Posted on 10/25/2011 7:51:50 AM PDT by massmike
A Lower East Side tobacco shop co-owned by an NYPD captain is by illegally peddling smokes for less than $6 a pack, city officials say.
The cheap scheme at Island Smokes, where Cpt. John Kimball is a co-owner, is simple: Workers sell loose tobacco to customers, who then make their own cigarettes on in-house, automatic rolling machines. The shop says this allows them to sell the ensuing “packs’’ for less than half the normal $13 cost because technically, they have sold only loose tobacco, which is taxed at a much lower rate.
But that’s not how the city rolls, officials said.
“We view the business as illegal,” said Law Department attorney Eric Proshansky. He ordered the Eldridge Street shop and its flagship store on Staten Island to stop selling the smokes after undercover investigators discovered the scheme.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Bad Sheeple. They need to go occupy Doomberg's office.
I did that in my broke college days... rolled my own cigs. I wonder if their rolling service gives the cigarettes filters? That was an obstacle I never could overcome.
I don’t smoke,but I see prices at the filling stations when I fill up. Here in Kentucky a pack is around $3.50. No wonder the college students here are driving to NY. They more than pay for the gas...
6$ a pack!?!?!
Good grief!
When I quit smoking back when i was 25, a pack of Marlboro lights was 1.89 at the most expensive drug store, and a carton of them was 10$ at the naval exchange...
I remember a story a few years ago about NY raising the tas so high on cigarettes that it sent people out of the state for smokes and tax revenue actually went DOWN. So the state cracked down and got the names of NY residents that purchased out of state and nailed them with a huge tax bill. I don’t know how the state proved they consumed the smokes in NY though...
I suppose setting the tax on the loose tobacco at the same rate as cigarettes never occurred to them.
I don’t know how the state proved they consumed the smokes in NY though...
Now I remember. They were mail order. Delivered to their NY address.
When my dad quit in the mid-1960’s, it was around 50 cents a pack. When he quit, he saved a silver half dollar for every pack he “didn’t” buy.
He still has every single coin.
How does one man order a business to stop selling something without a hearing. THE KING HAS SPOKEN AND THE KING’S WORD IS LAW.
I don’t smoke either,but I’ve seen prices over $8 a pack in stores here in Taxachusetts!
—How does one man order a business to stop selling something without a hearing. —
I don’t think he can. Well, he can, technically. He could order the guy to sleep with his sister. It is not binding, though. It is an intimidation thing.
When the cops arrest you and bring up specific charges for violating a specific law on the books, that is when it gets interesting. That is when you, in front of a jury of your peers, defend yourself against their accusations. And the state would not want me on the jury if their case focuses on the free rolling machines being in-house.
If true this is a good thing; it is always good to deprive government of ill gotten gains. Money in private hands is always better for the economy than money in government hands.
Fortunately, cigars are still reasonable, locally or via mail order. :-D
Over 11 dollars in some parts of nyc. When my wife and I quit it was 3.35 a pack
I actually should have been more clear. I don’t smoke Cigarettes. I do smoke cigars, but so few that I am not addicted to them in the least. I enjoy them as I enjoy the adult beverage with which I enjoy them.
Last time I bought a pack, they were 35 cents.
I was 8 and we smoked them in a friend’s garage loft.
These days they'd fine the store and take away their license to sell tobacco products for 3 days for selling them to you!
Criminy, for 35 cents you could have had seven candy bars! I’d’a gone for the candy. :-)
After trying smoking that once ... I did.
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