Sometimes I can’t remember what I was doing yesterday, yet I have vivid memories of what I was doing at this time 10 years ago. I was working on producing the first issue of Tobacco Outlet Business.
Ten years ago there were less than 5,000 total outlets. Ten years ago there were very few people who considered outlets anything more than a few places that stocked a lot of cigarettes and sold a lot of cartons. Basically there were very few of us thinking about tobacco outlets besides myself and my three partners: Don Bores, Phil Viscidi, and Mike Kirkwood.
There was no industry show. There was no place for outlet owners to get together to discuss their businesses. Most outlet owners knew little about other stores around the country. Most had no idea that there were likeminded businesspeople running similar businesses and looking for locations to expand their outlet businesses. There was no magazine that addressed the outlet operator. There was no one who reported on outlets, identified who they were, where they were, or how they were growing. There was no one reporting on best practices or celebrating the success of outlets.
There was no association to advance the common interest of tobacco outlets. There was no one to fight the legislative threats or to advocate for the rights of retailers to sell a legal product to adult consumers who want those products.
Ten years ago there was only an inkling that there was a market, and that the market needed to be reached, identified, and recognized. There was an idea that a magazine could be a voice for the market, and a way to communicate to and for a community of retailers that was, as we referred to it in that very first issue, an emerging class of trade. That emerging class of trade was tobacco outlets. These outlets were the acorns of what we pointed out in our very first issue, and what have become full-line tobacco merchants.
Well, it is now 2007, and much of what we thought could, would, and should happen has happened. We have a vibrant magazine that is serving a growing and important class of trade. We have a strong annual show, Tobacco Plus Expo, where operators, manufacturers, and wholesalers meet and conduct business. And we have a strong association, NATO, that is working for all of us.
It has been a great 10 years. We want to thank everyone who has contributed to our success during these past 10 years, and we look forward to continued success and prosperity for us all in the next 10 years. •