Tobacco Express smokes retail prices

By Bryan McKenzie

Published: January 2, 2009

It’s about price, it’s about choice, it’s about self-expression, independence, sending a strong message to the state government that seems intent on trampling yet another bit of freedom, but mostly, it’s about price.
“I come here because you can get your cigarettes a lot cheaper,” said Germain Finch, 29, who stopped by Tobacco Express on West Rio Road to buy a carton of Newports and some cigars. “My brother told me about this place because the cigarettes were cheap and they had good cigars at good prices. He gets his cigars here, so I’m picking him up some as a gift.”

Finch, like many who stop by the small store that specializes in all things legally smoked, is looking for a deal. Here customers can buy top-of-the-line cigarettes for generic prices. Here they can get low prices on generic-brand cigarettes made in India and Paraguay and packaged to resemble popular American brands.
Here they can stop, smoke and talk of smoke.
“Aw, it isn’t much, really. It’s just a place where, if you smoke, you can save some money,” said owner Frazier Breeden, 55. Breeden owns another Tobacco Express in Ruckersville.
“I like talking with people and you get to meet a lot of different folks in here,” he said. “For some people, smoking is their only vice. For others, it’s just something they do for relaxation. Hey, even [President-elect] Barrack Obama smokes now and then. Some people are going to smoke and, as the economy gets worse, people are probably going to smoke more. If I can save them money and make money myself, we’re all better off.”

The store is able to sell cigarettes at relatively low prices because of the bulk in which it buys them, as well as breaks given by the manufacturers due to the enhanced display a tobacco shop gives their products. A carton of name-brand cigarettes runs about $29 at Tobacco Express, several dollars cheaper than other retail outlets.
Breeden opened the Rio Road shop early in 2008, taking over for a previous smoke shop called Smokin’ Joes. That store specialized in generic-brand cigarettes, often made of American tobacco shipped overseas for processing and then imported and sold at lower prices than domestic brands.
Unlike the previous tenant, Breeden carries domestic brands, from New York’s Nat Shermans to Marlboro to Pall Mall, as well as generics such as India-made Marathons. He also carries a variety of cigars from good-quality, natural leaf-wrapped smokes kept in a walk-in humidor to peach-flavored, plastic-tipped smokes wrapped in cellophane and standing on a shelf.

There are hookah hits — pre-measured flavored tobaccos for use in hookah pipes — and pipes from blown glass to meerschaum.
“It made sense to move in here from a business perspective because folks were accustomed to a tobacco store being here. When they found out how low the prices are, I figured word-of-mouth would take over,” Breeden said. “We have a little bit of everything, from roll-your-own tobacco and paper to pipes, but the main business is cigarettes. I actually charge less for a carton than anyone else I know of, but that helps sell a lot of volume and that’s what makes the difference.”
It certainly makes a difference to customers, many of whom cite price as the primary reason for visiting the establishment. They also seem to uniformly oppose Gov. Timothy M. Kaine’s proposal to push the cigarette tax from 30 cents to 60 cents per pack as one way of offsetting Virginia’s lagging revenues and budget deficit.
“I come in mostly because of the price, which just keeps getting higher,” explained Jesse Lawson, 58, as he stopped for a couple of cartons of Marlboro Lights. “This place makes it affordable and I’m hoping that the governor and the legislature don’t approve that plan to raise the taxes. It’s high enough. It’s too high. They forget that tobacco is the crop that this country was built on.”

For Breeden, hawking tobacco was something the easy-going, Harley-Davidson enthusiast came to after tiring of his career as a butcher. He opened the Ruckersville store about two years ago, after burning out as a traveling representative for Food Lion grocery stores.
“I made my living for a long time as a meat cutter with A&P stores and Food Lion and a short stint as an independent,” Breeden said. “At one point I was traveling all around the state and into West Virginia and I was getting tired of looking at life through the windshield. I had a friend who ran a tobacco store and we started talking about it.”
Breeden’s business acumen seems to be working. So is his counter-side manner. Customers often chat amiably and many are repeat customers for whom Breeden fetches the proper pack or box as he sees them walk through the door.

“I started going into the Ruckersville store and it was a nice and friendly place and he was friendly and the prices were low,” said Teresa Powell. “He’d just stand there, relaxed and chatting. One day I said, ‘I need to have a job like yours.’ He asked if I wanted to manage a store and I told him I’d love to.”
Powell has been managing the Greene County store since the Rio Road site opened and Breeden began spending more time in Albemarle County.
“I love chatting with people and meeting all kinds and you do meet all kinds,” she laughed. “People who come in are pretty nice. It was a good place to shop and a great place to work.”