Duluth Minnesota Businesses Circumvent Flavored Tobacco Ban
“This was a no-brainer”
Duluth convenience stores are retaliating against a 2018 city ordinance which restricts the sale of menthol and flavored tobacco to designated smoke shops.
The Holiday Stationstore on Grand Avenue in West Duluth and the Korner Store in Gary-New Duluth are building smoke shops within the stores — something that Derek Medved said he hopes will restore the 19 percent drop in sales his Korner Store endured in the year since the ordinance was adopted.
“This was a no-brainer,” said Medved, the owner of convenience stores in Duluth, Chisholm, Superior and Hermantown. “If it’s disrespectful, if it looks bad, if it’s throwing shade at the City Council — they had no problem doing the same to business development within the city.”
CBS 3 Duluth first reported Holiday’s smoke shop expansion earlier this month. In a statement to the News Tribune, Holiday Vice President of Operations Rick Johnson said the tobacco shops opened only after being in regulatory compliance with the city.
“When Holiday opened its first tobacco shop in Duluth, Minnesota last week, it did so only after obtaining city approval and licensing,” he said. “This was not a workaround or a loophole, rather the shop was created in complete compliance and support of the Duluth City Council’s ordinance moving the sale of flavored tobacco out of convenience and grocery stores into ‘smoke shops.'”
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