McDaniel Patricia A, Malone Ruth E
Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, School of Nursing, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2014 Jan 22;9(1):e85751. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0085751. eCollection 2014.
Tobacco retailers are key players in the ongoing tobacco epidemic. Tobacco outlet density is linked to a greater likelihood of youth and adult smoking and greater difficulty quitting. While public policy efforts to address the tobacco problem at the retail level have been limited, some retailers have voluntarily ended tobacco sales. A previous pilot study examined this phenomenon in California, a state with a strong tobacco program focused on denormalizing smoking and the tobacco industry. We sought to learn what motivated retailers in other states to end tobacco sales and how the public and media responded.
We conducted interviews with owners, managers, or representatives of six grocery stores in New York and Ohio that had voluntarily ended tobacco sales since 2007. We also conducted unobtrusive observations at stores and analyzed media coverage of each retailer's decision.
Grocery store owners ended tobacco sales for two reasons, alone or in combination: health or ethics-related, including a desire to send a consistent health message to employees and customers, and business-related, including declining tobacco sales or poor fit with the store's image. The decision to end sales often appeared to resolve troubling contradictions between retailers' values and selling deadly products. New York retailers attributed declining sales to high state tobacco taxes. All reported largely positive customer reactions and most received media coverage. Forty-one percent of news items were letters to the editor or editorials; most (69%) supported the decision.
Voluntary decisions by retailers to abandon tobacco sales may lay the groundwork for mandatory policies and further denormalize tobacco. Our study also suggests that high tobacco taxes may have both direct and indirect effects on tobacco use. Highlighting the contradictions between being a responsible business and selling deadly products may support voluntary decisions by retailers to end tobacco sales.
烟草零售商是当前烟草流行中的关键角色。烟草销售点的密度与青少年和成年人吸烟的可能性增加以及戒烟难度加大有关。虽然在零售层面解决烟草问题的公共政策努力有限，但一些零售商已自愿停止烟草销售。此前的一项试点研究在加利福尼亚州考察了这一现象，该州有一个强大的烟草项目，重点是使吸烟和烟草行业失去常态。我们试图了解其他州的零售商停止烟草销售的动机以及公众和媒体的反应。
我们对纽约和俄亥俄州自2007年以来自愿停止烟草销售的六家杂货店的店主、经理或代表进行了访谈。我们还在商店进行了不显眼的观察，并分析了媒体对每家零售商这一决定的报道。
杂货店店主停止烟草销售有两个单独或共同的原因：与健康或道德相关，包括希望向员工和顾客传递一致的健康信息；以及与业务相关，包括烟草销售下降或与商店形象不符。停止销售的决定似乎常常解决了零售商价值观与销售致命产品之间令人困扰的矛盾。纽约的零售商将销售下降归因于该州高额的烟草税。所有受访者都报告说顾客反应基本积极，大多数都得到了媒体报道。41%的新闻报道是读者来信或社论；大多数（69%）支持这一决定。
零售商自愿决定放弃烟草销售可能为强制性政策奠定基础，并进一步使烟草失去常态。我们的研究还表明，高额烟草税可能对烟草使用产生直接和间接影响。强调作为一个负责任的企业与销售致命产品之间的矛盾可能会支持零售商自愿决定停止烟草销售。
