Big Tobacco and Convenience Stores Partner to Market Tobacco Products and Fight Life-Saving Policies

Tobacco companies have enlisted convenience stores as their most important partners in marketing tobacco products and fighting policies that reduce tobacco use, thereby enticing kids to use tobacco and harming the nation’s health, according to a report by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, Counter Tobacco and the American Heart Association.

As other forms of tobacco marketing have been restricted, tobacco companies now spend more than 90 percent of their marketing budget — nearly $10 billion a year — to saturate convenience stores, gas stations and other retail outlets.  Tobacco companies pay stores billions to ensure that cigarettes and other tobacco products are advertised heavily, displayed prominently and priced cheaply to appeal to both kids and current tobacco users.

Convenience stores have also become partners with — and front groups for — the tobacco industry in fighting higher tobacco taxes and other public policies that reduce tobacco use.