This was reported in a NACS publication:

“The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has withdrawn the Food & Drug Administration’s proposal that would ban the sale of menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars.

Two states - California and Massachusetts—have already enacted bans on the sales of menthol cigarettes and most flavored cigars. The results from these bans show that they simply do not work as intended and drive smokers to an illicit market.”

There are only two comments we’d like to make, and the second is “I told you so!” as we already stipulated in our earlier blog “Surprise, Surprise – Bans Don’t Work”.

The first comment is that unlike the repeal of the Prohibition with the capital P, this time the repeal of this much smaller, menthol prohibition, fortunately, did not require a Constitutional Amendment.

The retailers, including c-store operators, don’t have control over the decisions made by state legislatures or municipal powers. However, it helps to be aware of the impact of such decisions and act proactively—either by appealing to the legislators or by analyzing alternative products that can substitute the prohibited categories.

It all comes down to understanding your customer base, and, as we call it, KYC (Know Your Customer).

KYC – This rule originated in finance, focusing primarily on identifying potential fraud indicators. In retail, however, KYC means knowing the things about your customers that will help you better satisfy their needs and wishes.

In addition to traditional demographic reports by address, you can now also get Traffic Flow Demographics, a set of data describing the drivers in the flow of traffic that passes by your store.Ticon’s new product is available with nationwide coverage and high granularity, at Ticon’s industry-leading accuracy and precision.

So, if you want to be ahead of the game, give us a call to talk about asset store performance optimization with Ticon’s highly precise data.