Convenience store owners want the Nova Scotia government to slow down on implementing its new anti-smoking rules.

About 200 store owners are expected to meet in Dartmouth on Tuesday. They have been circulating a petition at their businesses around the province, asking customers to support their fight.

"We feel as retailers this has been very rushed through very quickly and we just don't have the time, so we're asking for some more time," said Mike Hammoud, a store owner and chairman of the Atlantic Convenience Stores Association.

The law requires retailers to keep tobacco products out of sight in closed cabinets above or below the counter. Store owners have until the fall to comply.

But some retailers say changing display areas in stores will be expensive, and they want to be compensated for the cost.

"The thing that worries us a lot about that is the safety issue of it because of the ability of people to break in," said Hammoud.

"They could easily steal the product from above because you can't secure it. There is just no logical, moneywise, way to do that. And below the counter, there's a lot of stores that just don't have that space."

Store owners could pass the cost on to customers, a provincial official suggests.

"If they are looking for other options that might be something that they would consider," said Steve Machat, with the Department of Health Promotion, "but the department is not considering compensating vendors for the changes they need to make."

About 22 per cent of Nova Scotians smoke, compared to 19 per cent nationally.