Retailers reported that 47% of their store's total floor space was dedicated to sales areas, 44% to humidified cigar displays including walking humidors, and 9% to stockrooms and offices.

Specialty tobacco retailers remain overwhelmingly independently-owned stores, accounting for 86% of all stores surveyed, while 6% were classified as chains, and 8% as franchise operations.

"S" Corporations were the most common form of business type in this year's survey (36%), followed by proprietorships (34%), "C" Corporations (20%), and partnerships (8%). The remaining 3% fell under the "other" category.

Store siting among the survey respondents was skewed heavily towards shopping strips (56% in 2000, compared to 45% in the previous survey), followed by free-standing stores (37%) and finally malls, which accounted for only 4% this year compared to 16% in the previous survey. Given the numerous challenges involved with mall leases, not to mention the significant anti-smoking restrictions that many have imposed, it is likely that mall sites will continue to loose popularity for many "tobacco-only" shops.

After showing significant growth in past years, retailer's use of the Internet appears to have waned last year. Only 47% reported using email in their business. Website activity was also lighter than in our previous survey. Only 21% of responding stores reported having basic informational websites (down from 33% in 1999); 11% reported operating websites with merchandise prices posted, compared to 29% in 1999; 15% reported operating e-commerce websites with online ordering capabilities, down from 30% in 1999. Only those operating the most sophisticated e-commerce shopping sites linked to inventory systems (real-time capabilities) held steady, at 6%.

Credit card acceptance fell slightly among the recent survey sample, but remained high in general among smoke shops - 95% of all stores surveyed accepted at least some form of credit cards. The breakdown was 87% accepting either MasterCard or Visa (compared to 98% in 1999); 74% accepting American Express cards (versus 86% in 1999); and 74% taking Novus cards (82% in 1999). A minimum purchase amount was required by 22% of those surveyed, and 11% of retailers offered some type of in-store credit or house account.

Advertising budgets seem to have taken a hit among retailers. The use of newspaper ads fell from 72% in 1999 to 42% among the surveyed stores, but remained the favorite choice of advertising overall. Radio was utilized by 29% of stores (down from 40%), direct mail by 35% (down from 36%), and magazines by 11% (down from 21%). Newsletters were published by only 18% of this year's respondents (down from 28%).

The number of retailers holding cigar events fell in 2000, but more detailed questioning in this year's survey exposed additional details. Nearly half of all retailers held in-store cigar events of some type (47%), and 29% held off-site events, while 49% held in-store cigar events in conjunction with a cigar manufacturer (18% with a manufacturer at an off-site event.) While not nearly as prevalent, pipe events also made a respectable appearance; 14% held in-store events (7% in conjunction with a pipe manufacturer), while 4% held off-site events (1% with a manufacturer).

Membership clubs lost favor among retailers, with only 7% of shops offering this benefit to its customers.

This year's survey sample was slightly less progressive in the point-of-sale equipment department, with 51% reporting the use of an electronic cash register (59% in 1999) and 13% utilizing a PC-based POS system (16% in 1999). Classic mechanical cash registers were still used by 22% of respondents.

The typical smoke shop customer was slightly older in this year's survey. Male customers (76%) continue to outnumber female customers (24%), a breakdown that held steady. The largest customer age group remained the 35-45-year-olds, a segment that grew from 37% in 1999 to 42% in this year's sample. The 22- to 34-year-olds and 50- to 64-year-olds were equally represented, at 21% each. Those 65 or older fell slightly to 9% (10% previously) as well as those under 21 (6% in this year's survey, 8% last)

The size of the typical store staff remained constant in 2000 at 5.2 employees. Stores reported an average of 2.9 full-time employees (up from 2.4 in 1999), and 2.3 part-time employees (down from 2.8 in 1999.) The average hourly wage for full-time employees was $9.89, compared to $10.00 in 1999, and for part-time employees $7.79, up from $7.50 in 1999.

Among the sample, 68% of stores were members of the RTDA, compared to 79% in 1999 and 96% in 1998.