(BALDWIN COUNTY, Ala.) June 30 - Starting Wednesday smokers in Florida will be paying one dollar more for a pack of cigarettes. The price hike is aimed at making Floridians healthier, but there could be a side effect in Alabama. As NBC 15's Andrea Ramey tells us, Alabama may become a refuge for Florida smokers.
Simple math explains why. If you pay $5 for a pack in Alabama and $6 in Florida, over the course of a year if you smoke a pack a day you'd save more than $350. Local gas stations are banking on that savings.
Selling tobacco is big business for Wilcox Chevron owner Mike Foropoulos, a business that will likely grow as nearby Florida raises its prices on cigarettes.
"I think my business be better here," said Foropoulos. "The difference in price $1 per pack is a lot of money."
Money most smokers don't want to cough up.
"That's outrageous," said Joey Demarco.
What's really outrageous, Demarco says, is when he started smoking 30 years ago cigarettes were 65 cents a pack.
"Could you afford to smoke if you lived in Florida?" asked Ramey.
"For $6.20 per pack? I'd have to make more efforts at quitting," said Demarco.
"If the prices were that high here, would you smoke?" asked Ramey.
"No, I'd probably quit," said Brandon Littrell.
Foropoulos says he's counting on Florida smokers to seek relief in Alabama and estimates his business will increase 15%.
"I hope it going to stay like this forever. It'd be better for us, not only me but other businesses here and in Loxley, too," said Foropoulos.
Before the dollar increase, Florida did have one of the lowest cigarette taxes at 34 cents a pack. The state increase falls just months after a federal tax increased the price of cigarettes by sixty two cents.
