ST. JOHN??S, Newfoundland - These days, Canadian convenience stores are feeling the pressure from all sides: more illegal tobacco sales, rising credit card fees, higher labor costs and increased store security costs, the Telegram reports.

The Atlantic Convenience Store Association fingers illegal tobacco as one of the biggest culprits. The association would like more enforcement and higher fines for sellers and purchasers of contraband cigarettes.

Around 658 convenience stores in Newfoundland have banded together to fight contraband tobacco. "Certainly, it??s a growing issue in the Atlantic area and in Newfoundland," said Glenn Sullivan, retail manager for North Atlantic. "In the past year, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police have made three major busts of contraband product on the west coast [that had come] across on the ferry."

Cathy Ivany, who manages Stockwood??s Bakery and Deli, said that contraband tobacco really harms stores like hers. "For a consumer to purchase a carton of cigarettes from us, you??re looking at $80-odd to $90, plus tax. Whereas they can go buy contraband - 200 cigarettes which is the equivalent of a carton - for about $20."

The association asked St. John??s South MP Siobhan Coady to volunteer at a local convenience store last week. She spent two hours at a North Atlantic store, getting to know the issues faced by store owners and their customers.

"They have a major concern with contraband tobacco...[and] the other one is the credit card and debit card issues they??re facing and the associated costs," she said.

Mike Hammoud, president of the Atlantic Convenience Stores Association, would like to see other MPs following Coady??s experience. "We need the MPs and provincial governments to recognize the problems and to, more importantly, start taking some action," he said.

For Sullivan, the hardest thing for convenience stores is simply surviving from one year to the next. "In some parts of Canada, we??re seeing 10 percent of convenience stores closing every year. In Newfoundland last year, the number of stores declined by six percent," he said.