Australian Retailers Stop Selling Cigarettes Amid Illicit Boom

Australia’s largest independently licensed supermarket group, Ritchies, has begun phasing out the sale of tobacco products at its liquor stores – with supermarkets maybe next in line.

Fred Harrison, chief executive of the group – which includes 82 grocery shops and 72 liquor stores across three states – described how the tobacco market was gradually collapsing under the weight of illicit trade.

‘We’ve seen over the last four years our tobacco sales decline from A$300 million; we’re on track this financial year to hit around $60 million,’ he told online news site SmartCompany. ‘If people have stopped smoking and moved away from tobacco, we’ll wear that on the chin. However, we know that smoking is dramatically up… and it’s all going to illicit trade.’ 

Indeed, some studies ¹ show that cheap cigarettes are driving the first rise in smoking rates in a generation, with ‘under-the-counter’ sales accounting for 39% of the total – demonstrating that Australian smokers have no qualms about buying cheaper, unregulated products.