As long as they don't think you are acting as an agent for the manufactuer then I would have thought there is nothing wrong with that.
Regarding Free Sample
- Thread starter papipeguy
- Start date
SmokingPipes.com Updates
Watch for Updates Twice a Week
PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor
Site Sponsors
PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor
PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor
PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor
PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor
- Status
Well, who said that there is no compensation involved between the retailer and the purchaser in using Reward cards? I don't give up so easily, I look at the matter the same way an attorney would. There are many teeming contradictions in this new law.
The way a Rewards card works is that the retailer charges a slightly inflated price to cover the cost--- in effect, all you are doing is getting back what you are already paying for, though they never tell you that. And why does it have to be free samples? Why cannot it be used towards whole tins, etc.?
Second, the whole point of the law was based on health issues, minors, and alleged healthcare costs--- so where does the Fed get off saying how you can sell or distribute it to consenting adults? WHY must there be compensation? Who are they to say someone cannot give out a sample? They are not God, this is not an autocracy of absolute power, you cannot just make stuff up anything at all at your whim!
Why can I give out a free sample of cheese at the grocer but I cannot give out a free sample at the tobacconist? That is a service, that is stimulation of interest in your products. Restriction thereof is interference with free commerce. Why is this illegal yet my cable company can give me HBO for free to try over the weekend?
These are rhetorical questions because these and others are the matters which must be examined and CHALLENGED. I guarantee you there is a weakness, a loophole in this law. Why cannot my tobacconist give out a free sample for me to try yet my doctor can give me a free sample of a medicine to try? Such samples are made and distributed by the pharmaceuticals to the doctors.
Why cannot a tobacconist say that for every $100 spent, you can get a sample of x, y or z for just $1.00 more? Or a tin for half off?
WHO THE HELL ARE THESE PEOPLE TO SO ARROGANTLY USURP CONTROL OF HOW A RETAILER CONDUCTS HIS AFFAIRS WITH HIS CUSTOMERS AT ONCE DEFINING AND LIMITING HOW AND HOW MUCH MONEY HE MAKES?
Why is giving out a sample size a "change of product" yet you do not need to buy prepackaged quantities of a hundred other things? As I said before, this is blatant restriction of free commerce. You cannot arbitrarily block one form of commerce while allowing another simply because you like one over the other.
Does Kelloggs pay the Fed a quarter million to sell corn flakes in those little boxes just because it is packaged in a single serving package for convenience?
And how shall the Fed regulate, control or enforce me going to a pipe club and handing out free samples to try of a blend I made up in my free time? I want to see that. What is next, moles in every pipe club across the nation?
These are all rhetorical questions of course, not in search of an answer here, but questions like these must be asked, first by the trial lawyers, then before the courts, to challenge and render moot these new ridiculous laws.
good point tmb152, good point, there is a super market here in Texas that gives out free samples of wine on the weekend, but you have to show your Texas ID as proof that you are 21+ and legal to drink alcohol, but yet the fda is trying to take away from getting free samples of pipe tobbaco.
Ah, sooooo many windmills to tilt at.
hextor and others: The regs deal specifically with tobacco and related products, not groceries, wine, gasoline, etc.
hextor and others: The regs deal specifically with tobacco and related products, not groceries, wine, gasoline, etc.
At the heart of the matter is why is tobacco, a common, plant consumable, lumped in with alcohol and firearms as a regulated product? Guns are pretty obvious, and one can make the point for alcohol--- people die of alcohol poisoning from a single night's binge. So what about tobacco? Ever hear of anyone dying from pipe tobacco overdose? But what about cancer: you get cancer, right? Not really, not from pipe tobacco, unless maybe you inhale it heavily for years on in. People get cancer who never have smoked at all, and my uncle in his 90's, still inhales cigars.
Me, I've smoked pipes since the early '70's but have always limited my use and so when asked, I tell them I am a non-smoker and there is no evidence to the doctor otherwise.
So all we can say is that tobacco is a risk, and pipe tobacco is the lowest.
Eating food has risks. Most food out there is junk full of chemicals and obesity is a leading killer.
Driving is dangerous to your health. Accidents are a leading cause of death.
Doctors are one of the leading causes of death.
Lawyers are highly dangerous.
Swimming.
The list is endless.
Most everything has a risk to it. Tobacco is a consumable, it is a commodity. Is it a drug? No. Does it contain drugs? Food has drugs in it. Tomatoes contain nicotine.
THE ONLY QUESTION HERE is restricting tobacco use from the hands of minors until they are of an adult age to make up their free minds. There is no black market in tobacco (yet). And most of the restrictions towards tobacco are really aimed at cigarettes.
Warning labels: When was the last time you saw tins set out publicly behind a store counter (other than a tobacconist)? So how is a warning label going to dissuade any children from taking up pipes when only adults are buying them and don't see them until after the purchase?
So where does giving out a free sample, a gift, come into play? Encouraging tobacco use? You are already and only giving it to someone already of adult age who is in the process of BUYING other product. If this were really an honest regulation, their aim would be to reduce or limit the levels of nicotine in pipe tobacco, yet I did not see one word mentioned in that regard.
Expect many, many legal challenges to this matter for many years. Tobacco is not going anywhere. How it is sold, distributed and marketed will likely change though. The restrictions set forth in these laws are more draconian than that set against firearms--- I cannot think of another commodity where many of the most desired delivery systems (artisan pipes) are essentially made impossible to sell, and brick wall obstacles are set forth on new and improved products (such as post-2007 blends).
Even bullet manufacturers are coming out with new and improved items every year.
Me, I've smoked pipes since the early '70's but have always limited my use and so when asked, I tell them I am a non-smoker and there is no evidence to the doctor otherwise.
So all we can say is that tobacco is a risk, and pipe tobacco is the lowest.
Eating food has risks. Most food out there is junk full of chemicals and obesity is a leading killer.
Driving is dangerous to your health. Accidents are a leading cause of death.
Doctors are one of the leading causes of death.
Lawyers are highly dangerous.
Swimming.
The list is endless.
Most everything has a risk to it. Tobacco is a consumable, it is a commodity. Is it a drug? No. Does it contain drugs? Food has drugs in it. Tomatoes contain nicotine.
THE ONLY QUESTION HERE is restricting tobacco use from the hands of minors until they are of an adult age to make up their free minds. There is no black market in tobacco (yet). And most of the restrictions towards tobacco are really aimed at cigarettes.
Warning labels: When was the last time you saw tins set out publicly behind a store counter (other than a tobacconist)? So how is a warning label going to dissuade any children from taking up pipes when only adults are buying them and don't see them until after the purchase?
So where does giving out a free sample, a gift, come into play? Encouraging tobacco use? You are already and only giving it to someone already of adult age who is in the process of BUYING other product. If this were really an honest regulation, their aim would be to reduce or limit the levels of nicotine in pipe tobacco, yet I did not see one word mentioned in that regard.
Expect many, many legal challenges to this matter for many years. Tobacco is not going anywhere. How it is sold, distributed and marketed will likely change though. The restrictions set forth in these laws are more draconian than that set against firearms--- I cannot think of another commodity where many of the most desired delivery systems (artisan pipes) are essentially made impossible to sell, and brick wall obstacles are set forth on new and improved products (such as post-2007 blends).
Even bullet manufacturers are coming out with new and improved items every year.
- Status