Up to snuff
Posted: Fri Oct 01, 2021 12:28 amI went to the dollar store today. Next to it they added four new store-fronts, one of which is a tobacconist. I went in there today. I have never been n a tobacco store, at least not in 50 some years or more. A nice young lady greeted me. She was adorned as so many are now, a small horse shoe through her nose. Through her columella (I looked it up) And various scribblings inked on her skin. But friendly.
Now that vaping is big, there is that whole line of products they can sell, but prior to that, I always wondered just where they make their money. SO I asked. They sell some really cheap generic cigarettes, and I found a few major brand cigarettes that sell even higher in price than at the gas station. Speedway gets $8 a pack for like Marlboros, and the lady told me they sell those for $9.50. Wow.
I shared with her that I once worked for a vending company, like 1974. We had cigarette machines in bars and restaurants, and elsewhere. Seems to me we sold main line butts for maybe 75 cents a pack. The 100mm brands were 10 cents more. We had to adjust the coin acceptors inside for the price per pack. As prices inched up, we KNEW, we assured one another, that when the cost of a pack of cigarettes got past $1, no one would smoke any more. Boy we sure nailed that prediction. I can walk into Speedway any time and see $80 cartons of cigs being sold.
Then I recalled being into dry snuff back in the 1960s. A pinch of the powdery stuff snorted up the nose, and there you go. I inquired. She showed me their array of snuffs, but most were the moist stuff in tins. She offered the pouches, and I said, "No, that is chaw." No dry stuff I could see. But I had a dim memory that it was Dr. Rumney's, and came in a small red tin. There had been many brands, but that is the one I liked. Maybe it was the good doctor's image on it. SO I came home and searched, and by god...
Now that vaping is big, there is that whole line of products they can sell, but prior to that, I always wondered just where they make their money. SO I asked. They sell some really cheap generic cigarettes, and I found a few major brand cigarettes that sell even higher in price than at the gas station. Speedway gets $8 a pack for like Marlboros, and the lady told me they sell those for $9.50. Wow.
I shared with her that I once worked for a vending company, like 1974. We had cigarette machines in bars and restaurants, and elsewhere. Seems to me we sold main line butts for maybe 75 cents a pack. The 100mm brands were 10 cents more. We had to adjust the coin acceptors inside for the price per pack. As prices inched up, we KNEW, we assured one another, that when the cost of a pack of cigarettes got past $1, no one would smoke any more. Boy we sure nailed that prediction. I can walk into Speedway any time and see $80 cartons of cigs being sold.
Then I recalled being into dry snuff back in the 1960s. A pinch of the powdery stuff snorted up the nose, and there you go. I inquired. She showed me their array of snuffs, but most were the moist stuff in tins. She offered the pouches, and I said, "No, that is chaw." No dry stuff I could see. But I had a dim memory that it was Dr. Rumney's, and came in a small red tin. There had been many brands, but that is the one I liked. Maybe it was the good doctor's image on it. SO I came home and searched, and by god...