Tobacco sales through vending machines : insights from owners and managers of Australian alcohol-licenced premises with different licencing schemes

C. Watts, S. Burton, N. Lizama, L. Chapman, Francine Garlin, M. Daley, S. Egger

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Objective: Tobacco sales in alcohol-licenced premises present a very problematic trigger for tobacco sales—a trigger that is particularly problematic for attempting quitters and people who smoke occasionally. This study reports on the attitudes, beliefs, and experiences of owners or managers of alcohol-licenced venues that sell tobacco exclusively through vending machines. Methods: The study involved a telephone survey of alcohol-licenced venue owners or managers in New South Wales, Queensland, and Western Australia. Associations between outlet characteristics and current selling of tobacco exclusively via vending machines were examined, and responses to the open-ended question asking why the venue was likely or unlikely to stop selling cigarettes were manually coded. Results: For most alcohol-licenced venues that sold tobacco exclusively through a vending machine, the profit from these sales was not considered important for the business. However, only a small minority (4%) of these venues reported that they were likely to stop selling tobacco. The most commonly cited concerns about stopping were customer dissatisfaction and potential loss of customers. Conclusion: The study provides the first evidence on the attitudes of owners/managers to the importance of tobacco sales, revealing that the vast majority of those owners/managers do not believe that tobacco sales are important for their venue. Implications for public health: The presence of tobacco vending machines implicitly promotes tobacco products and therefore contravenes Australia's obligations under the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. The results provide powerful evidence that restrictions on tobacco sales can be implemented without major financial damage to those vendors.
Original languageEnglish
Article number100126
Number of pages7
JournalAustralian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health
Volume48
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jun 2024

Open Access - Access Right Statement

This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

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