Convenience store clerks looking for plain-pack cigarettes in display cases where all brands look alike need more time, creating queues that send clientele elsewhere to shop, according to a study that predicts shop closings and job loss.

As many as 3,600 jobs at small shops in the United Kingdom may fall victim to lost tobacco sales due to plain packaging, an estimate that increases to more than 30,000 when the impact of all lost sales from departed tobacco customers are factored in. The Centre for Economics and Business Research released the employment estimates in an addendum to an earlier plain packaging report commissioned by Philip Morris Ltd.
Although the UK government said it will delay a decision on plain packaging, regional governments in Scotland and Wales have said they are considering legislation. An estimated 3,231 jobs would be lost at small shops in Scotland and 1,812 in Wales, according to the study. Almost 25,000 jobs would be lost in England. Tobacco manufacturing job loss would hit Northern Ireland and the East Midlands hardest, the study said.