Page 37 - TOB Magazine Jan/Feb 2013

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TOBACCO OUTLET BUSINESS
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013
GrowthWith
PackagedGoods
The diversity doesn’t stop there, however.
“16 of our 17 locations carry beer, and one
location is actually an agency liquor store,”says
Beaulier.“When the current owner purchased
the chain in 2007, we learned that we were
ignorant of a state law that says you have to
carry beer if you have liquor.But it turned out
to be a good problem for us because it was our
gateway into beer, and we decided to carry it
in all of our stores. There are no traditional
packaged goods stores in Maine,”he explains,
and as a result the product line has consistently
grown across all of the chain’s stores over the
course of the last five years. “Beer and liquor
are clearly a business driver, they definitely
helpus pick up some transactions,but it’s fairly
typical for grocers and wholesalers like Sam’s
Club, Costco and BJ’s to carry beer and wine.
I’d bet that 99 percent of all convenience stores
andbigbox stores in the state,evendrug stores,
carry beer.”
Situational Expansion
The additionof 10newstores to theCigaret
Shopper family over the last six years has been
largely situational. “We have expanded at a
pace we’re comfortable with, and our outlook
is that we’re always looking for opportunities.”
Of these newest locations, some have been
built from the ground up, while others were
purchased as existing buildings. “In one case,
we had a building owner who approached us
and really persuaded us to locate there.”
Of the chain’s 17 locations, only one is
what Beaulier calls a convenience location,but
Maine is not a densely populated state, and
store location doesn’t have as great an impact
on what a proprietor can or should do in a
store as it might in another state, particularly
if you’re a tobacconist. “Cigarette and tobacco
stores in Maine enjoy certain protections as
dedicated tobacco shops,” explains Beaulier.
“Smoking is allowed in tobacco stores, they
are the only public location in a state that is
grandfathered—not beaches, not parks. You
can come in to smoke in any of our stores, or
any other tobacconist’s store, as long as the
building’s owner hasn’t written restrictions
into the lease. But we still maintain an age
restriction—no one under 18 is allowed to set
foot in our shops.”
OtherGrowth Trends
While Cigaret Shopper has been spared
tighter restrictions around on-premises
smoking,there is one recent regulatory change
that has adversely affected a growth area that
the chain had previously benefitted from:
RYO filling stations. “We owned a few of
the RYO machines, but now that we can’t
use them anymore they’ve become giant boat
anchors,”Beaulier jokes.
“They were quite an attraction,”he says.“In
some instances it was novelty for customers
to come in to use a machine, and in other
instances the machines were attracting weekly
users who were consistent, steady clients. But
withtheir exit,we’venoticedcustomersblazing
a path back to fourth-tier brands and other
segments.Those customers are not willing to
pay $20 of taxes for a carton of cigarettes—
they want to enjoy tobacco without paying
the excise tax—so they’ve moved into other
product segments like filtered cigars and loose
tobacco.”
Boosting Traffic
Maine is far more rural than most of the
country,and its residents are far less gregarious
than their more urban counterpart,but special
in-store events do help generate interest and
good will from customers, says Beaulier. “We
hold ‘cigar nights’ in our Ellsworth location,
which is one of our higher volume stores.
We have a cigar lounge there, whereas in
other stores we don’t have lounges, which
makes it much more difficult to have feature
events,”he says.“But we regularly partner with
manufacturers who are happy to host events
with us, and they work very hard with us on
them tomake thema success.”
That said, Beaulier readily admits that he
is much more focused on creating a reliable
customer experience in all of his stores than
he is with creating one-off special events.“Our
signage is consistent,merchandise is presented
the same way in every location in terms of
product groupings and merchandise flow, and
we are a Smoker Friendly-authorized retailer,
so we bring that expertise to the plate, too, in
terms of product knowledge and assortment.”
Of greater importance, he says, is the
quality of personnel on each store’s staff, and
how well they engage customers. “A lot rides
on the store manager’s shoulders,” he says. “It
trench marketing