I'm glad to hear of so many B&M sticking to their guns instead of sticking it to their customers. Unlucky for me, I stopped at my local B&M yesterday to meet a buddy. A sign taped to the walk in humi said "Get your cigars today. Starting tomorrow ALL cigar prices will increase by 56 cents."


Sin taxes suck.
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I love the "cc" responses.

Just wait a month or so.
I really think the doors are about to open with Cuba.

What an opportunity for the US to tax all those cigars also.:-)
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Rumor has it that HSA is about to roll out a price increase. :-)
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Usually when I go to mt local B&M I bring one of mine then buy one of theirs. So... I'm still helping them out.
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Yeah, so now they have the SCHIP tax in effect and at the same time in neighboring Kentucky they bumped alcohol tax up 7%! Double screwed! So now where we use to get alcohol a few bucks cheaper now it will cost the same and more......it will cause major hardships for KY I am afraid. Just a matter of time before they place a fat tax on fast food.....:-)
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Same thing I was thinking.
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Opening up Cuba and taxing that product is really the only way that this kind of tax will meet anything near the anticipated revenue number. Otherwise, they have killed the cow they intended to milk.
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You not wrong except you forgot a couple things. The $8 is at the manufacturer level and they base profits off of percentages so when that profit is calcualted that must figure in the tax. If we only add 50% (low figure) your $8 is now $12, there is also the extra overhead from paperwork but that will be minimal. Next thing is your State OTP (other tobbaco products) tax which gets added on when the Cigars are landed in your state. It varies from state to state but here in Michigan it is 32% so we add that to the $12 which now becomes $15.84. From that point your local retailer must add his profit margin which is anywhere from 35% to 50% depending on how they do business so $15.84 + 35% = $21.38. And this is just to keep things the way they are, if the retailers or manufactires take less, the profit margins go down and they will eventually fade out of business. This is reality. The effect is much larger than we realize. Wait until the guys who only buy $25 bundles see their new price. It will only drive more folks to buy mail order and avoid the State OTP all together. Just my opinion, I could be wrong but my calculator tells me I am not, thanks for listening.
Mike
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My example was purely hypothetical. My cigar budget is puny:-)
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I saw this coming when the SCHIP debate started a couple of years ago.

I am stocked up to wait out two Obama administrations.

We will see who outlasts who.
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I just purchased several boxes of the NCs that I like, but I'll reserve making any claims until I see the new prices. It might hurt my local B&M more as I will be price shopping if the increase is excessive. :-)
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No Boycott here, but I think I will be smoking my pipes more. Schip will effect pipe tobacco as well, but smoking a pipe will still only cost a smalll percentage of what it cost to smoke a cigar.
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Is there room for one more? :-)
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Still, this S(hit)CHIP will be nothing like the increase during the boom with all the gouging and so on and so forth.
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That was "supply and demand", not a Federally sanctioned tax targeting a specific group. Next thing you know, we'll see Coffee drinkers or Meat eaters (insert your own "Propensity") targeted for taxation, all because the Federal Government deams it unhealthy for human consumption.

My :-) That's ALL
I'm starting to have palpitations. :-)
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^^^I feel the same way^^^


Don't get me wrong **** the tax man!! :-)
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<-----------


Only if you wear that pink sweater and buy me dinner first.:-):-):-)
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As I look around at the various online vendors I use regularly, I see no price changes. Possibly the large mark-up in cigars allows them to absorb the new tax??

Larry
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No. Like someone in an earlier post stated; The tax increase is at the manufacturer level and is in effect on all shipments of cigars imported (or produced as is the case for US based makers such as Don Pepin) into the US on or after April 1. So, several cigar makers are not raising their prices until their current stock is depleted and new shipments arrive from their factories. Others have elected to raise prices on April 1. Others, such as Drew Estate, elected to raise theirs in the middle of March.

So retailers who have inventory on hand at the old price would theoretically continue to offer the old price to their customers UNTIL such a time as they receive new orders that they placed AFTER April 1.

Bottom Line: When we get a shipment in and the invoice reflects a NEW, higher price as a result of SCHIP, we will then adjust our price accordingly... and not before.

Final Note: You will notice prices going up considerably higher than the .40 cents everyone it talking about. A few reasons are added state tobacco taxes, retailer margins (we gotta pay the bills), and PRICE INCREASES THAT ARE NOT A PART OF SCHIP BY SOME CIGAR MAKERS. I won't mention any names here, but one VERY popular cigar maker has also added a price increase on their entire line IN ADDITION to the SCHIP tax.

So you will see a wide range of price increases on different brands. Tatuaje and Esencia are the only two that I know of that have elected to absorb the entire tax increase... at least for this year.
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I wonder who it is? :-)
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