The news that the federal government will move to ban non-prescription vape products in Australia brings clarity to a challenged retail category.
I do wonder what compensation will be offered to vape shops that have legally flourished in Australia. I suspect it will vale to state and territory governments to resolve this.
For what it’s worth I’ve advocated newsagents not get into the vape space as I felt it was always going to be more heavily regulated.
Given the news from the federal Minister for Health last night, now would be a good time to scale back if you are in this space.
It does come back to the question about the type of retailer you see yourself as being and the types of customers you want to attract. You’ll do better focussing on better margin new traffic attracting products.
As has been the case with tobacco retail for decades, price drives vape product sales. On price, it is tough for indie retailers to win. We do so much better focussing on higher margin products that people love and love giving.
I have never understood how all those “tobacconists” (Tobacco Station, Smokemart, Cygnall, Freechoice, Mr Smokey and others) have been able to flourish (at least here in QLD) when most of them are right next to a Coles or Woolies who also sells smokes. Are these shops making money selling things like NRL supporter gear or hooka pipes in the shape of Kalashnikovs (something I saw in a Tobacco Station once) rather than bog standard cigarettes?
On the Gold Coast today I visited 5 convenience stores. All 5 sell vape products, I saw all 5 discretely offer products from under the counter.