Many things arrive with spring. Budding flowers sprout forth, nascent birds learn to sing and cool breezes dance playfully in the newly restored green of the trees.
Last spring, another newcomer showed its face: cigarettes that cost $1.01 more per pack nationwide.
The federal tax increase by $0.62 on April 1 left smokers with a more expensive habit, one the tax has not seemed to deter most of them from maintaining.
Steve Shingler, co-owner of Don & Steve's Barber Shop, 40 W. Union St., started smoking 40 years ago when cigarettes cost 26 cents.
I can remember I thought that was expensive
he said. I sure do complain about it a lot.
Shingler had expected the tax to occur and said he knows many people who have switched to roll-your-own cigarettes, as well as others who have quit.
More and more people are quitting every day he said. If it was easy to quit I would have. My advice to a younger person is don't ever start.
LIGHTING UP LOCALLY
Corey Poindexter, assistant manager of Athens Pyramids, a hookah bar at 5 Mill St., said he occasionally smokes but cannot buy the nice brands like he once did.
Friends of mine who smoke more regularly still smoke
but buy cheaper brands or buy less often
Poindexter, an Ohio University junior studying audio production, said.
Poindexter's shift manager, Rueben Bresler, an OU alumnus, said Athens Pyramids has not seen a significant loss of clientele.
I don't know if it has to do with the tax
but we tend to have less weekday traffic
Bresler said. We're sort of on the fringe of this. It hasn't really affected us.
If people want to smoke, they will continue to smoke, Bresler said. Hookah and cigarettes are extravagances and people choose to maintain them, he added.
Tobacco products contribute to a large part of business at the Union Street Market, 26 W. Union St., but there has not been a noticeable change in sales, manager Jennifer Pierson said.
They dropped off for about the first week after the tax increase
she said. Since then
they've pretty much remained as they were before.
Pierson said the tax has not caused many drastic changes in smokers' buying habits, but some now choose cheaper brands.
There are a lot more people buying the generic brands than the name brands
she said.
People are not as interested in quitting to save money - the Union Street Market does not even sell quitting aids, Pierson said.
We tried it before
and it really didn't give up business
