New York’s illegal tobacco trade and the skyrocketing costs for New York’s labor market will be hot topics at the New York Association of Convenience Stores (NYACS) annual fall conference, to be held this year on Sept. 21-22.
The conference at the Thousand Islands Harbor Hotel in Clayton will feature a general membership meeting with the following presentations for retailers:
• “Fresh (and Scary) Data on New York’s Illegal Tobacco Trade”: The nation’s highest cigarette tax rate makes New York a hotbed for illegal trafficking. Cigarettes are smuggled from states with sharply lower tax rates, or from Indian reservations where state excise taxes are ignored, putting law-abiding retailers and wholesalers at a huge competitive disadvantage. Philip Morris USA, a division of Altria Corp., recently conducted its first statewide analysis of empty, discarded cigarette packs to trace their origin. Conference attendees can hear what its findings reveal about the breadth and depth of cigarette tax evasion in New York.
• “How NYACS Members are Preparing for the Labor Cost Tsunami”: Upstate New York’s minimum wage is now scheduled to climb 70 cents an hour each year for the next seven years, reaching $12.50 by 2021, driving labor costs through the roof for New York c-stores. The Obama administration has compounded the problem by elevating the federal overtime threshold, effective Dec. 1, playing havoc with c-store manager salaries. Conference attendees can find out what strategies NYACS members are pursuing.
• “The Crisis in Convenience Store SNAP Eligibility”: The U.S. Food & Nutrition Service wants to alter the eligibility criteria for accepting SNAP benefits so drastically that it threatens to disqualify thousands of New York c-stores from participating, many of whom currently are the only SNAP access point in their small community.
The meeting will be followed by the annual vendor appreciation dinner, saluting convenience store suppliers, service providers and equipment dealers for their year-round contribution to NYACS and the industry as a whole. After dinner, comedian Mike Gaffney, a semi-finalist on NBC’s “Last Comic Standing,” will entertain. The next day, the Chairmen’s Open will take place at nearby Thousand Islands Country Club. The tournament benefits Convenience PAC, the political action committee through which NYACS contributes to candidates for state offices. For non-golfers, a Thousand Islands fishing excursion is offered.
