60
TOBACCO BUSINESS INTERNATIONAL
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014
and tubes business is alive and well
and doing great business for the chain,
but it is part of a “great shot in the
arm” trio—as Grant classifies it—
along with eCigs and vapor products/
accessories.
Cox’s stayed a step ahead of the
big machine shutdown by continually
diversifying and evolving. Others
stayed a step ahead by never getting
involved in the first place. But that
had ramifications, too.
For Klafter’s, which never got into
the RYO machine business despite
considering it at one time, tabletop
RYO remains a strong category, albeit
one that took a slight hit according
to Randy Silverman, president of
the 15-store chain based in New
Castle, Pennsylvania. “For us, we
saw continuous declines when the
big machines were in business, and
then when they went out, the decline
stopped,” he tells
TBI
. “Now that
decline has flattened out.We didn’t see
the rebound of what we lost entirely,
but it’s still a very good profit.”
Silverman
elaborates
that,
hypothetically, “if we were at 100
customers a day prior to the machines
and we went down to 90 when they
died, we are back up to 95 now. But
we’re not sure exactly where those
lost five customers are today,” he
admits.
Silverman speculates that perhaps
some were lost to a few of the
former large machine operators who
successfully converted to tobacco
retailers; others might have gone
to the dollar stores that now carry
tobacco products.
Regardless, “putting the brakes on
the decline was the biggest thing for
us,” he relays. Similar to the others,
RYO tobacco is alive and well in his
stores, as part of a constantly evolving
mix.
TBI
