Business Data & Benchmarks · United States
Tobacco and Vape Shop Revenue Benchmark
A tobacco and vape shop sells cigarettes, cigars, pipe tobacco, e-cigarettes, vaping liquids and related accessories, often with a walk-in humidor or a lounge in the case of cigar shops. Excise taxes, age verification rules and changing product regulations shape the trade as much as customer demand does.
Average Tobacco and Vape Shop Revenue per Year 2022 Economic Census
The 2022 Economic Census counts every retailer of tobacco, electronic cigarettes and smoking supplies with paid employees and publishes their combined annual receipts. Dividing that total by the number of stores gives the average annual revenue per employer establishment shown below.
≈$1,354,000 /year
Average annual gross revenue per employer establishment
23,107
Employer establishments in the United States, 2022
as published $31.3 billion
Combined annual gross revenue of employer establishments, 2022
How this is calculated: about $31.3 billion in combined annual receipts divided by 23,107 employer establishments works out to an average annual revenue of $1,354,000 per employer establishment.
Scope: Tobacco, Electronic Cigarette, and Other Smoking Supplies Retailers, NAICS 459991. The category covers retailers of cigarettes, cigars, pipe tobacco, electronic cigarettes, vaping products and other smoking supplies. Convenience stores and liquor stores that also sell tobacco are counted in their own categories. Classified separately in group 4599: 459910 Pet and Pet Supplies Retailers; 459920 Art Dealers; 459930 Manufactured (Mobile) Home Dealers, and 1 further code. Nothing outside that code is counted on this page.
Source US Census Bureau, 2022 Economic Census, Summary Statistics (ECNBASIC): ESTAB, RCPTOT and PAYANN by NAICS · Vintage 2022 Economic Census · Calculation BusinessNES · Accessed September 2026
Five-Year Survival in the Retail Sector Sector-level
Federal data does not track survival for tobacco and vape shops specifically. The honest closest measure is the sector that contains them: Retail Trade (NAICS 44-45). Here is the most recent fully observed five-year cohort.
59.8 percent of Retail Trade establishments opened in the year ended March 2020 were still operating five years later. Five-year survival was similar across these two consecutive cohorts: 60.7 percent and 59.8 percent.
Read this as sector base rates, not as a promise for this specific trade. The sector contains many business types with different economics, and survival for any one of them can sit above or below the curve. Product rules for vaping and flavored tobacco have changed several times in recent years, and a store whose stock depends on a restricted product line faces risks the sector curve cannot reflect.
Source US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Business Employment Dynamics, Table 7 · Scope Retail Trade sector, national · Observed through March 2025
Source and definition
Payroll as a Share of Revenue Official data
Payroll divided by receipts, both as published for the same year.
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Annual payroll share of receipts, United States | ≈12% |
Payroll share of receipts, Tobacco, Electronic Cigarette, and Other Smoking Supplies Retailers, United States, 2022 Economic Census.
Approximately 12.0 percent of every revenue dollar goes to annual payroll, a small share because tobacco prices carry embedded taxes and the products themselves are the main outlay a shop makes.
Payroll here excludes benefits, employer taxes and owner compensation, and the census does not publish cost of goods or the excise tax component of sales, so nothing on this page shows what a shop keeps.
Business Scale and Ownership Structure Official data
How large the average establishment is, and whether the population is independent operators or multi-site companies.
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Paid employees per employer establishment | 5.1 |
| Employer establishments per firm | 1.19 |
Scale and ownership, Tobacco, Electronic Cigarette, and Other Smoking Supplies Retailers, United States, 2022 Economic Census.
The average establishment employed about 5.1 people, and the industry counted 1.2 employer establishments per firm. A small crew covers the counter in a shop of this kind, and the establishments per firm figure shows that most operators run a single store, with some regional chains alongside them.
These are arithmetic industry averages. They state the size of the average establishment and show that multi-establishment ownership exists. They do not show the distribution of business sizes and they do not measure market concentration.
Explore More on BusinessNES
Neighbouring benchmark pages built from the same verified data, plus BusinessNES guides on the same subject.
Data Source Notice
This product uses the Census Bureau Data API but is not endorsed or certified by the Census Bureau.
Figures above are from the 2022 Economic Census reference year, released by the Census Bureau in 2024 and 2025; markets have moved since.
Questions Worth Asking BusinessNES analysis
Tobacco and Vape Shop: how tax and regulation sit inside a revenue figure.
Before you rely on this benchmark
- How much of the revenue is tax? Tobacco taxes can materially raise product costs and retail prices, but the point of taxation varies by tax and jurisdiction, which makes revenue comparisons across states harder to interpret. Two shops in different states can report very different revenue for the same volume of sales.
- Which products are exposed to new rules? Flavored vaping products, disposable devices and certain tobacco products have faced bans or restrictions that vary by state and city. A shop built around a restricted line can lose a category overnight, and the average on this page cannot anticipate that.
- Cigar lounge or convenience-style counter? A premium cigar shop with a humidor and seating sells fewer, more expensive items to a loyal clientele, while a vape shop turns over cheaper products quickly. Both sit in this category, and their labor, rent and inventory patterns differ.
- What does compliance cost? Licensing, age verification systems, signage and record keeping are recurring costs and the penalties for a failed inspection can include losing the license itself. That risk is a fixed cost of the trade that receipts do not show.
- Where does the store buy its stock? Distributor terms, minimum orders and the availability of legitimate product for newer categories affect margin directly, and counterfeit or gray-market goods are a known hazard in vaping products. Supply quality shapes a shop as much as location does.
- Who competes for the same customer? Convenience stores, gas stations and online sellers all carry tobacco or vaping products and are counted in other categories. A specialist shop competes on range and expertise rather than on being the only outlet, and that advantage varies by town.
Sources and Methodology
Revenue, establishment counts, payroll, employment and firm counts on this page come from the 2022 Economic Census, Summary Statistics, published by the US Census Bureau. Averages and shares are BusinessNES calculations from those published totals, and each one names the two figures it divides.
The Census counts employer establishments, meaning each store with paid staff. An owner working the counter alone is not counted, and receipts reflect retail prices that carry embedded tobacco taxes.
The survival curve is a sector-level series from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics and describes the whole Retail Trade sector, not this business type on its own.