DLM Is No Longer Selling Cigarettes

JULIE GALLAGHER

DAYTON, Ohio — Dorothy Lane Market here has joined a growing list of chains that no longer cater to smokers.

“We asked ourselves, ‘Why should we sell tobacco products when we promote healthy foods in our stores,’” DLM's grocery director, Tom Winter, told SN. “Our customers love that we no longer sell tobacco products.”

The independent retailer's Washington Square location was the last of its three units to snuff out tobacco sales earlier this month. Its Oakwood store did so last July, while its newest location — established in Springboro in 2002 — has never sold cigarettes or other tobacco products, according to Winter.

DLM isn't actively promoting its new policy; rather, “customers are finding out about the decision when they come into the store and they're not seeing tobacco products,” noted Winter. He said that although profits related to tobacco sales “were OK,” they weren't as substantial as they could have been, because DLM didn't aggressively promote the category in its stores.

DLM's announcement comes on the heels of similar decisions by Rochester, N.Y.-based Wegmans and Andronico's Markets, Albany, Calif.

Earlier this month, six-store DeCicco Markets, Pelham, N.Y., also announced that it will sell off the remainder of its tobacco inventory by April. The retailer's year-old store in Ardsley, N.Y., has never sold cigarettes.