Stopping into a Downtown carry-out today I was suprised to see the following transaction:
The customer (whose appearence led me to believe he was a street indigent) handed the clerk a $1.00 bill. In return the clerk pulled three individual Newports from an open pack and handed them to the customer. This appeared to be a common transaction and not a 1 time sale.
If this is legal, this amounts to charging $6.60 for a $4.25 pack of smokes to a customer who could least afford them. I wonder how the store figures the tax on this type of transaction
Well, you can buy one bottle of beer at most carryouts. Same difference. If that guy is willing to pay 1.00 for 3 cigarettes, thats his fault.
Dottie
Sales of Single Cigarettes
Thirty-three states restrict the sale of cigarettes outside of their original package. Fifteen states
2927.02 Illegal distribution of or permitting children to use cigarettes or other tobacco products.
(5) Sell cigarettes in a smaller quantity than that placed in the pack or other container by the manufacturer.
http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/2927.02
http://toledoohioneighborhoodconcerns.com/blog
That must have been added when the law was amended in 07 - which would explain why the Cancer Society has not updated Ohio being included.
When I smoked twenty years ago I would occasionally buy a cigarette from a server at a local resturant. She eventually told me it was against the law to sell me a cigarette and suggested she give me a cigarette instead. I left a little bigger tip to pay for the gift.
Also the possibility that this 'transaction' was between 2 acquaintances - and not a 'store' transaction - meaning, perhaps this was one individual selling another known individual, a few of his/her own cigs. Perhaps the 'customer' was known well enough to the 'clerk' as a friend or acquaintance - perhaps the 'customer' was a known cig mooch, and this is the solution offered to the customer. The cigs sold, may well have been the legal property of the clerk, and not the store - thus, a transaction between friends. I've seen this happen, not in a store though. I've had people offer me a dollar for one cig before (I just gave them one). I wouldn't be too quick to pull the law into this - who cares? And if you do, why do you care?
I highly doubt that this was a personal transaction between friends when the two parties involved did not appear to be such. Also, I observed the clerk deposit the dollar bill in the register and he had several open packs of various brands laying on the counter. Since he would not be allowed to smoke in the business I question why he would have his own, open packs laying on the counter.
At this point I should clarify that I am a smoker and against the smoking ban. I am not..I repeat..AM NOT a smoking Nazi.
I wouldn't be too quick to pull the law into this - who cares? And if you do, why do you care?
I only care because of the violation of tax codes he may be commiting while making windfall profits. It burns me when I pay all my tax liabilties in accordence to the law yet we have a retailer who sees away around paying his. Also if he is violating a law (if one exist) of this nature, what other "shady" transactions may he be commiting that are not as obvious at the expense of our less-fortunates in the city.
As far as the guy buying the smokes, I don't care. His loss at the hands of a swindler.