My father told me every once in a while he would get some free cigs when he went to the grocery store...and he would only see them in the black part of town though he didn’t mention anything about kids.
I’m not blaming the cigarette companies and that woman made her choice long ago but lets be honest, some standards didn’t apply back them especially in black neighborhoods. Growing up I got an earful of horror stories from my father and grandfather on the crap both the city and private companies pulled and got away with back then.
I remember in high school the stores that would sell cigs to underage teens. “Sold” being the operative word. It wasn’t the tobacco industry, it was a local merchant. In addition, EVERYBODY “knew” the stores that would sell underage teens beer and wine. In my experience,we would go predomintly to the “black” part of town. No questions asked. And, NO, they didn’t “give” us cigarettes and beer.