WICKER PARK — A 7-Eleven franchisee says he's on pace to lose $100,000 in sales this year from a city law that prohibits him and other convenience store owners from selling menthol cigarettes and flavored tobacco near schools.
"We are already on a thin line. They [the city] did not want kids to smoke menthol. No one under 18 can buy cigarettes anyway," said Harish Doshi.
Doshi took over the corporate-owned 7-Eleven at 1508 N. Damen Ave. on July 27. Prior to then, the store was able to sell menthol cigarettes and flavored tobacco because its yearly license had not yet been renewed.
In July 2014, the city passed an ordinance prohibiting sales of flavored tobacco and menthol cigarettes within 500 feet of schools; stores needed to comply with the law by mid-Oct. 2014.
The ban was "aimed at protecting children from tobacco industry strategies to hook them on cigarette products at a young age," the city said in a news release.
Besides Doshi's, there are 11 other 7-Eleven stores in Chicago that are prohibited from selling flavored tobacco products because the stores are located within 500 feet of schools, according to Charlene C. Brandt, regional manager of government affairs for 7-Eleven.
Brandt said that as yearly business licenses got renewed, the list of those impacted by the flavored tobacco ban grew and "franchisees are struggling to maintain a decent income."
"The flavored tobacco ban has affected sales tremendously. Our stores do sell quite a large amount of tobacco but it's not just tobacco. The ban is impacting every other category. Our fresh food sales go down, our coffee, our bottles of water that people might buy when they come in to get a pack of cigarettes, all of it goes down," Brandt said.
Meanwhile, Mika Stambaugh, a spokeswoman for the city's Business Affairs and Consumer Protection Department, which licenses the sale of tobacco products in Chicago, said that since Mayor Emanuel took office, youth smoking rates in Chicago have hit an all-time low.
"BACP stands by the law and supports Mayor Emanuel’s goal to keep tobacco out of the hands of teenagers and to encourage adults to live a tobacco-free lifestyle," Stambaugh said.
Released on Monday, a new FDA study based on a survey of 13,651 U.S. teens showed that flavored tobacco is considered a "gateway" to other nicotine products.
But Doshi contends that it's neighborhood adults, not kids from nearby Pritzker School, who are looking to buy menthol cigarette brands such as Newport.
Joenile S. Albert-Reese, principal of A.N. Pritzker Elementary School. 2009 W. Schiller St., said she understands Doshi's logic but countered, "the more we can protect our children from certain vices, the better."
"I don't know that I can speak for the whole of Pritzker School because I am so very biased. I don't believe they should sell any kind of tobacco, period, as I am not nor have I ever been a smoker. The owner does have a point in that all of our students are underage anyway but we should protect them from the lure of smoking at all costs," Albert-Reese said.
The city measures the distance between schools and stores from property line to property line, per city code, though Doshi wants to challenge the calculation and make it from the door of Pritzker School to the 7-Eleven's door, which is more than 500 feet away since the 7-Eleven is set back from the street.
"My district manager and I went foot-by-foot, door-to-door. We are over 500 feet away," Doshi said.
Brandt said that a corporate-owned 7-Eleven at 2004 N. Halsted St., which is about one block from Lincoln Park High School, has also been impacted by how the city measures the 500-foot radius.
Though Lincoln Park High School's front door is more than 500 feet away from a nearby 7-Eleven, there is a CPS-owned parking lot at the school and the measurement starts from the end of the parking lot.
Stambaugh said that after July 1, 2014, there was a pre-license measurement taken for 500 feet from a school.
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