How C-Store Retailers Are Reigniting Tobacco Accessory Sales

As tobacco preferences evolve, retailers are growing accessory sales through smarter merchandising, branded products and simple upselling strategies that increase basket size.

Changing consumer habits are reshaping the tobacco accessories category, prompting c-store retailers to rethink how they merchandise and market products such as rolling papers, cones and lighters. While shifting tobacco and cannabis trends are influencing demand, retailers are also finding new opportunities to drive incremental sales through creative branding, expanded assortments and employee upselling.

Tobacco sales trends

Cliff’s Local Market, which operates 22 stores throughout central New York, has seen the tobacco accessories market shifting as tobacco trends change.

In 2025, for example, unit sales of rolling papers declined by 5%, while unit sales of pre-rolled, fillable cones rose by 29% — a trend likely driven by the legalization of cannabis in New York.

Meanwhile at Scrivener Oil Co. Inc. dba Signal Food Stores, which operates 13 locations in Missouri, “Lighters and rolling papers are doing great,” said Sean Bumgarner, VP, Scrivener Oil Co.

InConvenience Inc., which operates Gas Spot (with fuel) and Good Spot (without fuel) convenience stores, offers a limited assortment of accessories currently, with rolling papers representing the primary item as the chain focuses on building the core tobacco categories, explained Erin Slater, category manager, InConvenience Inc. “As we expand, we see opportunity to drive incremental sales through a more comprehensive accessory set and improved merchandising to encourage add-on purchases,” she added.

Gas Spot and Good Spot stores are playfully nicknamed “the G Spot,” a moniker the chain is leaning into because it’s both memorable and attention-getting with customers.

Branded products success

Recently, the chain saw an opportunity to leverage its creative name to boost accessories sales and began selling branded lighters “with cheeky sayings,” explained Lindsay Griffith, marketing and community engagement manager, for InConvenience Inc.

“The idea came from customers who asked for ‘G Spot lighters,’ and boy did we get them some memorable designs! Alicia LaFollette, our brand director, designed the lighters and they certainly make an impression,” Griffith said.

Griffith did an analysis of the chain’s lighter sales and out of 1,400 lighters sold in the last year, she found that some of the bestselling lighters consisted of two designs with popular logos.

“We leaned into our cheeky branding with three single-color designs, pricing them below the logo-ed lighters, and giving them front and center placement on the displays. After only four weeks of sales, the branded lighters are our second highest-selling brand. They’re definitely giving the other brands a run for their money,” Griffith said.

Upselling by store employees takes some of the credit.

“We hear consistently from employees that suggesting a lighter or matches when someone is buying combustibles is an easy basket builder,” Griffith said. “Employees have told me that they just say, ‘Do you need a light for that?’ and customers realize that they do need a lighter or matches. I think the obvious connection to what it is being purchased, and that the suggestion is often appreciated by the customer, makes that question an easy go-to for basket building.”