This year's respondents reported a considerable shift in customer gender, with females accounting for 39% of transactions among the completed survey sample, up from 25% in 1997.

The reported age of the average customer grew younger, with customers under age 35 accounting for 33% of all transactions in 1998, compared to 30% in 1997.

New to the survey this year was a polling of transaction sources, identifying those conducted in-store from those originating elsewhere. A vast majority of smoke shops conduct the bulk of their sales traditionally, behind the count (93%), while mail order accounted for an average 5% of total store sales, websites 1%, and 1% from other sources.

Proving that the tobacco shop retailing remains the domain of the small businessman, 95% of surveyed stores were independently owned businesses, 5% were franchises, and over 75% had only a single location. Businesses with dual locations accounted for 15% of stores sampled, up from 10% in 1997, while 9% of responding businesses had three or more locations.

Proprietorships remain the most common organizational business type among tobacco retailers, accounting for an average of 35% of surveyed shops, followed by S corporations (31%), C corporations (22%), and partnerships (6%).

Site locations among retailers again showed a distancing from mall locations, down from 20% in 1997 to 10% in 1998. Shopping strip locations accounted for the largest majority of tobacco shop locations (52% in 1998 verses 48% in 1997), followed by free standing units, which also rose in frequency among the surveyed sample, accounting for 38% of all shops in 1998, compared to 30% in 1997.

While the proportion of rurally-located tobacco shops remained essentially steady at 11% of all respondents, urban sites (42% in 1997 compared to 32% in 1998) gained on suburban locations, which accounted for 47% of all stores in this year's survey, compared to 56% in 1997.

The average reported store size was just over 1,100 sq. ft., where 63% of the total store size (or an average of 881 sq. ft.) was dedicated to the retail sales area. The remaining space was split between walk-in humidors (19% of total store size) and offices or stockrooms (18%).

A continuing five-year trend was the increased density of competing smoke shops. While 62% of responding retailers reported no full-fledged competing tobacco shops located within one mile of their store, 22% reported at least one, 85% reported two competing shops, and 7% reported three or more. The average density within a one mile area was less than one competing store.

Widening the sample area to a five-mile distance, only 30% of stores reported no true competitors. A single competitor was reported by 20% of responding stores, and 50% reported two or more competing shops. The average density within a five mile area was 2.5 competing stores.

Continued...

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