Albany proposal on tobacco licensing would hurt small businesses

Our business, under many iterations and owners, has been part of the fabric of Albany for more than a century. In years past, governors, congressmen and legislators came to Coulson’s and stood in line for their newspapers from around the world, next to construction workers, lunch pails in hand, picking up their morning coffee. Today, we proudly serve a similarly diverse clientele — SUNY and other office workers on their lunch break, along with residents who live around the corner, who — with the nearest supermarket a mile away — depend on us for groceries.

Our generations as a neighborhood fixture will come to an end if well-meaning but destructive legislation currently before the Albany Common Council is passed into law. 

The proposed local ordinance, introduced by Councilman Owusu Anane, creates a new city-specific license to sell tobacco on top of the state license that is already required. This new license is designed to “ensure the public health, safety and welfare of the citizens of the City of Albany.” In reality, it will empower the black market, increase crime, make it easier for children to get tobacco, cost jobs and transfer even more economic activity to suburban businesses just over the city line. 

By design this new license has a lack of transferability, meaning that if a business is sold — as Coulson’s has been several times in recent years — it doesn’t automatically come with the ability to sell tobacco. Each owner would have to reapply to the city. That, with the measure’s stated purpose of lowering the number of tobacco retailers in the city over time, means that the resale value of businesses people have spent years building will tank the moment it becomes law. 

As in most convenience stores, cigarettes are roughly a third of our sales. With the uncertainty about whether a new store owner would have the ability to sell tobacco, no one will be able to sell a store for full value. If there’s no one to buy the store when the owner is ready to retire, it will just close. 

I don’t advocate smoking, but it is a legal product. I take my responsibility seriously to sell them only to those who are legally eligible to purchase them. 

Criminals, on the other hand, don’t.

Nature abhors a vacuum, and if a corner store is unable to sell cigarettes, the guy on the street corner will be more than happy to — and they don’t check IDs. Also, with illicit activity comes an increase in violent crime to protect it. 

Of course, those with the means can just go to one of the 375 other tobacco retailers that are within 10 miles of Albany’s borders. Albany’s loss in jobs and economic activity will be Colonie’s and Bethlehem’s gain — again. 

Coulson’s is a great Albany institution, and I am proud to be the latest steward for this landmark. I just don’t want to be the last.

I’ve owned this business since 2019, and we were hit hard during the pandemic. Many businesses didn’t make it, but we didn’t give up. 

Coulson’s has survived the pandemic, the Great Depression, and too many recessions, snowstorms, and other natural disasters to count. 

But can it survive Albany’s politicians? 

Asad Dawoodani is the owner of Coulson’s News & Deli in downtown Albany.