Westchester County’s Flavored Tobacco Ban Will Kill Local Businesses And Won’t Improve Community Health

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October 6, 2022

By Peter Castro–

Thirty-five years ago, my family opened the Broadway Blitz in Sleepy Hollow. It started as a gas station and repair shop. As more people began leasing cars, our customers didn’t need that service, so we transitioned the repair shop and converted it into a convenience store. We adapted to the changing market, and we’ve stayed afloat.

As a business owner, you expect changes. Still, the ever-increasing regulations and ever-more restrictive alcohol and tobacco laws are wreaking havoc on businesses like ours. In New York, you must be 21 years old to buy tobacco. A few years ago, the State banned the sales of all flavored e-cigarettes, yet legalized recreational marijuana. (How does this make sense?) Today, Westchester County is considering banning the sales of ALL flavored tobacco products. This ban might sound like a good idea, but it isn’t going to have the intended effect – the prevention and end of tobacco use by local residents. Why? Because those who enjoy tobacco will take their business to the Bronx, Stanford, Greenwich, or Connecticut, where these products will continue to be sold. The Board will just be sending flavored tobacco sales and the gas and grocery sales that go with them across the county and state lines. The only thing our lawmakers will have accomplished is killing business for law-abiding local retailers like me and filling the coffers of our neighbors. I guess Westchester no longer needs tobacco tax dollars to fix roads and fund local government programs.

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The health committee makes the case to the Board that they should pass the ban because kids are buying cigarettes and vapes from local retailers. I’m a responsible business owner, parent, and community member who cares about the young people in my community. It is why most area retailers and we have invested in technology and employee training to ensure we comply with local, State, and federal age-verification laws. We check IDs, and we don’t sell to youth. To keep young people from smoking and vaping, county leaders must enforce the laws already on the books, work to stop illegal online sales, and invest in tobacco education.

The proposed ban is unnecessary. As someone who’s been at the cash register of my store since 2007, I can tell you that people don’t smoke like they used to. They’re not buying cigarettes – menthol or otherwise – like they did in the past. Many of them have quit, or they’ve moved to less harmful e-cigarettes. We’ve adapted to this culture shift, but when flavored tobacco makes up 15% of my revenues, the County’s attempt at another Prohibition will significantly impact my business, and I must speak up. Our store is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. I can’t offer more goods to compensate for the loss in tobacco product sales. I can’t open more hours. I can only lay off employees and reduce my contributions to the charities we support, like the Gullotta House, Rivertown Runners, and Gulf Oil Giving Foundation.

Our local lawmakers are playing politics with our livelihoods to make a handful of people feel good about banning menthol cigarettes in Westchester County. With no apparent regard for their actions’ impact on responsible small business owners like me, the County appears ready to move forward. How much more adapting will we be forced to do before businesses like mine give up and walk away? Before the County takes such drastic action, we hope they’ll thoughtfully consider the damage they’ll do to honest, hard-working, law-abiding business owners, their employees, and their families.

Peter Castro and his father own the Broadway Blitz gas station and convenience store at North Broadway and Lawrence Avenue in Sleepy Hollow.

Peter Castro

Sleepy Hollow

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