British cigarette machines

Factual Questions
1

This has been bugging me for a while.

In Britain, a pack of 20 smokes costs about 4 pounds in a store. But if you buy them in a vending machine, a pack costs the same but you only get 17. (I don’t know why that makes sense to me, but I’ll go along with it.)

BUT… if you buy Marlboro Lights, you only get 16. This is what bugs me: why one less cigarette for that particular brand?

2

Sixteen used to be the standard number in all vending packs (they had that cellophane strip with “16” printed round it).

I don’t know when they increased it to 17 for the other brands, as I stopped using vending machines several years ago when I moved to London: I reckon you’re never far away from a late-night / all-night shop here, and it’s usually worth the hassle of leaving the pub (or wherever) for 5 minutes in order to save 20p + 4 fags.

3

Sorry, I also meant to say that I think the reasons vending machines are more expensive are:

(1) The cigarette duty situation is v. complicated and it would be a lot of hassle to re-price all the machines between 4.00 and 6.00 pm on Budget day every year. It’s easier just to over-charge in the first place to make sure there’s always enough surplus to pay off Customs & Excise. Cigarette duty is, IIRC, ad valorem + per cigarette, hence the half-empty packets.

(2) They are able to do this (i.e. the market will stand it) becuase the machines are being used by people who are either desparate because the shops are shut, or who are in the pub or whatever and can’t be bothered going out to the shops (see my previous post).

4

When I was a little boy ('53-'54) my dad would send me to the gas station to get his cigs from a vending machine. The cost was two dimes, but inside the cellophane wrapper would be three pennies. I remember it well because the pennies were mine, all mine. I could get a candy bar, Hollywood is the one I remember, for those three pennies.
Am I a little off-topic? Oh well, I just had to share. :stuck_out_tongue:
Peace,
mangeorge

I only know two things;
I know what I need to know
And
I know what I want to know
Mangeorge, 2000