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supporting
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"We Card"

November 3, 2006

 

 

A Newsletter of the National Association of Tobacco Outlets, Inc.

January 2007                                                                                              Volume 7, No. 1



Plan to Attend the Tobacco Plus Expo & NATO Awards Dinner

 

The Tobacco Plus Expo, formerly called the NATO Conference and Expo, is the one show that encompasses all facets of the tobacco industry. From cigarettes, to cigars, to smokeless tobacco, to pipe tobacco and tobacco accessories, this show has it all.

NATO members should mark their calendars and plan to attend this annual event at the Las Vegas Convention Center on April 25-27, 2007. Besides the hundreds of exhibit booths with the latest products and accessories, retailers will also benefit from seminars including "Powerful Trends Shaping the Future of Retailing", "Managing Your Business in the New Emerging World of Tobacco" and a "MYO/RYO" focus seminar.

For more information and to register for the show, visit the Tobacco Plus Expo website at www.tobaccoplusexpo.com or call the show office toll-free at 1-888-737-3976.

  

2007 Annual Awards Dinner

The second annual NATO Awards Dinner will be hosted at the Las Vegas Hilton Hotel on the evening of Wednesday, April 25th. The 2007 NATO Awards Dinner will be an informal event that brings together tobacco retailers, distributors and manufacturers for a social hour and a barbecue buffet dinner.

At the dinner, the annual NATO Pinnacle Awards will be presented and a tobacco legislative update will be given. Attending the reception is an excellent way to begin the 2007 Tobacco Plus Expo. The NATO Industry Awards Dinner is an evening not to be missed and invitations will be mailed in mid-March. .

 

President’s Message

Dear NATO Members:

As the 2007 legislative year gets underway, I can't help but think that we have been down this road before. In just the first several weeks of the New Year, bills have once again been introduced to increased cigarette and OTP taxes. The new twist is that some states are considering laws that would allow cities and counties to adopt their own cigarette and OTP tax increases.

After citizens in Nevada and Ohio voted this past November to adopt statewide smoking restrictions, the Associated Press reported this month that anti-tobacco advocates have set a new goal of having smoking restrictions in place nationwide within just several years.

These threats to our industry and our freedom to sell and use tobacco products are not new. Be assured that NATO's professional legislative staff is already hard at work helping retailers fight to protect their rights. Our goal is to do everything possible to stop these attacks on hardworking retailers and their loyal customers. If you receive legislative alerts from NATO, join the fight and contact your legislators to oppose these unfair taxes and smoking restrictions.

Sincerely,
Velma Hartley
NATO President & Owner of The Tobacco Place

  

Board Election Results

The results of the 2007 board elections have
been tabulated and the newly elected board
members include:

  • Fred Hoyt, Smoke N' Go
  • Andy Kerstein, Smoker's Haven
  • Bob Murdock, Discount Tobacco Outlet
  • Mary Szarmach, Cigarette Store Corp.
  • Bob Thorud, Tobacco Outlet Plus
  • Steve Sandman, Altadis, U.S.A.
  • Joel Sherman, Nat Sherman Company

A special thank you to David Newman (Cigarette World), Alex Goldman (House of Oxford Distributors), Carl Ioos (Republic Tobacco Company) and Dean Rouse (M & R Holdings) for being candidates for the NATO board.

NATO to Exhibit at AWMA

In February, NATO will take its new trade show booth exhibit to the American Wholesale Marketers Association Real Deal Expo in Las Vegas to urge wholesalers and tobacco-related product distributors to become NATO members. Companies from all segments of the industry need to belong to the association so that retailers, wholesalers and manufacturers collectively fight the threat from tobacco-related legislation.

  

2007 Legislative Outlook

The story of David and Goliath is an appropriate metaphor regarding the on-going battle between NATO and the anti-tobacco organizations. These anti groups have hundreds of millions of dollars to fund their legislative attacks on the industry. While NATO's resources are a fraction of the money available to the anti-tobacco zealots, NATO and its members can congratulate themselves on helping to defeat 90% of state tobacco legislation in 2006.

Besides working to stop state legislation, ballot questions that would have substantially raised the cigarette and/or tobacco taxes were defeated by voters in California and Missouri. At the same time, statewide smoking restrictions approved by voters in Nevada and Ohio are the subject of lawsuits that seek to block enforcement of the new laws.

With so much money funding their lobbying activities, the anti-tobacco advocates will continue to support bills to raise cigarette and tobacco taxes, place further restrictions on where adults can smoke, attempt to increase the legal age to buy and use tobacco and ban flavored tobacco products. In other words, for 2007, we see another very busy legislative year in responding to state tobacco-related bills

 

 

 One reprieve that we will welcome is a lack of tobacco-related ballot questions this year. With 2007 not being a general election year, there should be few, if any, tobacco ballot questions in the states. However, with 2008 being a presidential election year with generally higher voter turnout, NATO will be extra vigilant in monitoring any attempts to place tobacco-related questions on the 2008 state general election ballots.

In addition, with the Democrats now securing majorities in both the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House, there will be a renewed effort to introduce and pass legislation granting the FDA regulatory power over the tobacco industry. Senate Ted Kennedy, a strong supporter of FDA regulation, has stated publicly that legislation regulating tobacco should be a priority for the incoming Congress. NATO will closely monitor any federal legislation introduced in Congress to empower the FDA with regulatory power over tobacco products. In particular, NATO will scrutinize specific provisions in any FDA regulatory legislation that would impose unnecessary restrictions and penalties on retailers that offer tobacco products for sale to adult customers
 

NATO E-News Bulletins

With all of the tobacco legislation being introduced in state legislatures and in Congress this year, NATO will continue to keep its members up-to-date on a regular basis through the NATO E-News Bulletin. These bulletins sent to members via e-mail highlight current tobacco legislative activity, report on the outcome of legislative issues and discuss other important events taking place within the industry. We want to include all NATO members on the E-News Bulletin group list. If you are not receiving the bulletins, please provide your current e-mail address to NATO by sending us an e-mail at info@natocentral.org or call the NATO office at 1-866-869-8888. .

Order 2007 "We Card" Supplies

 

  

Welcome New Members

N ew retail, wholesale and manufacturer members that recently joined NATO are:

Retailers

  • American Liquors, DeKalb, IL
  • Cheap Tobacco, Cincinnati, OH
  • Gus' Tobacco Shop, Rutland, VT
  • Hall's Food Marts, Galena, KS
  • Humidor World, Brandon, MS
  • J.R. Fielding Company, St. Paul, MN
  • Smitty's Tobacco Outlet, Lake Park, GA
  • Smoke Rings Tobacco, Archbald, PA
  • St. Augustine Tobacco, St. Augustine, FL
  • Westside Grocery, Portland, MI
Distributors
  • American Kretek Company
  • Dragonfly Distributing, Inc.
  • Harrison Company, LLC.
  • J & A Specialty Distributors, Inc.
  • JMJL Global, Inc.
  • Management Science Associates
  • Merchandising Service of America
  • National Coalition of Associations of 7-Eleven Franchises
  • National Honey Almond
NATO welcomes each of these new members to the association. NATO is working with all segments of the tobacco industry to oppose unfair tobacco legislation and to change public opinion about tobacco products, tobacco retailers and tobacco consumers.

  

 

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