Tobacco Regs Halt 7-Eleven Expansion Plans

City of Philadelphia is limiting the amount of permits it allows for retailers to sell tobacco products.

May 08, 2017

PHILADELPHIA – The Philadelphia Health Department “decided to suffocate permits” for retailers to sell tobacco products in what the Philadelphia Inquirer calls a two-pronged attack.

“One prong is to reduce the number of merchants in areas it considers to have too many stores. The other prong is to ban sales within 500 feet of any school. Think of them as red zones. The tactic is to deny a cigarette sales permit to any store in a red zone when it changes ownership,” writes the news source. As such, more than half of Philadelphia’s 60 7-Eleven stores are located in these so-called red zones, as well as 1,500 other franchises that change hands in ownership.

In December 2016, the Health Department issued a Regulation Relating to Tobacco Retailing. The regulation claims that Philadelphia has significantly more tobacco retailers per capita than other comparable cities, and low-income neighborhoods in Philadelphia contain significantly more tobacco retailers than high-income neighborhoods. The regulation also states that high tobacco retailer density and ubiquitous tobacco marketing are associated with increased smoking rates among youth and adults.

Manzoor Chughtai, president of the Delaware Valley 7-Eleven Franchise Owners Association, told the news source that the additional 35 stores 7-Eleven planned for Philadelphia have been halted. Without a tobacco permit a store would stand to lose 25% to 50% of its gross revenue, as well as sales on additional in-store merchandise purchased with tobacco products. 

Bilal Barqawi, who has owned a 7-Eleven store in Northeast Philadelphia since 2002, told the news source that his store got trapped in the city’s new rule because a school opened within 500 feet of his store three years ago. Now, because the permit would be revoked, “I cannot sell [the store], I cannot transfer [the store] to my sons; whatever investment I had was gone,” he said.

Health Department spokesman James Garrow told the news source that his colleagues “understand some retailers might be negatively impacted,” but the goal is to reduce smoking by children.

Retailers agree wholeheartedly that tobacco and other age-restricted products should not be accessible to those under the legal age of consumption; however, retailers do not agree with the city’s tactics. At-Large Councilman Al Taubenberger supports the city’s retailers: “No one’s arguing the health part,” he told the news source, but taking away the ability to earn an income “is not fair and in some ways is un-American.”

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