Tobacco Sales Expected to Drop in East Grand Forks, Minn.

Aug. 2–Tom Link said Monday probably marked the last time he would buy a pack of cigarettes from a store in East Grand Forks.

For the past several years, the East Grand Forks resident said, he’s been buying a pack of cigarettes along with bottle of liquor from Duke’s Liquors in East Grand Forks.

Since Minnesota’s “health impact fee” a 75-cent-per-pack duty, on top of an existing 48-cent tax took effect Monday, a pack of Marlboro regular costs $4.24 at Duke’s in East Grand Forks.

A few miles away at Conoco in Grand Forks, the same pack costs a little more than $3.

Advocates of the fee imposed on tobacco products by the state Legislature expect it to help drive down smoking rates, which they say will save money in health costs in the long run. Minnesota border retailers expect it to drive down cigarette sales, for certain.

“I would now get it from stores in Grand Forks. I’m not going to pay more here when it would cost me much less just across the bridge,” Link said as he paid Duke’s owner Allen Dukart for the cigarettes and liquor.

After a morning of similar feedback from customers, Dukart decided by Monday afternoon to remove his entire stock of cigarettes as quickly as possible.

“With a pack of cigarettes available at least a dollar cheaper in Grand Forks than here, who’s going to purchase it from here?” said Dukart as he pasted a computer-printed flyer at the entrance of his store, announcing an inventory reduction sale.

Dukart said he would reduce his cigarette stock from 40 brands to only four or five, and in smaller quantities, too.

“Who is going to keep stuff which is not going to sell?” he said. He said the price increase “is going to drive out of business convenience stores and gas stations in border cities like ours.”

Customer Link said the increase in prices would not reduce his tobacco consumption.

“No way. It’s still going to be the same a pack a day,” except a pack purchased in Grand Forks, he said.

Store owners in Grand Forks hope for a substantial jump in their business as people from Minnesota cross the Red River to purchase cigarettes and other tobacco products.

Curt Magnuson, owner of Hugo’s supermarkets, said people living in border cities such as East Grand Forks, Thief River Falls and Crookston “would probably want to come” to Grand Forks to purchase cigarettes because of the significant price difference. Hugo’s stores are in all four of those cities.

But an increase in cigarette sales was not visible on Monday.

“We do not expect it so soon,” said Ivan Nelson, manager of Conoco in Grand Forks. “It might take a week. But eventually, people from East Grand Forks and other border cities will come purchase their cigarettes from here.”

“No one would like to pay more when it is available at a much lower price so near,” he said.

Grand Forks convenience stores and gas station owners said they also hope more customers mean increases in other purchases as more Minnesota travel to Grand Forks to buy tobacco.

—–

To see more of the Grand Forks Herald, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.grandforks.com.

Copyright (c) 2005, Grand Forks Herald, N.D.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.

COP,