Sacramento-area tobacco sales appear slow on first day of big federal tax hike

The cost of smoking has gotten more expensive at the Cheap Cigarette Store – and at other retail outlets selling cigarettes, cigars and loose tobacco.

"Carton prices went up $7 or $8," said Gul Amiri, owner of the Cheap Cigarette store on Marconi Avenue. "Marlboro and Camel are now $44."

The single-largest federal tobacco tax in the nation's history took effect Wednesday.

However, owners of tobacco stores in the Sacramento area said major cigarette companies raised prices a couple of weeks ago in anticipation of the big tax hike.

The new federal "sin tax" the manufacturers must pay raises the tax per pack from 39 cents to $1.01. A pack of Marlboros at Amiri's store now sells for $4.99.

Revenue from the new taxes will pay for expansion of health insurance for children. Anti-smoking activists predict the new tax will raise $39 billion through 2014.

Amiri said customers came in just before the tax increase took effect, not knowing that cigarette makers had already raised their prices.

"We got a lot of business Monday and Tuesday but (Wednesday), nothing," said Amiri.

While anti-smoking activists say higher taxes will stem smoking, Amiri sounded unconvinced.

"People say when they buy that it is the last they will smoke, but I say, 'We'll see,' " said Amiri.

At Cigaretteland on Norwood Avenue, business was slow Wednesday.

"This is a really, really big jump," owner Jaswinder Kaur said. "People are losing their homes. They have no jobs. They don't have money to spend. They can't quit eating, but they can quit smoking."

Eric N. Lindblom, research director for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids in Washington, D.C., said tax increases will prompt people to quit and stop others from starting.

"They are a terrific way to prevent and reduce smoking and all the related harms and costs," said Lindblom. "A lot of people have been calling the quit-smoking telephone lines because the companies jacked up their prices ahead of time."