...and a pack of Luckies

In My Humble Opinion
1

Whenever I’m out and about with a friend who smokes, and we go into a grocery store or corner shop or whatever, he or she quite frequently picks up a pack of cigarettes as part of the transaction. (“Ten bucks of unleaded on pump three, and a pack of Marlboros.”) Doesn’t happen every time, but a lot of the time, maybe three times out of four. And it’s almost always just one pack, rarely two, never more than that.

Not being a smoker, I’ve never really paid attention, and haven’t thought about it (other than the internal aside, “more coffin nails,” which I politely keep to myself). But a couple days ago, coincident with a visit from my tobacco-puffing mother-in-law, I just started wondering idly about the behavior, and thought I might as well ask.

Is this regular purchase just a logistical element of maintaining a one- or two-pack-a-day habit? (Buy a pack, smoke most of them, buy another pack later that day or the next day, and so on.) In that case, does that mean you have to find an excuse to stop at a gas station, convenience store, or whatever on a daily basis, primarily to pick up one or two packs? Seems like an awful hassle.

Or is it merely a matter of practice, wherein the smoker maintains a number of packs in several locations in various states of usage? (One in the van, one in the bedroom, one in this jacket, one in this coat, one in the duffel bag, etc.). That way, you don’t have to worry about buying a pack or two somewhere every day, since you can be assured that you’ll have some smokes somewhere near to hand; buying one or two every place you stop is designed to average out against the days you don’t stop anywhere. The risk, of course, is running out, if you haven’t stopped someplace recently.

Or maybe one simply buys a carton to assure a supply, and then, similar to the above, picks up the odd pack now and then to make sure one’s in the car, one’s in the purse, etc., just in case. And it’s also possible that my observational sample is skewed, given that when I’m with a smoking friend, our usual intention is to hang around socially, and a planned long stretch of conversation (maybe including beer) causes one to prepare for increased cigarette consumption.

Note, this is logistical curiosity, not judgmentalism. I don’t smoke myself; hence my lack of knowledge. Anybody who wants to weigh in on the evils of the broadleaf weed, please do me the courtesy of starting your own thread for the purpose.

So, anyway, what’s the deal? How does one organize one’s supply and maintenance of the habit?

2

I expect it is handled differently from individual to individual. I don’t smoke either, but I live with one, so I get to observe her habits rather more than I’d like.

She tries to have only one open pack at a time, as they do go stale if left lying around. She also tries to buy her smokes by the carton, since they’re cheaper that way. So, in a perfect week, she doesn’t engage in the daily run to 7-Eleven. However, I’ve never seen her have a perfect week.

She buys the cartons from the cheapest source, a smoke shop partway across town (Cevaise, you’re a Seattlite, so I’ll tell you that the shop is in the U-district, and we live in Ballard.) Often, she uses up her carton before she’s had the chance to run for another, so she’ll buy an individual pack or two until she gets around to making the run. At other times, the convenience store might have some sort of special (buy two packs, get one free, or some such), so she’ll buy them that way until the sale ends.

Of course, the lady is severely ADD, so I bet a better organized nicotine addict would do things differently.

3

I had a friend once you was a pretty serious smoker and would often have to stop at the 7-11 on our way to the theater, a friend’s house, a resturant etc. He usually bought a pack whenever he got gas too. I asked him why he didn’t just buy a carton or two so that he didn’t have to worry about it so much and his answer kind of surprised me. He said something to the effect that if he had a carton he would end up smoking a lot more than if he only had a single pack. In other words the fact that he had to constently keep looking for a source of cigarettes kept his consumption under control… so to speak. I’m not sure I buy that line of reasoning but he was comfortable with doing things that way and didn’t seem to mind having to pay 2 or 3X the cost of just buying a carton. My parents, on the other hand, when they use to smoke would only buy cartons since it was considerably cheaper than buying individual packs or from a cigarette machine.

/ hijack coming BTW, what ever happened to all of the cigarette machines that used to be around… where did they all end up? /

4

As a former smoker, I can agree with Dolphinboy. If I waited until I ran out of smokes to buy another pack, I’d smoke less than if I had a large supply such as a carton. Nicotine is an evil, evil drug. If I didn’t regulate how much I smoked, I could have easily smoked two packs a day. As for the cigarette machines, I believe they have been removed to prevent underage kids from getting smokes without getting carded. Before I was 18, I could always get a pack from a cigarette machine in the back room of a bowling alley.

5

[[She tries to have only one open pack at a time, as they do go stale if left lying around.]]

Yeah, I don’t think they’re good for you after they get stale. Moving to In My Humble Opinion.
Jill

6

When I was a smoker, I had the same theory as some of those above–if I were to buy a carton (which I never did), I’d probably have smoked them a lot faster, since there’d be a large supply on hand. Buying the one pack at a time allows some people (including me) to sort of “ration” their smokes over the course of a day or two (less if being at a bar was involved). When some stores used to sell individual cigarettes for 10 cents (illegal for some time now, at least in Massachusetts), I’d even do that so I’d know my smoking wouldn’t get out of hand. I’d buy a couple of “loosies,” keep 'em in the car, and I’d be set for the day.

(On a side note, I never did understand why they made it illegal to sell single cigs. Supposedly it had something to do with making it harder for underaged buyers, but isn’t it just as easy to buy a pack of smokes as it is to buy a single one? It’s probably for the best–if they still sold the singles, I’d probably still buy them.)