The new tax, approved by the last session of the State General Assembly, will bring the total tax on a pack to 30 cents (The new tax does not erase the old 3-cent tax.)
Local tobacco retailers say that if there is a major rush to buy cigarettes before the tax goes into effect, buyers will have to do it quickly.
"Payday will come for many the end of this week," a retailer said Monday, "so it may hit then."
However, a few stores report people coming in and buying eight to 10 cartons at a time, but others say this volume buying is a regular thing for some customers who come in the first of a month and buy a month's supply. A few customers are buying one to two extra cartons.
Stores contacted included Tobacco Shack, and the JC's Cigarette Outlet stores in Leitchfield, Clarkson and Caney-ville.
"A few people have said they will quit smoking," store managers reported, "because they can't afford the extra $2.70 on a carton." Others said they doubted all would quit, "because it's a hard habit to break."
Cigarette outlets, though, are looking forward to some kind of rush. Carl Goff at Tobacco Shack said his store will "have to pay the tax on anything we have left in stock at midnight May 31.
Goff said he expects the tobacco companies to add more to the price per pack, "simply because they have to pay for the quota buyout over the coming years."
"I'd just sum it up by saying most customers know about the new tax, and they're grudgingly accepting it," another store manager said.
The manager said a few are ordering up to 10 cartons, "but most are just saying do it and get it over with!"
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