The Ever-Changing Category

Despite the industry’s increasing focus on providing high-quality prepared foods and innovative dispensed beverages, tobacco products are still a crucial part of the convenience store business, comprising roughly 30% of the industry’s annual in-store sales. 

As I sit here pondering over the tobacco category, I can’t help but think of the saying, “Nothing worth having comes easy” — because selling tobacco products is anything but easy. It’s a challenging, always-changing business, especially when it comes to regulation. 

Just in the first month of 2025, Convenience Store News reported that: 

• The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) withdrew two proposed product standards: one to prohibit menthol as a characterizing flavor in cigarettes and the other to prohibit all characterizing flavors (other than tobacco) in cigars. Introduced in April 2022, these rules would have banned the sale of menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars in the country.
• The FDA formally issued a new proposed rule that would limit the amount of nicotine in cigarettes and certain other combusted tobacco products to “non- or minimally addictive levels.” If enacted, the rule would make the United States the first country to take such significant action to prevent and reduce smoking-related disease and death.
• U.S. District Judge J. Campbell Barker in Tyler, Texas, postponed enactment of the FDA’s new graphic warnings on cigarettes, which were due to begin enforcement in December 2025. The judge ruled that the FDA went beyond its authority in requiring packaging and advertising to contain the 11 warnings. Further litigation is expected. 

Another interesting development so far this year is that, for the first time ever, the FDA authorized the marketing and sale of a nicotine pouch product. A scientific review determined that the 20 approved ZYN products have the potential to provide a benefit to adults who smoke cigarettes and/or use other smokeless tobacco, outweighing the risks. 

Like I said, always changing. And it’s pretty much guaranteed that more change is on the way because as our February issue cover story explores, reduced risk products are picking up speed as harm reduction — the strategy of offering better alternatives to adult smokers who would otherwise continue smoking cigarettes — is rapidly moving to the forefront. 

Some c-store retailers are reacting accordingly. Half of those surveyed for the 2025 Convenience Store News Forecast Study said they plan to add more other tobacco product (OTP) SKUs this year and 47% plan to increase the square footage they devote to OTP.

If you haven’t already, it’s time to take a good, hard look at your backbar.