Tobacco Retailers Blame Mayor for Black Market Cigarette Trade

NACS Online
May 3, 2013

New York City’s regulations and taxes on tobacco products have allowed the black market to flourish.

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NEW YORK CITY – Tobacco retailers are ratcheting up their fight against Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s latest tactic to curb smoking, Politicker reports. The New York Association of Grocery Stores railed against the mayor’s proposal to ban in-store displays of tobacco, a minimum price for cigarettes and forbidding retailers from participating in tobacco manufacturer coupons. The City Council’s committee on health is holding hearings on the matter starting today.

“This mayor must be the great Houdini — he must be Houdini — because in 2001, when he took office, we were selling 42 million cartons of cigarettes in the City of New York,” said David Schwartz, a representative of the grocery store association. “The great Houdini waved his magic wand and all of a sudden, in 2013 we’re selling 7 million cartons of cigarettes.”

Schwartz pointed out there is not a corresponding drop in smokers, adding that the city’s new regulations and taxes have allowed a cigarette black market to flourish. Already, New York is the number-one state for contraband cigarettes.

“This mayor and this council have created the largest black market we have ever seen. This black market in cigarettes rivals the drug trade. Opportunists have taken advantage of the system and they are buying untaxed cigarettes in this city and they are selling them all over the place,” said Schwartz.

Chong Sik Lee, president of the Korean-American Grocers Association of New York, said the mayor’s plans would further cripple small businesses. “Even if we have an out-of-date sign, we get fined right away,” said Lee. “On top of that, the proposal requires us to make changes to our stores to hide tobacco products. Why do we have to hide legal products?”