Snus News and Law Update
Several things going on that I want to mention. Northerner is updated and FDA compliant. As well, they’re only shipping with UPS, ahead of the PACT Act requirement. Right now, shipping 50 tins (portions) from Northerner costs about $14. Not horrible. Shipping 10 tins is about $13. Yikes.
Northerner has said that the new tax collection scheme will be implemented any day now, but definitely by Monday (6/28). The clock is ticking… The the details are here. Most interestingly, is their availability list:
- Gotlandssnus (Gotlandssnus and Jakobsson’s brands)
- Swedish Match (all brands)
- V2 Tobacco (Thunder, Offroad, Rothbrix and Fellinni)
- Gellivare (Gellivare and Landströms)
- Gajane (all brands)
Some surprises here. We’ve been trying to find out definitively whether or not Skruf was going to be available. Northerner had been saying it would be while SnusCentral had been saying it wouldn’t. I tried to contact Skruf, and they did not respond. Larry got in touch with some bigwig over there a few weeks ago, and got a somewhat cryptic answer. Be that as a it may, for now, Skruf is a no show to the PACT party.
Also, Gajane came through. There had been question marks for a long time as their usually secretive weirdos. This is good news as their Oden’s line seems like it has many fans.
Like Northerner, Buysnus is now only shipping with UPS to the U.S. Over there, one roll costs about $10 to ship. Five rolls costs about $30.
And swedishsnus.com, for now, is still shipping with the regular post. Interestingly, they’ve created a some kind of joint venture with clubsnus.com. How this will work out, I don’t know (a short press release is at clubsnus.com). Swedishsnus has kept the dirt-cheap prices from when it was run by Swedish Match. Could be interesting to see what happens. However if the regular mail option goes away, shipping could be quite pricey. UPS shipping for one roll now costs $30, while five costs $41.
Clearly, going forward, you’ll need to make big orders to have it any make economic sense. Otherwise, it’ll probably be cheaper to go to your local retailer. Especially if you can work out a bulk deal with him.
Of course, this assumes you like General Snus, for now.
Thunder Frosted and Wintergreen, Jakobsson’s Wintergreen and Oomph will be showing up in stores in the near future.
If I were the General, I’d get my extra strong in my refrigerators asap.
June 26th, 2010 at 11:06 pm
I feel bad for those coming into snus now. I wish we had been able to reach more people while it was cheaper. Not to say we didn’t know this was coming, but I guess I never fully grasped how expensive it would be. But we’ll work with what we got, ya know?
July 4th, 2010 at 9:47 pm
Hmmm. As the good Doctor and brother Chad have without doubt noticed things are not going as swimmingly for The Northerner as they, and pretty much everyone else, had hoped. The PACT transition is proving to knotty in the extreme. Of course the fullness of time will insure that order emerges from the current chaos but a heck of a lot of ill will is being generated in this confused and testy interregnum.
July 5th, 2010 at 7:17 pm
I’ve read about the problems people are having and it is unfortunate. However, we’re just one week since they implemented their new software. They’ll surely figure their shit out. If it takes a month, I wouldn’t be surprised. They now have to deal with about 50 tobacco licenses, 50 sets of reports and pay taxes to 50 jurisdictions. It’s a fucking nightmare, and seems all but impossible. Keep in mind how many snus shops got out the business to avoid this mess. As far as ill will goes, again, I get it, but it’s misdirected. Call you congressman. Your representatives did this on your behalf. Anyway, whatever ill will it generates doesn’t matter much. Where else are we going to buy from?