Cigarette sales on fire across state line

By Kevin Woster, Journal staff | Tuesday, January 16, 2007

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BEULAH, Wyo. — Cigarette sales were sizzling here Monday as South Dakota smokers crossed the state line to escape higher tobacco taxes at home.

Two weeks after the state’s new $1-per-pack tax increase on cigarettes took effect, vehicles with South Dakota license plates — Lawrence County mostly, but also Pennington and Butte — came and went from the Stateline Station often enough to keep manager Kathy Drentlaw hustling throughout the morning and into early afternoon.

“They’ll start in the morning and come as late as 9:30 at night. It’s an all-day event,” Drentlaw said.

It’s also a money maker for the Stateline convenience store. Drentlaw has had to increase her normal cigarette orders to keep pace with increased demand. She typically ordered about 100 10-pack cartons a week for the store but had been increasing that level leading up to the Jan. 1 effective date of the new law. And last week, she ordered 900 cartons.

“I know I sold at least 700 or 800 (cartons) last week,” she said. “I had to do two emergency orders because I was totally out of Marlboros and Camels, and some different odd cigarettes.”

Kristie Gibbens drove from Deadwood on Monday to buy three cartons of cigarettes rather than pay the higher tax at home. She expects to make the trip about once a week to buy smokes for herself and her husband.

“And we’ll get gas, too,” Gibbens said. “I know people who are starting to place cigarette orders here.”

Drentlaw keeps a list of those orders and was adding to it Monday on certain cigarettes she didn’t have or had sold out. The big sellers continue to be Camel Lights and Marlboro Lights.

Drentlaw, who doesn’t smoke, said she continues to be amazed by how specific smokers are about the brand, length and strength of their cigarettes. With the increased traffic, she’s now ordering more of some brands she barely handled and seldom sold before.

“Kool Milds, I maybe sold one carton a month. And today a guy from Rapid City bought four,” she said. “It’s been a full-time job for me to just keep cigarettes in stock.”

Most smokers didn’t want their picture taken or names used in this story. But most said they resented the new tax rate and were unhappy that most of the money would be spent on state programs not directly tied to preventing tobacco use or helping smokers to quit.

Black Hills State University student Sara Nash, who drove over with a friend to buy cigarettes, said the higher tax wouldn’t stop her tobacco use.

“Whatever. It’s not going to make me quit smoking,” Nash said. “It’s just making me mad.”

But the tax increase had a different effect on Tyler Hall of Belle Fourche. A worker in a restoration project at nearby McNenny State Fish Hatchery, Hall joined the flow of smokers going through checkout at the Stateline during the noon hour Monday.

But Hall bought lunch instead of cigarettes. A smoker for 13 years, the 27-year-old Hall had given up smoking just a few hours earlier, and slapped on a nicotine patch.

And he said the South Dakota tobacco tax increase was the main reason.

“With the tax increase, I just decided I wasn’t going to spend that money anymore. I had a last cigarette, then put on the patch,” he said. “I’ve been wanting to give it up for a long time. It’s actually a good motivation for me.”

Contact Kevin Woster at 394-8413 or kevin.woster@rapidcityjournal.com