How A PA Tobacco Shop Is Staying Open During Gov. Wolf’s ‘Non-Life-Sustaining’ Business Shutdown
“We’re more of a convenience store”
While Gov. Tom Wolf plans to gradually reopen the state’s economy starting May 8, the only businesses currently operating are those deemed “life-sustaining.”
Puff Discount Tobacco is one such business.
Owner Bob Busche of Murrysville has 13 stores in Western Pennsylvania, including Plum and Monroeville, and has 80 employees.
Busche, who’s been in business for 22 years, said his stores are life-sustaining because they sell food, beverages, and other products similar to a gas station store — without the gas pumps.
“We’re more of a convenience store, even though most of my stuff is cigarettes and tobacco. But we do have the things we were told to have (as a life-sustaining business),” he said.
State Department of Community and Economic Development officials seemed to agree with Busche’s assessment, even though smoke shops are largely considered to be non-life sustaining.
DCED Spokeswoman Casey Smith said the administration used a coding structure from the US Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics to identify which businesses were life-sustaining. Guidelines from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency were also used.
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