Government Rejects Flawed Tobacco Display Ban

Press Release from Stay Displays Coalition

Headline: Government Rejects Flawed Tobacco Display Ban

The Mum and Dad family retailers around the country today can breathe an economic sigh of relief as the National-led Government today officially rejected campaigns to remove displays of tobacco products from retail outlets.

“The National-led Government has taken a commonsense approach. A display ban would have hurt retailers because of the costs associated with hiding products from consumers. There would also have been increased risks to our security,” said Stay Displays representatives Murray Gibson of Timaru and Richard Green of Palmerston North.

“For more than two years retailers have been on a knife-edge wondering if, at the flick of a pen, they would be required to spend thousands of dollars reconfiguring their shops,” Mr Gibson said. “This is good news for all retailers around the country. Their minds can now be put at ease because there is one less worry in these diffῩcult economic times. This is a responsible move by the Government.

Stay Displays is a coalition of more than 200 retailers nationwide who opposed proposals from anti-tobacco groups such as the Smokefree Coalition, which wanted to see displays of tobacco products removed from shops. Stay Displays is backed up by more than 7,000 voting New Zealanders who signed a petition against any changes to retail regulations.

“There is no evidence that banning displays will reduce smoking. Banning displays would have cost individual retailers a lot of money to implement but would have no effect on tobacco consumption,” Mr Green said.

Stay Displays was formed in 2007 by owners of dairies and convenience stores who were deeply concerned by lobbying efforts from anti-tobacco groups. Last year, economic research from the Association of Convenience Stores (NZACS) showed banning tobacco displays would cost retailers collectively more than $45 million to implement.

For more information, go to www.staydisplays.co.nz

ENDS

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