Tomorrow (1 May) marks just one month until the implementation of the disposable vapes ban, which has wide ranging impact on the convenience sector.
The assess the significance of this date,Convenience Store caught up with four retailers to see how they’ve been preparing their stores for the change - and more importantly, if they’re ready…
Dee Sedani, Londis Etwall and One Stop Matlock and Packmore
“It took a lot to prepare for and there’s been a lot to look at. Retailers should be organising their old stock. They should be selling through now. At the end of this process, there are going to be some items left over. It’s about how well you manage your inventory now, opposed to later.
“I mean, we’ve got quite a bit left, but hopefully by the end of end of May we’ll have got rid of it. So we’ve started getting in new stock now. With the old stock, we’re pushing it and reducing it. But about a month ago we literally stopped ordering and limited the amount of range people could have, so then that way we were ahead of the curve.
“But we’ll get through it. The teams are working through it now. But I don’t feel our shoppers know about the changes. There’s no education – it’s diabolical. No one knows anything. Customers have just got to get wind of it and there’s nothing in the news to make people know about it. So it’s still not quite out there yet.
“It’s been handled quite badly. It’s just a matter of education, but people will soon get the hang of it when they can’t buy it. I think the government or whoever haven’t done a good job of reminding people closer to the date. And we’ll get the flack for it, that’ll be the problem. The team will be getting the flack for it from shoppers, so it’s a bit annoying really.”
Mike Fitton, Southern Co-op group (right)
“At Welcome we’ve been reminding our franchisees regularly over the last six months about the date the ban takes effect using the excellent Association of Convenience Stores literature to update them. In addition, our franchise operations managers discuss the ban with each franchisee during their regular store visits to ensure there are no misunderstandings.”
Vince Malone, Tenby Stores & Post Office
“We’ve been managing the run down of our unsold vape stock since January to ensure that we will be in a situation whereby we’ve cleared all non-compliant stock by the end of April. This will give us a month for any remedial action if necessary, but as it stands we’re very much on target.”
Priyesh Vekaria, One Stop Carlton Convenience
“Vapes have done a full circle already. When they launched, we were told that no high puff-count units were to be sold. Now, larger tank and puff sizes have been normalised and lower puff disposable units are going to be banned.
“It’s a classic power struggle of politics at play. Retailers bear the brunt and handle the struggles of keeping up with flippant regulatory changes. The impacts are that ultimately manufacturers will find a way to work around and launch legislative compliant products. In terms of enforcement it will be up to local authorities to do as they wish with the limited resources they have. There will be no central guidance for anyone.
“Retailers will then be targeted as cash cows for local authorities, easy targets and easy money for them. It’s making it harder and harder to trade in this channel. Fortunately for us we have OneStop guidance, whose support will be standardised for all to follow. Currently there is a lot of work to be done with this bill as it’s been very loosely put together and passed.
“I strongly urge those in power to have more in-depth consultations with retailers. We’re already supporting some campaigns in a bid to protect our stores and seek some clarity, using the protectyourstore.co.uk website.”
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