Independent Convenience Stores Across Canada Prepare to Celebrate National Convenience Week and Call for Action to Help Local Stores Stay Open

TORONTO, Aug. 14, 2025 /CNW/ – As Canada prepares to mark National Convenience Week in the last week of August, the United Korean Commerce & Industry Association of Canada (UKCIA) is proud to highlight the essential role independent convenience stores play in keeping our communities safe, connected, and well-served.

Across Canada, independent convenience stores are more than just neighbourhood shops – they are trusted community hubs. Store owners and their employees build lasting relationships with customers, watch out for local safety, and uphold strict age-verification practices for products such as lottery tickets, alcohol, and tobacco. UKCIA members and their affiliates have built their businesses on the principles of responsibility, fairness, and service.

Yet, as highlighted in a recent commentary from a Toronto store owner, these values are being tested. Increasing overregulation – such as the federal ban on nicotine pouches in convenience stores – is hurting honest retailers while fuelling the illegal market. Nicotine pouches are a Health Canada approved smoking cessation product, but since their removal from convenience store shelves, independent store owners estimate losing an average of $75,000 in gross sales per store annually. Customers openly tell retailers that these products are now readily available through illegal sellers.

By banning legal, controlled sales in licensed convenience stores, the federal government has handed the black-market a near monopoly on a product designed and approved by Health Canada to help Canadians quit smoking. That’s bad for public health, bad for small business, and bad for community safety.  Convenience stores have not just lost the sale of nicotine pouches; they have lost the foot traffic that leads to a bag of chips or a bottle of pop.  For many UKCIA members $75,000 in gross revenue is the difference between survival or closing their doors.

UKCIA is calling on Canada’s new Health Minister, Marjorie Michel, to meet with convenience industry representatives to understand the significant impact her predecessor’s unilateral decision has had on small businesses across Canada. 

At a time when economic uncertainty is at its peak, small business owners need all the help possible to stay afloat. The industry hopes the new Health Minister recognizes the power she has to support small businesses in this country and repeal her predecessor’s irrational and insulting ministerial order that unfairly targeted small business owners.

Reinstating these sales of pouches in convenience stores would:

• Provide adult smokers with easier access to a federally approved cessation product.
• Allow small businesses to recover significant lost revenue and foot traffic in their stores.
• Reduce the growing illegal nicotine market offering unregulated products without requiring proof of age.

During National Convenience Week, UKCIA invites Canadians to support their local stores and recognize the tireless work of independent operators who contribute to safer, more vibrant communities.

Independent convenience stores want to work with government to find solutions that protect public health, keep communities safe, and ensure that honest retailers – not criminals – are the ones serving Canadian customers.

About UKCIA

The United Korean Commerce Industry Association of Canada (UKCIA) represents over 2000 independent convenience store owners across Canada, advocating for fair regulation, safe communities, and the success of small business entrepreneurs.

SOURCE United Korean Commerce & Industry Association of Canada