76
TOBACCO BUSINESS INTERNATIONAL
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014
trench marketing
BY MICHAEL GELFAND
T
he deck is very much stacked
against Smokers Choice, and long
has been. Its home state of New
York has the highest tax on tobacco of any
state ($4.35 per pack),as well as formidable
property taxes and a high crime rate. Yet,
the company has consistently managed to
stay on a growth track since 2002—when
Darren Schwartz took over what was then
a 16-store chain.
“A lot of people don’t understand how
we’re growing in a market that doesn’t
support growth and where it’s so difficult
to trade in what we sell,” says Schwartz,
whose recent purchase of a six-store chain
brought his store count to 56 locations
in New York and Pennsylvania. “Where
people have a tough time, we thrive.”
A big piece of that success puzzle is
FasTrax, a point-of-sale system developed
specifically for tobacco retail that enables
SmokerS ChoiCe:
The Big 50 and Beyond
Despite an inhospitable home turf, this rock hill, new York-based
chain now has more than 50 locations and counting.
