NYC plan would keep tobacco products out of sight
NEW YORK — Cigarettes would have to be kept out of sight in New York City stores under a first-in-the-nation plan unveiled by Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Monday, igniting complaints from retailers and smokers who said they've had enough with the city's crackdowns.
Shops from corner stores to supermarkets would have to keep tobacco products in cabinets, drawers, under the counter, behind a curtain or in other concealed spots. Officials also want to stop shops from taking cigarette coupons and honoring discounts, and are proposing a minimum price for cigarettes, below what the going rate is in much of the city now, to discourage black market sales.Jesus H. Tap-Dancing Christ on a pogo stick. The problem isn't people seeing cigarettes, you nitwit. The problem, honestly, at this point is that you've made smoking so vehemently anti-culture that it has swung back around to cool. The more you push it into the background and try to hide it away, the more you're going to make young people WANT to smoke again.
I don't know what's more frightening. Does Bloomberg honestly feel that by hiding cigarettes under counters, that smokers will just magically give up smoking? Kids will forget that they want to smoke? Hasn't he raised the price so high with taxes that only the very rich can afford to smoke in NYC? Or is this just another "I'll do it because I'm the king and I can" kinda things, where the most ridiculous suggestions are tossed out under the guise of "FOR TEH CHILDRENZZZ!!!" just to see what NEW infringements can be made?
I suspect it's the latter. I also suspect that by making cigarettes the new pr0n, Bloomberg is going to single-handedly cause a rise in smoking unseen for the past two decades. NYC, a place crying for hipsters, is suddenly creating a demand for a product on the wane. Make it counterculture to smoke - to the point of having to put all cigarettes in a plain plastic bag and hide them away - and you'll see hipsters coming out of the woodwork to start puffing away on a Marlboro.
Then again, giving hipsters lung cancer isn't the worst idea Bloomberg has concocted...
That is all.
Another dispatch from...
(image courtesy of Robb Allen)
13 comments:
Well it appears that the cloak is off this dictator. I would expect a recall petition to be circulated soon.
Nattering nabobs of naivety... The have totally lost touch with reality up there...
If they passed a law keeping Bloomberg out of sight then the rest of the country wouldn't hate NYC as much.
Scott_S: A recall's not going to happen. People in NYC -like- having someone to take care of them. They even bent the term limit rule so he could serve another term.
*NOW* THEY'VE HAD ENOUGH?!?
Holy the CRAP! It took them long enough to figure out what the limit should be.
If even 100 people in that city had the balls (or whatever) to stand out in the street in front of city hall and light up, I'd have a hell of a lot more respect for the rest of them.
The next time I hear somebody from NYC talk about how tough and badass New Yorkers are, I'm just going to laugh in his face...they're like children begging their mommy and daddy to punish another kid for daring to play with his own toy!!!
Canada (or at least BC) does the same thing.
Hasn't gotten a single one of my Canuckistani smoker friends to stop, naturally.
I don't know why "they" think this works, ever, anywhere.
Why is everyone so negative?
This will work splendidly!
Once they prove how effective it is for tobacco they can apply it to heroin, cocaine, crack, marijuana and meth!
Oh, wait...
Here's a thought; why don't we adopt the tactics of the "flash mob" thugs?
Say, the next time Nanny Bloomberg appears in public somewhere, he's suddenly surrounded by 50-70 smokers out of nowhere all lighting up at once around him?
It might be funny to try on Rob Reiner, too.
We've had sit-ins, we've had love-ins, it's high time that we had a SMOKE-IN!
We've had the "hide the cigarettes" this side of the pond for some time now.
The only problem is when the shop shuffles the positions of the packs.
The more you tighten your grip, the more easily we'll slip through your fingers.
It only took 3-years to take down absolute monarchy in France during their revolutionary war.
I suppose when your royalty, or think you are because you're a billionaire you gain some perverse pleasure in watching people suffer.
I suppose they'll try banning the right to vote outright next.
Tarring and feathering needs to become fashionable again.
BGM
Sigvald: It's in SK as well. Tripped me out when I went up there.
Well, that and the fact that a 6-pack cost SEVENTEEN MOTHERHUMPING DOLLARS. WTF? I thought Canada was a civilized country...?
If I had a tobacco shop, I'd get the local stitchery and embroidery place to make an ornate cloth with pictures of nicotiana and antique pipes on it, then drape the "art" over the display cases. Maybe get some reproduction art-deco stuff and make the shop look like a speak-easy. :)
LittleRed1
Post a Comment