Kansas City small business needs uniform tobacco regulation across Missouri | Opinion

Missouri small business owners need the General Assembly to act now and establish uniform, statewide rules governing the sale of tobacco and nicotine products. Without it, a growing patchwork of local ordinances will continue to create uncertainty, threaten jobs and put retailers like me at the mercy of whichever way the political winds blow in any given city or county.

I didn’t grow up dreaming of owning convenience stores. I grew up holding doors open, literally. My first job was as a doorman in New York, greeting strangers and wishing them well as they passed through. Twenty years ago, I visited Missouri to see family. I fell in love with the state, its people, its pace and its sense of community, and I never left. In time, my parents bought a store and handed me the keys, telling me I’d be the one to run it.

I worked days and nights. I slept in that store more times than I care to admit. I learned the business from the floor up. Today, I own four convenience stores in the Kansas City metropolitan area. I employ 55 people who depend on these jobs to support their families. I give back to the communities that gave me a chance by contributing to Mothers Against Drunk Driving, Children’s Mercy Hospital and local high schools. I partner with local entrepreneurs such as Kanbee’s, which supplies my stores with locally sourced produce, and I carry Omar’s Popcorn. I ask my customers what they want to see on my shelves. This is not just a business. It is a community.

But that community is at risk every time a municipality decides to take up tobacco regulation on its own terms. Every time that happens, I am left in limbo. I wait weeks, sometimes months, to learn whether the rules governing a significant portion of my business will change overnight. Kansas City has attempted to ban the sale of flavored tobacco products twice in the past five years, and Columbia’s health board pushed for a similar ban in 2021. Each time, my employees grow anxious, my customers wonder what will happen, and my ability to plan and invest is paralyzed.

Tobacco and nicotine products represent 60% to 70% of my store revenues. That is the foundation on which 55 families depend. When local governments unilaterally restrict these products, they are not just changing the policy. They are threatening livelihoods.

The inconsistency also creates real unfairness. If one of my stores must follow stricter local rules while a competitor just across the city line faces no such restriction, I am disadvantaged through no fault of my own. Missouri should be a state where every business competes on a level playing field.

House Bill 2085, now under consideration in Jefferson City, would fix that. It would give retailers a predictable, consistent framework to operate under, applied fairly and uniformly across the state. It would also preserve the ability of local governments to inspect retailers and enforce age-of-purchase laws, so the consumer protections that matter most remain fully intact.

Lawmakers should also consider the fiscal stakes. Local governments do not collect tobacco excise taxes — the state does. When a municipality bans the sale of legal tobacco products, it drives consumers to neighboring towns or, worse, to illicit vendors who do not check IDs and do not pay taxes. That harms state revenue and undermines community safety.

Failing to act sends a message to businesses that the state is unwilling to step in when local governments pursue overreaching policies that threaten our operations and livelihoods. Missouri has always been a place where hard work is rewarded. I know, because I built something here from nothing, one long day at a time.

I am asking the Missouri House to hold a door open for me and the thousands of small business owners like me across this state. Pass H.B. 2085. Give us the consistency and predictability we need to keep our doors open, our employees working and our communities served.

Babir Sultan owns FavTrip stores in Independence, Kansas City and Grandview.