The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has withdrawn a rule that would have banned menthol-flavored cigarettes, according to the website for the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.
Despite first being introduced in 2013, a final decision on the menthol rule has been delayed multiple times, most recently in April 2024.
While the federal ban is off the table for now, retailers may also face state and local flavor bans that affect the makeup of their tobacco assortment.
Flavored tobacco bans are already in place in Massachusetts and California. With California having the second-most convenience stores in the U.S., according to NACS data, this decision will not offer relief to a large number of retailers. NACS noted last year that such bans may not have the intended consequence of lowering rates of smoking.
“Real world data and results have shown that prohibition of menthol cigarettes does not reduce smoking or advance public health,” said Doug Kantor, general counsel at NACS, in an emailed news alert last April. “Instead, like the experience with prohibition of other entrenched products, it simply leads to more illicit sales.”
While it’s impossible to generalize to all c-stores in California, 7-Eleven — which has about a sixth of its North American stores in that state — noted in October 2023 that the loss of tobacco sales in that state had pushed overall North American same-store sales down by 1%.
