Collier County, FL Business Licensing & Operations: Tobacco Retail License (2026)

Sec. 26-2 of the Collier County Code, adopted by Ordinance No. 01-46 in 2001, prohibits a tobacco vendor from placing product in an 'open display unit' unless that unit sits in a 'restricted access area' with immediate access limited to the vendor or the vendor's employees. An open display unit is defined broadly to include any case, rack, shelf, counter, table, kiosk, booth or stand that lets the public reach the product directly. Self-service tobacco merchandising in a non-restricted area is barred outright, whether the vendor sells, permits to be sold, offers for sale, or simply displays the product for sale that way.

Two exceptions exist: an establishment that prohibits anyone under 18 from entering the premises, and a 'specialty tobacco store' whose primary business is selling cigars, pipe tobacco and other tobacco products. The ordinance has an explicitly countywide reach: subsection (f) applies it to the incorporated municipalities of Naples, Marco Island and Everglades City as well as the unincorporated area this database otherwise covers. ch. 569, and Sec. 26-2(a) says the ordinance is not meant to prohibit sale or delivery of tobacco that is otherwise lawfully regulated under that chapter. What the county adds is the display restriction aimed at keeping loose cigarettes and cigars out of reach of minors browsing store aisles unsupervised.