Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Association pour la santé publique du Québec, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Tob Control. 2019 Sep;28(5):562-565. doi: 10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2018-054516. Epub 2019 Feb 15.
Over the past 15 years, tobacco companies operating in Canada abandoned their long-standing unitary price model in favour of price differentiation. Concerns about low cigarette prices were identified by the Quebec government in 2015 when it introduced restrictions on the types of incentives that tobacco manufacturers may offer to retailers. This study sought to explore cigarette prices in Quebec 1 year after these restrictions came into effect.
Details on cigarette trading terms and programmes were obtained from websites maintained by retailer groups. Visits were made to tobacco retailers in four Quebec municipalities in the autumn of 2017. The price displayed for cigarettes was observed and recorded in 273 convenience stores.
Two forms of price differentiation were observed. The first was price-segmentation between brands, reflected in a difference of $3 or more in the average displayed price between premium and discount brands of each manufacturer (ie, $10.48 vs $7.43 for a package of 20 cigarettes of the most and least expensive brands sold by Philip Morris International). Price localisation was also observed, reflected in a $2 range of prices between retail outlets for the same package of cigarettes. Even among outlets of a given chain of convenience stores, the price of the least expensive brands varied by more than $1 per package. The size of the variance in prices rivals or exceeds the size of tobacco tax increases in Quebec over the past decade.
Recent restrictions on tobacco industry incentive programmes for retailers have not ended price differentiation. Tobacco manufacturers' and retailers' pricing policies continue to provide price-sensitive smokers with ways to avoid the impact of tobacco tax increases.
在过去的 15 年中，在加拿大运营的烟草公司放弃了长期以来的单一价格模式，转而采用价格差异化。2015 年，魁北克省政府发现香烟价格较低，因此对烟草制造商向零售商提供的激励类型实施了限制。本研究旨在探讨这些限制措施实施一年后魁北克的香烟价格。
从零售商团体维护的网站上获取有关香烟交易条款和计划的详细信息。2017 年秋季，在魁北克的四个城市对烟草零售商进行了访问。观察并记录了 273 家便利店销售的香烟价格。
观察到两种形式的价格差异化。第一种是品牌之间的价格细分，表现在每个制造商的优质品牌和折扣品牌之间的平均显示价格差异 3 美元或更多（即菲利普莫里斯国际公司销售的 20 支香烟中，最昂贵品牌和最便宜品牌之间的差价为 10.48 美元与 7.43 美元）。还观察到价格本地化，即同一包装的香烟在不同零售商之间的价格差异在 2 美元范围内。即使在同一便利店连锁店的网点中，最便宜品牌的价格也相差超过 1 美元/包。价格差异的幅度与魁北克过去十年的烟草税增税幅度相当或超过。
最近对烟草行业零售商激励计划的限制并没有结束价格差异化。烟草制造商和零售商的定价政策继续为对价格敏感的吸烟者提供避免烟草税增税影响的途径。
