In an editorial for Convenience Store News,editor-in-chief Linda Lisanti talked about the ever-changing tobacco category and encouraged retailers to rethink their “backbar,” the area behind the register. She said in the magazine’s 2025 survey, that half of convenience store operators plan to add more other tobacco product (OTP) SKUs this year and 47% plan to increase the square footage they devote to OTP.
“Despite the industry’s increasing focus on providing high-quality prepared foods and innovative dispensed beverages, tobacco products are still a crucial part of the convenience store business, comprising roughly 30% of the industry’s annual in-store sales,” she wrote. “As I sit here pondering over the tobacco category, I can’t help but think of the saying, ‘Nothing worth having comes easy’ — because selling tobacco products is anything but easy. It’s a challenging, always-changing business, especially when it comes to regulation.”
Lisanti’s article touches on FDA regulation and links to numerous stories written on similar topics.
