Cigarettes will disappear by the end of the year in most parts of Canada.
Convenience stores across the country are facing new rules on displaying cigarettes that require them to keep the packages behind closed doors or in drawers out of public view.
The display ban is set to take effect in Ontario and Quebec tomorrow and follows similar moves that have already been adopted or are pending in other parts of the country. Newfoundland is the only province that isn't moving to ban retail cigarette displays.
According to the Ontario Campaign for Action on Tobacco, the display ban is designed to prevent children from being exposed to images of cigarettes and to "de-normalize" the product in the rest of the population.
But the change is creating significant controversy among retailers and health advocates over the business of smoking and whether the government should be able to restrict one of the convenience store industry's most profitable products.
"There's just a lot of confusion at this time and that's normal when you cover up your number one selling product," said Dave Bryans, president of the Canadian Convenience Stores Association.
But health experts say that criticism highlights a troubling closeness between convenience store retailers and the tobacco industry.
"I think this speaks exactly to the relationship with the tobacco industry," said Michael Perley, director of the Ontario Campaign for Action on Tobacco.
"This portion of the retail sector has chosen to ally itself with the tobacco industry on the issue of whether tobacco industry products should continue to be promoted to anyone who comes into a convenience store."
Mr. Bryans said the only thing the display ban will likely do is put many stores out of business and damage small retailers who rely on tobacco sales from existing smokers.
"It will not deter. All it does is hurt ... the small business model in every community," Mr. Bryans said.
"Thirty per cent of all stores will be gone within three years and that's because we don't have the replacement traffic categories," Mr. Bryans said.
For many years, convenience store operators have relied on cigarettes to bring in a major portion of their sales. In addition, most tobacco companies have paid convenience stores to prominently display their products or make sure they're visible to the customer.
That is rapidly changing as more provinces move to block retail displays of cigarettes. And the changes mean convenience stores will suddenly feel the pressure from lost sales.
"[Cigarettes are]a very important draw," Mr. Perley said. "The tobacco industry and its products have been the gravy train for the convenience stores up until the last few years."
After Saturday's deadline, retailers in Ontario and Quebec will have to conceal cigarettes in drawers underneath the counter, or behind a series of opaque wall coverings that can flip up when a customer requests a package. The coverings should only expose one cigarette brand at a time and should be designed to flip down automatically after a clerk removes the cigarettes. Ontario retailers that don't comply could be fined up to $10,000 for a first offence and up to $150,000 for three or more offences.
Although the majority of convenience stores will comply with the legislation, it will be difficult for smaller operations to meet the deadline and pay for the new coverings that will block the customer's view of cigarette packages, Mr. Bryans said. They could also lose business because frustrated customers may lose patience with clerks who won't be able to find their brand as quickly under the new coverings, he said.
"There will be some panic among the small level of convenience store retailers," Mr. Bryans said, referring to independent businesses.
He said it's unlikely the display bans mark the end of tobacco regulation, and that governments should consider some type of compensation to help convenience store operators who will inevitably suffer as a result of such restrictions.
"The way we handle tobacco today will not be the way we handle tobacco in the future. We have to face that," Mr. Bryans said. "Some will survive those phases, some won't."
But health experts such as Mr. Perley say that argument is "nonsense." He said he hopes the government moves to fully enforce the display bans in Ontario and Quebec this weekend and that no leeway is given to retailers who claim they couldn't meet the deadline.
Carly Weeks