BELCHERTOWN — A year after the Board of Health voted to prohibit the sale of nicotine products to anyone born after Jan. 1, 2004, two tobacco retailers failed a compliance check and became the first in town to breach the nicotine-free generation regulations.
Village Package Store, at 16 Federal St., and Ye olde Grogg Shoppe, at 32 Depot St., came before the Board of Health on Monday to appeal the $1,000 fines and three-day nicotine sales permit suspensions their businesses received. Members of the board debated whether to waive the penalty since businesses are adjusting to the new regulations, but in a 3-2 vote agreed to enforce the fines and suspensions.
“I understand that everybody’s adjusting,” Board of Health member Gail Gramarossa said. “But I still feel like that violation happened, and the consequence of the fine is what needs to happen.”
The violations occurred on Dec. 15 as part of an enforcement operation conducted by Quabbin Health District Director Andrea Crete and Belchertown Overcoming Adversity Together (BOAT) Co-Chair Kris Hoag. In this operation, a woman born after the cutoff date attempted to purchase a pack of cigarettes at each nicotine vendor in town. Eight of the 10 stores passed, but the woman was able to buy two packs — one each from Village Package and Ye olde Grogg.
Village Package Store Manager Samantha Haughey and Ye olde Grogg Shoppe owner Ashe Patel acknowledged the sales occurred and took full responsibility. They both committed to further educate their staff on the new regulation.
However, Haughey pointed out that the clerks did not have a lot of practice because few customers under 21 years old attempt to buy nicotine products. She spent $1,500 installing a new cashier system to meet the regulation, but learning the dates and ages to input into the system became a challenge.
“I just hope that you guys can show us some leniency with how we have been in this town for almost 40 years and have always had a really great reputation,” she said.
Board of Health members Dr. David Gottsegen and Colleen DuroShea agreed with Haughey and asked to dismiss penalty. The law is more complicated than the previous nicotine or even alcohol regulations, Gottsegen said, and the store has no previous record of violating public health regulations.
“I’m looking at it as when the guy won’t stop at a stop sign, the cop will give a warning. Well, same thing,” Gottsegen said.
However, Chair Jim Potter, Ken Elstein and Gramarossa said this would set the precedent for violations moving forward. Any future first violations would be waived out of fairness, they reasoned.
“It just seems to me, what’s the point of having a regulation if you’re not going to enforce it?” Elstein said.
Crete and Hoag personally did education checks at each of the 10 vendors with nicotine sales permits in November 2025. When the regulation first passed, Crete sent a letter to each of the vendors about the change and put up new signs.
“If we had done these compliance checks in the beginning, like the first couple of months, I could understand cutting people some slack,” Crete said. “But we had gone out at least twice in the beginning, and then again in November for education, making sure everybody had signage, making sure everybody understood. And then we did our compliance check, and only two ended up failing that check.”
In brief remarks, Patel said, “We are not here to make illegal sales for anything, and I promise to take upmost care to make sure it won’t happen again.”
The two stores have a week to pay the $1,000 fine, and the suspension of their permit will last from March 30 to April 1.