Great Barrington — The company that operates Dollar General wants to sell tobacco products at its store at 197 Main Street. The store, which is the seventh in Berkshire County, opened earlier this year in the former Walgreens location.
According to its website, the company, based out of Goodlettsville, Tenn., currently has 19,000 stores in 47 states.
At the Tuesday, July 23 Board of Health meeting, there was an agenda item to discuss the company’s application to sell cigarettes at the store. However, there was no one in attendance to represent the company at the meeting.
Town Health Agent Rebecca Jurczyk told the board that the company had not completed its application to sell tobacco products by the time of the meeting. “We have pretty stringent local tobacco retailer regulations, as well as state regulations,” Jurczyk said. “After a consulting review, we thought it would be best when there are new tobacco retailer license applicants that come before the Board of Health to talk about what they’re proposing, and how they can comply with local and state regulations.”
Jurczyk said that, according to local regulations, the town set a limit of no more than 12 tobacco retailers in Great Barrington. She said that the town currently has 10 licensed tobacco retailers.
Jurczyk added that, as part of the tobacco retail sales application process, the company would have to certify that they have trained their sales clerks in tobacco retailer certification created by the Tri-Town Department of Health, provide the Health Department with a list of tobacco products they plan to sell, and sign on to an agreement that states that the company has read the town’s local tobacco regulations. “The lists can be quite extensive, but we would like to go through the lists to make sure that they’re not [selling] any products that are underhandedly flavored [tobacco] when we have an existing flavor ban in Massachusetts,” Jurczyk said.
“I have a lot of concerns about adding a company [in town] that sells tobacco that has been known to have much lower prices than other tobacco sellers,” said Board of Health member Ruby Chang. “Therefore, they’re drawing in a crowd of people that will look at the sales. People have done studies and found, in general, their tobacco cost is less than other retailers, so they’re able to attract a younger generation of people who wish to go there to buy tobacco. I’m not sure what is going to happen with this particular store, but this is just the general trend of what’s happened with other stores throughout this country.”
The chain added tobacco products to their inventory in mid-2013.
Back in November 2022, the British Medical Journal (BMJ) published the scientific report “The changing retail landscape for tobacco: dollar stores and the availability of cheap cigarettes among tobacco-related priority populations.” The report, which was authored by several doctors from Stanford University School of Medicine in Stanford, Calif., and a member of the California Department of Public Health, states in part:
Dollar stores may exacerbate smoking-related inequities by contributing to the availability of cheaper cigarettes in neighborhoods that are lower income, rural, and have greater proportions of youth. Pro-equity retail policies, such as minimum price laws and density reduction policies, could mitigate the health consequences of dollar stores’ rapid expansion.
Board of Health Chair Michael Lanoue said that a discussion on potential tobacco sales at Dollar General would be continued at the board’s next meeting in August or September, “contingent on the completion of the application.”
A company representative, who did not disclose their name, sent an email to The Berkshire Edge confirming that the company is seeking to obtain a license for tobacco sales for the town, but would not respond to The Berkshire Edge’s questions.
