This interview with Steve Kottak, senior director, external relations, Reynolds American Inc. Trade Marketing Services Co., first appeared in the August issue of NACS Magazine. It is brought to you by support from Reynolds American Inc. Trade Marketing Services Co., a NACS Gold Hunter Club member.
Why is it important for retailers to pay attention to politics, and more importantly, politics at the local level?
While major tobacco regulations used to only come out of Washington, D.C., retailers now must deal with even more aggressive measures from their local governments. Increasingly, one of the greatest current threats to hardworking retailers is decisions made in city hall.
In municipalities across the country, local governments are resorting to tactics that dictate what products retailers can sell—even going as far as to put an outright ban on tobacco—regardless of the cost to businesses and communities.
Additionally, restrictive retail licensing schemes that limit the transferability of the license when a store is sold can devalue the business significantly. And even bans and regulations on flavored products, including menthol, wintergreen and mint—which comprise 30% to 40% of the cigarette category and 90% of moist snuff—are being sought by local governments.
When it comes to tobacco proposals at the local level, there are an increasing number of ordinances introduced that attempt to limit the number of places that sell tobacco, allow tobacco only to be sold in age-restricted stores and restrict the sale of flavored tobacco products.
Why is active retailer involvement important?
Local elected officials want to hear from their constituents—the people who can vote for them. City council members care about what retailers and their employees have to say.
As constituents, taxpayers, job creators and well-connected members of the community, convenience retailers have the ability to work with and educate local lawmakers. Critical to these efforts is establishing and maintaining relationships with local elected officials.
An existing relationship can make all the difference when potentially negative regulations come across an official’s desk. At the local level, much of the debate and consideration is happening right now, before a piece of legislation is even introduced. When an ordinance is introduced, oftentimes it’s introduced with the sole intent to pass it—not to debate the merits of the proposal. Many times during a local public hearing, constituents are limited to only one or two minutes of testimony before a vote is taken on an ordinance. Therefore, a solid relationship with your local legislator can provide the opportunity for in-depth conversation that will educate these individuals on your business and the impact of the ordinance.
So, how can a retailer go about building a relationship with elected officials?
Building and maintaining relationships with elected officials may seem like a daunting task for busy retailers handling the day-to-day operations of one or two stores, and even more so for larger retailers that have locations spread across numerous cities or states.
Still, it is important to keep a good rapport with local policymakers. This can be done by attending and participating in city council meetings, inviting local officials to meet and tour your store locations and meeting with elected officials one-on-one to discuss the issues important to you and the community.
Sometimes c-store retailers are not perceived as valuable to the community. How can retailers make their voices—and their importance to the community—be heard?
The downside of not building and maintaining key relationships is that others with a different agenda may provide negative and inaccurate information about the convenience store industry to city officials in order to advance issues that they support, which could have a direct negative impact on retailers.
At city council hearings, there can be many misperceptions about how convenience stores operate, so it’s important that these misperceptions are corrected and the positive contributions convenience stores provide are communicated. The reality is that convenience stores are community markets and are part of the fabric of the communities in which they operate. And it’s that term—community market—that is especially important. When talking with local elected officials, retailers can explain what they do for the community by saying, “I am a community market, I am a responsible retailer, I am a food destination, I provide good jobs, and I create tax revenue for this community.”
Retailers have a great story to tell: They may provide fresh food (often in areas that would otherwise be classified as food deserts), offer good jobs, provide safe and well-lit places, generate significant tax revenue that localities and states depend on, sponsor local events, support charities and much more. These contributions are what retailers should focus on when talking to their elected officials.
Local officials should be educated on the views and positions of retailers when considering ordinances that could have the potential to hurt local businesses. It’s important that elected officials understand the facts and view retailers as community markets— job-creators, taxpayers and an integral part of their communities—rather than viewing them negatively as some anti-retailer groups portray them.
The best defense against punitive legislative measures that can hurt retailers is an ongoing offense that positions your stores in the best light possible, builds substantive relationships with local decision-makers and inoculates against potential future attacks on business.