In the Basque Country, tobacconists seek information to sell ammunition

Europe 1 with AFP // Photo credit: AFP 9:19 p.m., March 15, 2024, modified at 9:20 p.m., March 15, 2024

Around fifteen tobacconists attended two initial information meetings on Friday in Bayonne and Pau to sell ammunition in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, a test department chosen by the Ministry of the Interior, before a generalization throughout France.

“We have to reinvent ourselves” to attract customers

In addition to the sale of certain ammunition (categories C and D), tobacconists will have a support mission to help hunters and sports shooting licensees to create accounts in the Weapons Information Service (SIA) - platform on which Weapons must be declared by December 31 to be legally kept.

“This corresponds to a need for public security: we have armories very far from hunters, with problems of storage in quantity at home and burglaries as well as theft for sales on the Internet”, underlines Jean-Simon Merandat, head of the Central Weapons and Explosives Service (SCAE).

“This will make it possible to strengthen the territorial network with traders who are equipped in terms of security,” he assures.

For Philippe Coy, national president of the Confederation of tobacconists, "it's a new toolbox" made available to tobacconists facing declining remuneration on tobacco and the press.

The sale of cigarettes falls each year by 8% at the national level, according to the professional organization, and by 15 to 18% per year in this border area of ​​Spain - where cigarettes are cheaper -, according to a tobacconist in the Country Basque interviewed by AFP.

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“We have to reinvent ourselves” to attract customers, particularly in rural areas, emphasizes Philippe Coy.

Of the 23,000 tobacconists throughout the national territory, 41% operate in municipalities with less than 3,500 inhabitants.

For Hugo Dourthe, one of the tobacconists present on Friday, this new marketing "will not increase his turnover" but could "boost" his establishment with the "passage" of new customers.

“We must continue to diversify, as we have already done with electronic cigarettes. We are transforming ourselves into small grocery stores,” says this young 25-year-old tobacconist who employs eight employees seven days a week in Bayonne.

Once the training has been completed and the trade authorization has been obtained, the first sales of cartridges could begin "in a month" in this department, according to the participants.