Grocery Store Chain - Cigarettes $1.00 per pack..

October 7, 2008 - During a recent visit to a local grocery store we were shocked to find a grocery cart filled with cigarettes in an area where all shoppers pass, selling for $1.00 per pack.

Fundamental to tobacco control is convincing governments to sharply raise tobacco taxes and as a result the cost of a pack of cigarettes increases. Numerous economic studies in peer-reviewed journals have documented that cigarette tax or price increases reduce both adult and underage smoking. The general consensus is that every 10 percent increase in the real price of cigarettes reduces overall cigarette consumption by approximately three to five percent, reduces the number of young-adult smokers by 3.5 percent, and reduces the number of kids who smoke by six or seven percent.

This effort is defeated if the store turns around and sells cigarettes for a cheaper price. Cigarettes and most moist snuff products do not carry an expiration date (do have some coded value) and the tobacco can not be returned to the manufacturer. UST's Skoal and Copenhagen have an expiration date and can be returned for credit. At least one c-store owner we have talked to thinks UST Inc. (with no regulations in place) reconstitutes the expired tobacco and again returns it to the marketplace for sale - more on this aspect later. UST salesman..

Reference: RAISING CIGARETTE TAXES REDUCES SMOKING, ESPECIALLY AMONG KIDS (AND THE CIGARETTE COMPANIES KNOW IT)

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