Larry Anderson, a category manager for Point Pleasant, W. Va.-based Fruth Pharmacy -- a drug chain with 27 stores in West Virginia and Ohio – discusses electronic cigarette trends and ECRM’s role in his e-cig sourcing efforts.


Please give us an overview of your company and your role:
Fruth Pharmacy is a full service pharmacy with a niche gift section. I’ve worked for them for five-and-a-half years, and I manage the grocery, paper goods/chemicals, pets, cigarettes, tobacco, e-cigarettes, value lines, and dairy categories.

What kind of growth are you experiencing in the electronic cigarette category?
E-cigarette sales are continuing to grow but that growth has slowed down a little in the past several months due to the expanded availability of these items in our markets through vapor stores. We now carry five brands of electronic cigarettes, two brands of e-hookahs, and a full line of N’Joy vapor products.

Are there any particular e-cig trends that stand out among your shoppers?
Several of our customers say they use electronic cigarette products as a means of helping them reduce or quit traditional cigarettes. We do not give any input whether they will or will not but we do provide info from pamphlets and websites provided by our vendors.

What has been the impact of Big Tobacco’s entry into the category?
There has been very little impact so far at our stores, but the competition has increased their offerings. Altria, for example, is placing its Mark Ten e-cigarettes on the cigarette fixtures as per their merchandising agreement.

How have you adapted your marketing and merchandising strategies to meet the evolving category?
We have focused our marketing on the broad category of the e-cigarettes and vapes that we carry at our locations. Social media and online have been a focus also. Additionally, we run an E-cig Club that is incorporated into our loyalty program so that when a customer purchases any six Green Smoke items they will get a free disposable e-cigarette. This is tracked within our loyalty card program, and the customer is notified immediately when they have earned the free disposable.

What is the status of regulations in the category, and how are your preparing for them?
We entered the category at a slower pace than many retailers, and only went with reputable companies. This has caused us to have a slimmer selection than a typical smoke shop, but we are able to train our employees more thoroughly on each brand. Every brand we have chosen, we trust.

How are you currently sourcing e-cig products, and has that changed over the past year or two?
When we first started the e-cig business we only bought direct from two vendors. We are still buying direct but we are now using distributors to complement our selection with additional brands.

You attended ECRM’s E-Cig EPPS event this past February. What successes have come from that event?
We were able to add several lines from our meetings at the ECRM E-Cig event that have been very successful for us so far. The items we chose at the show were new and so we are the only place that carries them in our markets.

We also saw a lot of value from the networking functions at the event, during which we were able to speak with many individual companies face to face, and they provided insights into what they have to offer. There are several products that we would not have considered previously, but after seeing, touching, and discussing them in detail at the event our interest was piqued. Being able to get the products in hand was one of the biggest values we got from the show.