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My first job out of college was as a manger trainee at a major drug store chain. Back then, the prevailing philosophy was if you sold cheap and convenient smokes, you'd attract more traffic to the store and assist your bottom line.

From what I observed, it just attracted a lot more traffic to the store. People would come in, buy their cheap smokes and leave.

After all these years, I particularly remember one black guy, who dressed head to toe in white, including a suit jacket, tie and Panama hat. He'd come in like clockwork every pay day, peel a $100 from the outside of his bankroll (if you looked close, everything else in the roll was $1s, $5s and $10s), buy two packs of cheap cigars and walk out with his change. He was a pleasant, polite man, late 40s or early 50s, but he dressed the same whether it was 90 degrees, hot and dry or 40 degrees and raining outside.