The Association of Convenience Stores has called on the government to scrap plans to introduce a tobacco-style display ban on vape and nicotine products, after finding it would cost a retailer over £3,000 per store on average to implement.
It comes as the Department of Health & Social Care launched a consultation in July, proposing to introduce plain packaging on both vape boxes and devices, as well as a complete ban on the display of vape and nicotine products in shops, as part of its efforts to stop young people vaping. The consultation closes today (2 October).
ACS has criticised the proposals as expensive and unnecessary, estimating that prohibiting vape displays in stores would cost the convenience sector over £160m to install alone.
Its findings come from working with retailers who had been undertaking refits in a bid to gauge costs, and tasking independent shopfitters to measure installations and provide estimates.
The ACS said its cost evaluation was a “stark contrast” to the government’s own impact assessment on the proposals, which suggested that the cost of fitting new gantries would work out as £156.20 per store on average.
In its submission to the consultation, ACS has acknowledged the need to move vapes behind the shop counter but does not support covered vape displays, which are similar to those in place for tobacco products.
The government’s proposals would also not allow retailers to put vapes and tobacco products in the same gantry, as retailers would not be allowed to temporarily display tobacco when someone asks for a vape, and vice versa.
“A full display ban on vapes is an expensive and unnecessary overreach. If the government is committed to plain vape packaging and devices to stop them being visually appealing, there’s no extra benefit to putting those plain packs out of sight,” said ACS CEO Ed Woodall.
“The right approach is a common sense one that doesn’t cost every local shop thousands of pounds and weeks of unnecessary disruption fitting additional gantries.”
ACS said the proposed timelines for the introduction of these measures was also impractical. Government has suggested they would need to be implemented six months after the regulations were introduced, giving retailers “very little time” to book in shopfitters and adapt their businesses.
Woodall added: “The six-month timeline for implementation is completely impractical. We know from the introduction of the tobacco display ban over a decade ago that shopfitters get booked very quickly, leaving thousands of retailers scrambling to find temporary solutions at short notice.
“If stores can keep their displays on and behind the till then a year will be sufficient to adapt, but a full display ban will need at least two years to allow everyone time to comply.”
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