he’ll be forced to go down to two employees from seven, before inevitably closing down.
By the end of the year, he is set to lose 50% of his products.
Zammit believes the law is unfair because kids don’t smoke cigars. “Kids can barely afford cigarettes, let alone cigars,” he says. “Cigarettes are mass produced; a dozen hands go into making just one cigar.”
Cigars are an emblem of glamor. The luxury item flips that old adage, “it’s not the outside that matters; it’s the inside,” on its head.
The taste is almost irrelevant if the package is ugly. Zammit believes “it would be like buying a really expensive fine wine or scotch with the ugliest bottle. When you’re spending that much money, why settle?”
A ‘smoke-free’ Canada?
Meanwhile, Big Tobacco hasn’t been dealt just another jab. Plain packaging has left Rothmans Benson & Hedges, arguably the biggest Canadian tobacco distributor, reeling from a nasty blow.
RBH foresaw the move and plotted its way into the ‘smoke-free’ business – which they hail as the future.
Fresh off the release of IQOS, a heated tobacco unit, RBH is banking on a ‘smoke-free’ Canada. The innovative device provides smokers with the benefits of nicotine without the carcinogens and harm caused by burning tobacco.
The multi-billion dollar company has overhauled its cigarette factories due to the new law, and plan to get out of the cigarette business completely.
Can the law be improved?
Zammit hasn’t given up yet. He has joined forces with other cigar shop owners and customers to form TheBetterCigarPlan. The team has outlined a ‘better’ plain packaging plan that doesn’t affect cigars.
England and France passed plain packaging laws, but left cigars out, and Zammit wishes the federal government would “follow in their footsteps.”
25 years ago, Jane Saber was part of a government research team studying the effects of plain packaging on new and active smokers, as well as non-smokers. Now a marketing professor at Ryerson U, Saber claims the new law is negligible.
The government is wasting its time cutting bait, Saber argues, when there’s “better fish to fry”.
“The fact that the law doesn’t apply to vaping products is deeply disturbing. Especially given the direct risk to youth,” she says.
Vapes aren’t categorized as tobacco products, so they are free to advertise their designs despite grave concerns.
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