prime shelving space

ニューヨーク市のブルームバーグ市長が愛煙家をターゲットにまたまた次の手に打って出ました。Natさん、ここのprime shelving spaceとはどんな意味でしょうか。そういえばゴールデンタイムなんていう和製英語も連想しますが...（UG）

NYC wants to put cigarettes out of sight in shops

Walk into any convenience store or gas station in the U.S., and chances are the cigarettes will be in the same spot: at eye level, right behind the cash register.

That’s no coincidence. Tobacco companies have worked hard, and paid well, to ensure that cigarette displays occupy the retail equivalent of prime real estate. In 2010 alone, the industry made $370 million in payments to retailers to help lock down prime shelving space, according to a report last year by the Federal Trade Commission.

“Every consumer-product goods manufacturer in the country wants to be there,” said Kurt M. Ribisl, a professor at the University of North Carolina who studies tobacco marketing. “People making chips and Doritos and Pepsi — all of these companies want that space. But the tobacco industry wins.”

Now New York City, one of the nation’s biggest cigarette markets, wants to put the cigarettes out of sight.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg proposed a bill this week that would force retailers to keep cigarettes out of public view until a customer asks for a pack.

A second bill would take aim at the system of discounts and incentives that manufacturers have long used to attract customers.

It is too early to tell whether either measure will survive the legislative process or an almost-certain court challenge. Tobacco companies and convenience store owners have attacked both proposals as unfair and perhaps unconstitutional.
Even more unclear is whether the policy would lead to fewer people smoking.

http://www.japantoday.com/category/lifestyle/view/nyc-wants-to-put-cigarettes-out-of-sight-in-shops