Is the Canadian government killing the independent convenience store?

According to most of my customers, the answer to that question is "YES".

I can't tell you the number of conversations I have on a daily basis with customers along my travels who are thoroughly discouraged by the lack of support they get from the federal government. Most of these conversations are centred around cigarettes and other tobacco products and the newly placed restrictions on the sale of these products.

The number one complaint is that the government recently placed all sorts of restrictions on store owners about the sale of cigarettes. Signs indicating prices could no longer be placed in windows, a display can only be black or grey, no cartons can be displayed, stores cannot advertise they sell cigarettes, etc. The list is almost endless. Today, while listening to a customer complain about it, he handed me a copy of one of the local aboriginal publications and pointed out more than 15 ads for stores on the reserve selling cheap cigarettes, including one on the front page that indicated they would ship cartons anywhere in Canada. His frustration hit a boiling point when I told him that the prices he's charging for cartons is, in some cases, more than $20/carton more than what they are charging for the same product.

The government has turned a blind eye to the fact that when you drive through the reserve, you can't go more than a kilometer without seeing at least one sign for a "store" (and this is in quotes because there are "stores" set up in refrigerated transport trailers) selling cheap cigarettes. The reason these cigarettes are so cheap is that they are sold tax free - yep, that's right, no GST at all. Somehow, I can't imagine the government would let it slide if one of the stores in downtown Kingston did the same thing.

I shake my head because the whole thing is making many store owners decide to pack up the business and look for some other form of work. This doesn't just affect the store owner, but also the companies that service that store, whether it's bread, milk, snack food or video rentals. It used to be that small businesses were the backbone of the Canadian economy, but if things continue on this track, the government will have to raise taxes on citizens who aren't business owners because they'll have squashed the small stores that used to be able to make a valid tax contribution.