South Korea's Top Three Convenience Chains Halt Sales of Flavored Vape Products

October 26on7-11 Convenience stores also announced the removal of some liquid e-cigarettes from shelves. 7-11 The South Korean branch of the convenience store said it decided to stop selling four flavored liquid e-cigarettes, including three from American Tobacco and one produced locally in South Korea.

What is the reaction of Korean society?

Zhang Jingke, a special commentator on CCTV Finance in Seoul, introduced that at this point, South Korea's three major convenience store giants CU, GS25 and 7-11, no longer sell flavored liquid e-cigarettes, and are considering whether to remove all liquid e-cigarettes.

The number of franchise stores owned by these three major convenience store brands accounts for 90% of the total number of convenience stores in South Korea.

In addition, among the three major supermarket chain brands in South Korea, E-Mart has stopped selling flavored liquid e-cigarettes, while the other two major supermarket chains do not sell related products.

In South Korea, the main distribution channel for cigarettes is convenience stores. South Korean e-cigarette companies are also in trouble because it is difficult to find liquid e-cigarettes in convenience stores.

Take a best-selling e-cigarette brand in South Korea as an example. Among the company's five liquid e-cigarette products, the circulation of three has been close to interruption. This is the first time for them.
 

To this end, the South Korean tobacco industry opposes the suspension of the sale of liquid e-cigarettes, arguing that products sold in South Korea do not contain ingredients that cause deaths in the United States.

Smokers in South Korea expressed different opinions:

Those in favor believe that liquid e-cigarettes are likely to be more dangerous than imagined, and that there are cases in the United States, so South Korea should also stop using them.

Opponents believe that it is inappropriate to stop selling liquid e-cigarettes without reaching a conclusion on the harmful components of liquid e-cigarettes.

 The South Korean government said it will complete a report on research on harmful substances in liquid e-cigarettes in November and investigate the health risks caused by the use of the product, and decide whether to completely ban the sale of liquid e-cigarettes in the first half of next year. We will also continue to pay attention to this.