Lower-cost smokes to be delivered

Those looking for a tax break on their smokes can now order them for home delivery.
Tobacco Barn, a locally owned and operated store on the Tohono O'odham Nation, will begin offering delivery to its customers.
With waits of up to 30 minutes at each of its two drive-through windows, the store, at 7310 S. Nogales Highway, hopes the convenience of home or work delivery will persuade people to pay $24.95 for each delivery.
"We are trying to offer the convenience for some of the customers who don't want to wait in line," owner Patrick Ignacio said. "They can wait anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes."
The new service is expected to start later this month, he said. Customers who sign up will be able to order up to six cartons of 10 packs of cigarettes each monthly. Customers also can order other tobacco products, Ignacio said.
With the delivery service, customers can save on gasoline and enjoy the tax advantage of buying on the reservation — without visiting the store.
Tobacco purchases made at stores on Arizona's Indian reservations are free of the state's luxury tax on tobacco products — $2 per pack of cigarettes — as well as state and city sales taxes. However, tobacco sales on tribal land are subject to an "Indian Reservation Tobacco Tax" of $1 per pack of cigarettes.
Customers "wouldn't be charged the city or state tax because the sale is being made here in the store on the reservation," Ignacio said.
Interested customers can fill out a form at the store, indicating when they want to start the delivery service. It's a one-year agreement and can be canceled at any time, he said.
The new service is being advertised to gauge interest, said Ignacio, but it's been slow.
The store owner said he expects at least 50 people to sign up for the service to start this month. Those who already have signed up will start receiving their deliveries by the end of November.
The convenience of home delivery is not appealing to everyone.
The other store on the reservation, Chico's Smoke Shop, 2161 W. Drexel Road, has no intentions of offering delivery service, said Donna Martinez, the store manager.
"I don't feel it is a good idea," she said. "We are not doing it."
Martinez heard about the Tobacco Barn delivery service in the media. Martinez said some customers have asked her about it, but when they learn the new service has a charge, they have said they wouldn't pay for it.
Customer Billy Radcliff said smoking is already bad enough, so he doesn't like the idea of such a service.
"It's ridiculous," he said of the costly smoking habit he once quit for seven years before restarting.
Tobacco Barn is offering service from Oro Valley to Green Valley and from the Tucson Mountains to Vail.