Up Cigarets

To advertising copywriters, every brand of cigaret is peculiar, unique—or at least different from every other brand. But for 20 years no major brand has differed from the others in wholesale price. Last week, as cigaret manufacturers raised their wholesale prices ½¢ a pack, the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. stepped slightly out of line. Lucky Strike, Philip Morris, Old Gold, and Chesterfield went up to $6.50-a-thousand (after trade discounts). Reynolds put Camels up just short of this —$6.48 a thousand.

Wholesalers will profit by the difference. But cigaret smokers will pay 1¢ a pack more for all major brands (last week’s ½¢ raise, along with a six-months-old ½¢ raise which retailers have been absorbing). Cigaret makers did not seem worried lest the price boost seriously cut sales further; they are already well down from their wartime peak.