Smokers fume as prices jump ahead of fed tax hike

[Robbien]

Source: Reno Gazette-Journal

Debbie Winningham of Red Rock knew that the federal cigarette tax was set to go up 61 cents a pack on April 1, but when she walked into the Indian Smoke Shop on East Second Street this week, she said she "nearly had a stroke."
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It was sticker shock: Cigarettes had gone up about $5 a carton or so, depending on the brand.

The era of the 25-cent cigarette has arrived weeks early as big tobacco companies bumped up prices in anticipation of next month's federal tax increase. A carton of Marlboro, selling at a discount shop (sales tax added) for about $39 two weeks ago, now is about $44. Other stores now are charging $5 to $7 a pack for brand name cigarettes, even as the Nevada Legislature considers a bill that would tack on another $1 a pack in state taxes to the 80 cents already charged.

The latest price increase has smokers fuming.

"I saw Kools for nearly $50 a carton. That's crazy," Winningham said. "The cigarette companies not only raised the prices in advance to cover the tax, but they added their cut, too. They are taking advantage of the situation."

Thomas G. Clayton of Sparks said he noticed the cigarette price increase at a 7-Eleven last weekend. The clerk told him the tax already was in effect, which he said he knew wasn't true. He drove to other stores and found the same price increases but said clerks had different theories about why the price rose weeks in advance of the new tax.

Read more: http://www.rgj.com/article/20090319/NEWS/903190345/1321

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On April 1st, a roll your own cigarette place price is going up from $10.95 per carton to $24.95 per carton.

With make your own more than doubling, the price of the factory made carton of Kools that guy in Winningham is now complaining about will far exceed that fifty bucks/carton which has his knickers in a twist right now.

Cigarette smokers in the US is an endangered species.