You're smokin'

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You're smokin'

Postby Enzo » Sun Dec 15, 2019 3:02 am

I have done many things, decades ago I was involved in the coin-operated industry. Our company provided things like pinball machines and jukeboxes to taverns and clubs, or for that matter university campuses. We had a division for Laindy gear, like for coin laundromats. And vending. We had some snack vendors, and a large cupboard full of candy bars to stock them. We were allowed to raid that supply, so a good many free Hershey bars I got. My personal watering hole was one of our clients.

I watched as prices on vending machines slowly climbed. Back about 1974, a pack of cigarettes was maybe 75 or 85 cents. The longer ones cost more. I was the king of the technical departments, and was responsible for training and support, amongst other things. HAd to train the staff how to reset the prices on these mechanical wonders. When prices went up 10 cents, they approached a dollar. We nodded at one another and knowingly announced "NO ONE would ever spend over a dollar for a pack of cigarettes. And in fact, the mechanical "accumulator" in the machines only went up to a dollar. Progress was unimpressed, and when prices exceeded a dollar, they came up with add-on kludges to extend the price range of the machine. Oddly enough, people continued to smoke.

Every bar had a cigarette machine. We tried widening the selection. There were packs of condoms the size and shape of a cigarette pack. (The packs were the same size, not the condoms) There were packs of rolling papers, for guys who liked to roll their own...tobacco. There were even cigarette lighters in there. Some older machines had a side chute that we filled with match books, so you get a free book of matches with your cigarettes.

Cigarettes are taxed in Michigan, and each pack has a tax stamp across the top. We went to the wholesaler and bought cases of carton cigarettes. They are the same cigarettes you buy in a store, but the package is a little different, the cellophane finish is made so packs can slide over one another - no jams in the works. When we buy the cases, we have to pay the tax on them, whether they sell or not. Sometimes a brand doesn't sell well and packs get stale, or a machine gets put into storage with product still within. But, you can take the stale product back to the wholesaler, and get the tax back. It doesn't expire, so we wind up with boxes of stale cigarettes. Now boys will be boys, and we discovered that you can throw a pack - a flat spin is best. And when they hit someone, they have a satisfying whap sound. Of course once the shop had a hundred packs scattered, we had to clean them up. Taxes are money. This is a pleasure, few people get to experience. Hey, aim low, never disappointed.

So I left that industry a long time ago, but I still follow cigarette prices. Michigan outlawed smoking almost everywhere ten years ago. Previously smoking was banned in some places. I had stopped going to bars a long time prior because I hated coming home smelling like an ash try. Now we go to a local bar all the time for meals. But the cigarette vending machine business disappeared. Couldn't smoke in bars, restaurants, stores, offices, etc. No one bought them. You still an buy them at stores.

SO today I was at the gas station - which all sell smokes -- and noted on the window Newports selling for $7.72 per pack. Other big brands like MArlboro for more like $7.50. People still smoke at that price. I see people walk up to the counter at the Speedway and buy a carton (10 packs) for $75.

I can't wait to see what happens when they go over a dollar.
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Re: You're smokin'

Postby Мастер » Sun Dec 15, 2019 7:37 am

No one will ever pay more than $1 for a cigarette :)
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Re: You're smokin'

Postby Lance » Sun Dec 15, 2019 6:07 pm

I quit when they were about $3.35 a pack or 3 for $8.99. I can't believe what's happened to the prices since then.
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Re: You're smokin'

Postby g-one » Sun Dec 15, 2019 6:43 pm

Мастер wrote:No one will ever pay more than $1 for a cigarette :)

For premier brands here they are about $.75 each.

When I started (late 70s) I decided I would quit when they hit $2 per pack. That happened not long after, but it took me another 30 some years to quit. Probably cost me about the price of a house.
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Re: You're smokin'

Postby MM_Dandy » Mon Dec 16, 2019 7:23 pm

My mom's brother quit smoking in the late 80s - put the money he'd spend in an envelope instead. After about a year, he bought a plow with the savings. Unfortunately, cancer claimed him five years ago, anyway.
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Re: You're smokin'

Postby Мастер » Mon Dec 16, 2019 7:41 pm

MM_Dandy wrote:My mom's brother quit smoking in the late 80s - put the money he'd spend in an envelope instead. After about a year, he bought a plow with the savings. Unfortunately, cancer claimed him five years ago, anyway.


I also quit in the 1980s, about a week after I started.
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Re: You're smokin'

Postby Arneb » Mon Dec 16, 2019 7:48 pm

You are a wise man, indeed. And were in the 80s, as well.
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Re: You're smokin'

Postby Lianachan » Mon Dec 16, 2019 8:22 pm

I’ve never smoked. I’m not one of those sanctimonious well-I’ve-never-smoked arseholes, I’ve just never smoked.

Unless 2nd-hand smoke counts. My dad smoked enough for everybody during my childhood.
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Re: You're smokin'

Postby wring » Mon Dec 16, 2019 11:18 pm

Lianachan wrote:
Unless 2nd-hand smoke counts. My dad smoked enough for everybody during my childhood.

Both my parents smoked (dad was a pipe smoker, mom cigs). I had chronic bronchitis starting from my very young childhood. Started smoking at 13 (though it was like a cig a day or so for the first 4 years), and by 29 was smoking nearly 2 packs a day. I was convinced my bronchitis was unrelated to smoking, after all, I'd suffered from it long before I personally smoked. Got pregnant and quit smoking at 29, and... haven't had bronchitis since. So, yeah, I would believe second hand smoke has a negative effect.
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Re: You're smokin'

Postby Enzo » Tue Dec 17, 2019 2:27 am

I never smoked, but my folks both did all the time. As an adult, I spent most of my nights in bars, which are universally smoky. On the club circuit with the bands, we were also in smoky environs.
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Re: You're smokin'

Postby Heid the Ba » Tue Dec 17, 2019 12:43 pm

Lianachan wrote:I
Unless 2nd-hand smoke counts. My dad smoked enough for everybody during my childhood.

Capstan Full Strength, smoked in a car full of kids . . .
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