2 years ago I went to a Reds game and stayed across the river in Kentucky. Very nostalgic. Had a hotel room that allowed smoking, went to the bar and had a smoke with my beer. Ah, those were the days.
Anyway, I smoke Newport reds and found that every store and gas station had them for about 27 bucks a carton. They’re around 70 here in Wisconsin. Also, 5 years ago I was dating a woman who’s neighbor was a trucker and used to get them in Missouri for about 33.
Are prices still about that low? I’m starting to think with gas becoming so cheap, 1.57/gallon here, a road trip might be called for.
And yes I know about the stupid virus, this isn’t the Pit.
I see some Native American reservation and rancheria fuel stations don’t charge state sales tax. (They’re subject to federal regulations, not state.) That’s a Real Big Deal here in California. I have zero interest in cigarettes* but I’ll guess some rez stores have-em Pretty Damn Cheap. Does anyone have numbers? I’m too lazy to look.
Again, this was, well now that I think about it, 3 years ago this summer. The Newports were 27,and the generic brands were about 20 or 21. Maybe something changed in taxing. I don’t know how the pricing is determined. I know that the generic brand I’ll smoke (Eagle) can be found in my Wisconsin town for 52 a carton, but just across the border in Illinois they’re about 42. I can’t imagine Illinois having a lower sin tax than us.
Tribes have employees with business degrees too. They didn’t sell them at a state tax discount when I smoked 20 years ago. They just sold them to be cheap enough to make it worth making a stop at their smoke shop. Prices were roughly 25% of the state sales tax less. The price of 75% of state tobacco tax just added to their profit.
I can remember when they sold for 17 cents in vending machines. Dad would give me two dimes and ask me to go get his cigarettes. The package would have 3 pennies tucked inside the plastic wrap. I got to keep those.
If you pulled an additional lever, you also got a book of matches. I’d always get those, too (and not always give them to Dad. In fact if the previous purchaser hadn’t pulled the lever, you could get a free book of matches with no purchase.
The cigarette tax in Missouri is a trifling 17 cents per pack. I checked this morning at one of the few places I shop that still sells tobacco products. The generic off-brands are $4.72/pack, the brands you’ve heard of but aren’t best sellers are about a buck more, and the premium brands are somewhere over $6.
NC used to be very cheap and there were places on I-95 and I-85 that sold a lot of smokes. Now we are about average since the tax went way up. It used to be 5 cents/pack or so for a long time.
Yes, I can do the math. I walked into the gas station and asked for 3 cartons of Newport Red 100’s. Paid with a hundred dollar bill I won from the game.*
Walked out with folding change.
*There was a guy next to us at a Nats/Reds game. And, understand, I respect Red fans more than Cardinal fans. Stupid birds, but I digress, go Brewers!
Damn I miss baseball. And A Buck’s title!
Anyway, this guy was obnoxious about how much he hated
Back inna dawn a time, I was doing a WestPac on my submarine. The day we were going to leave Subic Bay, a vendor appeared on the wharf hawking smokes. I scored a carton of Marlboros for a buck.
They didn’t taste very good, even for cigarettes. And a lot of them had mysterious pinholes in them. That mystery was solved when I found a little caterpillar right inside the tip of one. The mystery of why it took me another seventeen years to put the damn things* away remains to be solved.
*(cigarettes in general, not that specific carton)
