What Exactly is "Exclusivity"
Article 20 of the “Measures for the Administration of Electronic Cigarettes” stipulates: "An enterprise or individual who has obtained a tobacco monopoly retail license and is qualified to engage in e-cigarette retail business shall purchase e-cigarette products from local e-cigarette wholesale enterprises, and shall not exclusively operate e-cigarette products that are marketed ".
The literal meaning of this article is to obtain a retail license first, and then not to "operate exclusively".
"Guiding Opinions on the Layout and License Management of E-cigarette Retail Stores" (5) states that "the cases of not granting e-cigarette retail license also include: exclusive operation of e-cigarette products listed and sold".
The literal meaning of this article is that "exclusive operation" comes first, and the result of not granting retail license occurs after.
From the "Measures" to the "Opinions", "exclusive operation" in the former relates to whether licensed retailers operate in compliance, while in the latter it relates to whether unlicensed retailers can get a license to continue working. The importance is self-evident.
Then the question is, what is "exclusivity"?
According to the Chinese Dictionary published by Chinese Dictionary.com, the exclusive explanation is that "one thing does not allow another thing to coexist with itself in the same scope".
According to the general understanding, e-cigarette brand stores are undoubtedly "exclusive" and naturally only offer their own products. The (one thing) e-cigarette brands do not allow (another thing) other e-cigarette brand to coexist with itself in the (same scope) the e-cigarette brand store. So recently, I always hear a voice: If you want to continue doing this, you must sell two or more brands at the same time, so that it is not "exclusive".
However, what if the same manufacturer launched a second brand and put it in the current specialty store?
Or, some two different manufacturers' e-cigarette brands have reached an agreement. Brand A stores the goods of brand B, and brand B stores the goods of brand A, but these two brands continue to prevent brands such as C, D, E and F from entering the store?
Or, the owner of the collective store has been hurt by a certain brand, so the owner is willing to sell other brands, minus the goods of this certain brand?
Or, I'd love to have the brand, but it's not in the local supply list, it's pre-scheduled by the wholesaler, so what can I do?
There is another situation, the owner can stock up all the brands on to the shelves. But the consumers actually only recognize one of the brands, which leads to the fact that "exclusive replenishment" occurs when the supply of goods is organized according to the order. Should we use the retail blind box, wholesale packages to solve this problem?
A consumer's mind is a big cabinet, and each demand corresponds to a category drawer, and the brands that can be settle in this category drawer are limited, so brands are naturally "exclusive" at the consumer end. In order to achieve non-exclusive operation, it is necessary for the industry and commerce to work together, dig deep into the demand, and make the big category of electronic cigarettes into several subdivided categories, which will be occupied by different brands. When all brands have exclusive consumers, there will naturally be no exclusive retail outlets.
