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Guess how much a pack of cigarettes cost in Chicago?

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linazelle Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-19-06 10:30 PM
Original message
Poll question: Guess how much a pack of cigarettes cost in Chicago?
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LynnTheDem Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-19-06 10:32 PM
Response to Original message
1. It's $6 to $9/pack here
Good thing I planned on quitting.
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MrModerate Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-19-06 10:32 PM
Response to Original message
2. I stopped smoking about 15 years ago . . .
And it was up to $3.50 in San Francisco by then.
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ScreamingMeemie Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-19-06 10:34 PM
Response to Original message
3. Closing in on $6 in Michigan
I think it depends on the "convience" of the store.
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linazelle Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-19-06 10:35 PM
Response to Original message
4. I'm going to give it away...they now cost $7.56!!!!
I visited my mother yesterday. She told me they cost that much but I didn't believe it. I stopped at a gas station and ding ding ding--the price was $7.56.

I moved away from Chicago two years ago. It is becoming impossible to survive there IMHO. And of course, a lot of this has to do with the lack of federal funding since Illinois is a Blue State.

On either side of Chicago--in Indiana and Wisconsin--cigarettes cost less than $4.
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alcuno Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-19-06 10:58 PM
Response to Reply #4
18. It's a Cook County tax.
Lake County is about $3.60 per pack.
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Jayhawk Lib Donating Member (587 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-19-06 10:36 PM
Response to Original message
5. Looks like price gouging to me.
Maybe we should have hearings on this. Cigarettes should not cost more than gasoline.
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beam me up scottie Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-19-06 10:40 PM
Response to Reply #5
9. Taxes.
Not price gouging.
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Jayhawk Lib Donating Member (587 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-19-06 11:09 PM
Response to Reply #9
26. High taxes???
Sounds like the government is price gouging to me.
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beam me up scottie Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-19-06 11:16 PM
Response to Reply #26
29. Would you prefer they tax food?
:shrug:
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linazelle Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-19-06 11:30 PM
Response to Reply #26
31. Yes it's taxes. Cigarette taxes like gasoline taxes have always
been a sure thing for governments.

They know that they will not lose revenues if they increase cigarette taxes, because even if people buy fewer cigarettes, so many are still addicted that the number who stop buying does not match the size of the tax increase.
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Katherine Brengle Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-19-06 10:41 PM
Response to Reply #5
10. Cigarettes should cost as much as possible--
Edited on Sun Mar-19-06 10:44 PM by Katherine Brengle
Listen, I just quit last week, so I understand the outrage, but cigarettes should cost ten bucks a pack, at least.

Higher prices mean less smokers--especially young smokers.

That's a good thing.



Raise the price of cigarettes, lower the price of products that assist quitters.
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ScreamingMeemie Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-19-06 10:47 PM
Response to Reply #10
14. I don't think that will stop kids. Beer costing 10 bucks a case doesn't
stop them.
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Katherine Brengle Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-19-06 11:01 PM
Response to Reply #14
19. Smoking is a constant--
when you are a smoker, you need to buy smokes every day, or every other day--very few teens drink enough for it to make a big financial difference.

$50 a pack then--let the very rich who can afford to pay for medical care when they get lung cancer buy the cigarettes...
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ScreamingMeemie Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-20-06 07:19 AM
Response to Reply #19
33. I disagree.
I quit smoking, but I don't think targeting smokers is the answer. With this way of thinking we should be taxing (heavily) fast food...butter...alcohol...etc.

It's gotten outrageous. Kids will pay whatever it costs...if they have to bust open the piggy bank, this just won't work. Plus, it's discrimantory. Ask my dad, a person who never picked up a cigarette in his life, yet is the biggest smoking advocate I know of. :hi:
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Hippo_Tron Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-19-06 11:02 PM
Response to Reply #14
20. A case of beer is different than a pack of cigarettes
You can split a case of beer (which is definately more than 10 bucks unless you are drinking natty light, btw) between 3 or 4 friends and have a pretty wild night. If you are addicted to cigarettes, you are buying them at 10 bucks a pack and not just buying a pack one night a week, you are buying them every day or every other day.
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Katherine Brengle Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-19-06 11:03 PM
Response to Reply #20
22. lol--exactly what i said. :)
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ScreamingMeemie Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-20-06 07:19 AM
Response to Reply #20
34. You can do the same with a pack of cigarettes. Most kids, when they
start smoking, do exactly that. This is not going to work.
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beam me up scottie Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-19-06 10:50 PM
Response to Reply #10
15. How are you doing?
I quit a few years back, thanks to Welbutrin and the help of my doctor, who is also an ex-smoker.
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Katherine Brengle Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-19-06 11:02 PM
Response to Reply #15
21. Really good--it's been... about 10 days now...
That's an approximation--I am not good with dates and stuff like that, but it has been more than 8 and I think more than 9 lol.
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beam me up scottie Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-19-06 11:04 PM
Response to Reply #21
23. It's tough.
I had to keep reminding myself of the reasons I was quitting.

Snapping the rubber band on my wrist helped too.
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Jayhawk Lib Donating Member (587 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-19-06 11:08 PM
Response to Reply #10
25. Higher gas prices would mean less use of
fossil fuels and that would be a good thing.
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Tyranny of Evil Men Donating Member (23 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-19-06 10:42 PM
Response to Reply #5
11. Blame Taxes
If you're a smoker and you travel you'll know all about price variations in taxes.

In Central Virginia I could buy a pack of cigarettes for $2.50, it's even less in Kentucky and Tennessee.

In New York City they'll top $7.00 per pack.

Different states and cities have vastly different tax rates on cigarettes. It's not tobacco company gouging; believe it or not. My godfather's son-in-law works as a quality assurance/line supervisor for RJ Reynolds (No, not a PC job but he doesn't smoke.) and they can make a carton of cigarettes for about $3 something. They sell them for $9 something and of that $9 something $2 goes to the tobacco settlement funds.

The great variation in prices is due to taxes.
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RB TexLa Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-19-06 10:52 PM
Response to Reply #11
17. Yep, BYOC when I go to Brooklyn

I smoke the cheaper brands usually, pay $2.28 for them at one store and $2.34 at another.

Got Kool buy one get one for $4.57 on the way home tonight.
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HeeBGBz Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-19-06 10:37 PM
Response to Original message
6. post hiccup
Edited on Sun Mar-19-06 10:37 PM by HeeBGBz
eom
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HeeBGBz Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-19-06 10:37 PM
Response to Original message
7. A lung and some change
eom
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linazelle Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-19-06 10:38 PM
Response to Reply #7
8. LOL nt
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Wheres The Beef Donating Member (64 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-19-06 10:44 PM
Response to Original message
12. As soon as cigs get to a buck a pack
I'M QUITTIN
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beam me up scottie Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-19-06 11:05 PM
Response to Reply #12
24. !
:D
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in_cog_ni_to Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-19-06 10:45 PM
Response to Original message
13. I'm just south of Chicago and cigs at our gas station are $3.40.
You can get a carton for $34 and change...major brands, not generics.
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depakid Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-19-06 11:23 PM
Response to Reply #13
30. I was amazed when I was in Chicago last summer
at the range of prices for all sorts of things in the neighborhoods around the city. I'm sure there was some rhyme and reason to it- but I sure couldn't see it.
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harpo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-19-06 10:51 PM
Response to Original message
16. I'm glad I quit
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OPERATIONMINDCRIME Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-19-06 11:12 PM
Response to Original message
27. discount-cigarettes-store.com. It's A Wonderful Thing...
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oneold1-4u Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-19-06 11:12 PM
Response to Original message
28. It's the tax
In OR it is $12 state tax per carton and they plan to raise it another $6. It was always supposed to go into the health and care system but they cut that back to "bare bones" so where does all the money go? hahahahahaha
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SheilaT Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-20-06 12:13 AM
Response to Original message
32. I wouldn't know because I don't smoke.
If there were no other reason not to smoke, I'd think the cost alone would make most people, other than perhaps rich Republicans, swear off the evil weed.
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