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Premium cheap tobacco products are imported into US from Europe in large scales of late. And interestingly, these are not bulk consignments, but retail imports.
This trend is the direct fallout of the tax hike happened in US on cigarette and tobacco products in the last few years as a result of which a carton on Camel now costs about $40 ballpark. In fact, within months of the tax hike, cigarette makers and local businesses have reported a steep decrease in their sales as compared with the revenues generated same time last year. Quite evidently, the average customers in the US are not able to buy in advance their daily and weekly stocks like before given the high prices of cartons.
Marlboro Red
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Marlboro Ultra Lights
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Cheap Marlboro cigarettes – imported from Europe – are sold at a lower price tag through online stores is owing to the huge tax difference that exists between European countries and the US and the cheap labor available in Europe in general. Also, in order to tap this low price market, cigarette makers such as Marlboro and Winston have already entered into contracts with third party tobacco product makers based in Asia and Europe. It can be called cigarette outsourcing; getting the cigarettes made in places where the labor is cheap, and leverage on the resulting lower overall cost in selling them in where it is in demand. In this case, the latter destination is nowhere by the United States.
So, to what extend the end user benefits from the new market dynamics? Well, when the Marlboro cigarettes from the neighborhood sell at nearly $40-45 per carton, the imported cheap Marlboro cigarettes carries only a price tag that is as less as $11-13, which is nearly one-fourth of the former. Further, the online purchases are delivered at the door.
In some states, one may be required to pay some customs duty, but still the total expense comes far less than $40 and hence perturbs the hardcore smoker only little. Also, with such cheap Marlboro cigarettes available freely, the customers never drifts towards spurious or low quality ones. True, cheap premium cigarettes doesn’t shield a smoker against smoking hazards, but still it is far off better than low quality tobacco ones.
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