Kinja reply list

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realdrizzyHamilton Nolan
2/16/15 3:22pm
I work for big tobacco myself, in sales. Cigs are a declining industry, which is true. 2% per year on average by volume, but price increases and cost reductions continues to successfully improve profitability of the category. Remember, it's easy as hell to make money when your consumers are addicted to the product.

Morality has always been an arbitrage opportunity. Ethics only get in the way of profit. Society says what tobacco companies do is acceptable, and that's all that matters. I'll leave the ethics to someone else, I have a retirement fund to watch grow, and student loans to pay off.
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  hambubger87realdrizzy
  2/16/15 5:49pm
  I gotta ask: How do you sell it? Well, really, how do you fail to sell it? I imagine you have a quota for the year. In what scenario would you not hit that number?
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  realdrizzyhambubger87
  2/16/15 6:00pm
  Actually no quota. We work with retailers on their tobacco businesses, more of a consulting situation. Contracts, merchandising, new brands, pricing strategies, inventory levels, and so on. It isn't like selling to consumers or anything, though there are times where reps or third party companies do like bar events and concert experiences and things.
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nakedtruthHamilton Nolan
2/16/15 2:51pm
I was a cocktail party in the mid '90's in Macon, Georgia. At the bar, I found myself exchanging business notes with an accounting division executive from the tobacco industry. He was surprisingly forthcoming with observations about his industry. Our conversation turned to profits, and I shared some typical profit margins from the media industry in which I worked. I told him we'd recently had great revenue years and generated profits as high as 35%. Not to be outdone, the tobacco executive shared his own industry's typical profit profile.

"Just so you get an idea," he said, "it costs us, including goods, packaging, distribution and marketing, about seven dollars to produce 1,000 cigarettes."

That was the end of the 'whose dick is bigger' profit discussion, and the beginning of my frightened respect for the tobacco industry. In short, their profits are over 90% without even trying, and they don't have to wait for a sunny economy to drive their sales. These people have the doe on hand to sue whom they want, where they want.

And smokers? Sorry, but in addition to killing yourself, you're this industry's price bitch.
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  lawtalkingguynakedtruth
  2/16/15 3:26pm
  Not really. Smokers are the government's sin tax bitches. Tobacco companies are happy to sell cigarettes all over the world at less than a buck a pack. The high cost in the US (and most of the "western world") for smokes? taxes, plain and simple.In 2013 the average excise tax burden on a pac k of cigarettes exceeded 55%. It has raised since them. So, on average, most of the retail cost of cigarettes in America is not going to tobacco companies, the Kwik-e-mart owner, or anyone else than the federal, state and local government.
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  Brit on the Sidenakedtruth
  2/16/15 5:25pm
  I had a college lecturer who invented a blood-spinning machine. A big pharma co wouldn't invest because their profit forecast was only in the 60 percentile and they're used to 90s. I bet they kick tobacco's butt this century.
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LordBurleighHamilton Nolan
2/16/15 2:10pm
It's always smart to invest in other people's self-destruction.
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  FaustianSlipLordBurleigh
  2/16/15 2:22pm
  Ferengi Rule of Acquisition #123.
  
  GIF
  
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  Ben GrimmLordBurleigh
  2/16/15 2:38pm
  Remember, sociopathy tends to be found in much higher rates than the general population in two areas especially: prisons and board rooms.
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Karate MasterHamilton Nolan
2/16/15 2:11pm
I was gonna guess blogging.
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  cowdudeKarate Master
  2/16/15 2:18pm
  Personally, I would have gone with comment section posting/celebrity.
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  spanther22aKarate Master
  2/16/15 2:41pm
  You are probably correct. In 1900 blogging was worth nothing, today it's worth around $2.43 so that's a percentage increase of.....infinity which is the second biggest number in space.
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FredDorfmanHamilton Nolan
2/16/15 2:19pm
I wonder if tobacco companies will continue to grow. It seems like young people do not smoke anymore. I visited my college last year for a basketball game and stopped by my fraternity house to freak out the kids, and I could not find anyone to bum a smoke off of. These kids were hovering up every other substance you could think of, but nobody had smokes. I was shocked and apalled.
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  NotWorkingFredDorfman
  2/16/15 2:34pm
  A lot of young people use e-cigs now. I don't know if the traditional tobacco companies also manufacture those, but it seems like a growth industry.
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  clickbaitandswitchFredDorfman
  2/16/15 3:12pm
  But what about those vaping knobs? Do they really believe it's better for them then pulling on a Marlboro?
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stuckintx1Hamilton Nolan
2/16/15 2:48pm
I recently encouraged the bf to invest in a certain sea animal entertainment company, rhymes with Pea Hurled...Still debating on exactly how terrible of a person that makes me.
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  Hamilton Nolanstuckintx1
  2/16/15 5:10pm
  Bad.
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  bin nod datstuckintx1
  2/16/15 5:58pm
  It makes you a terrible investor. Ouch !
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Misteaks were madeHamilton Nolan
2/16/15 2:11pm
I'm still waiting on a return from my tomacco futures.

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  MalforusMisteaks were made
  2/16/15 2:18pm
  Actually a real thing, a study found some transgenic splicing could allow tomatoes to have nicotine.
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  Misteaks were madeMalforus
  2/16/15 2:25pm
  I'm already addicted to tomato sammiches. No need for nicotine.
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SaintClarence27Hamilton Nolan
2/16/15 2:10pm
Can someone explain why this post doesn't show up under the Gawker Newsfeed page???
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  Misteaks were madeSaintClarence27
  2/16/15 2:13pm
  It's shared there. HamNo and a few select others (o-night crew) still post here.
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Negative, I'm a Meat PopsicleHamilton Nolan
2/16/15 2:45pm
It's pretty depressing that after watching Last Week Tonight, a cursory glance at searching "Philip Morris International" results in either clickbait referencing John Oliver making the solidly impassioned case last night that PMI and other tobacco companies really are "open sores on Satan's dick", all while there are exponentially more articles along the lines of "Why Income Investors Should Be All Over Philip Morris International" and "Phillip Morris International continues to reward investors"

I'm really glad the financial crisis hit while I was in school and shat all over any remaining desire to continue studying for an unholy career in finance.

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benjaminalloverHamilton Nolan
2/16/15 2:21pm
Give your throat a vacation, Hamilton.

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