Managing Tobacco's Volatility

Wacky, volatile, unpredictable: These are just a few of the adjectives one could use to describe today’s state of tobacco.

With local communities threatening new sales bans, a bevy of states eyeing higher taxes and manufacturers giving rise to new segments, it doesn’t take much imagination to understand how retailers could look at their No. 1 category with a somewhat blurry eye.

So when more than 50 tobacco retailers, manufacturers and distributors gathered in Chicago in September to take part in CSP’s annual Tobacco Category Review Meeting, there was no shortage of conversation.