Combustible tobacco products, including cigarettes and cigars, are overwhelmingly responsible for the burden of death and disease from tobacco use.¹ Cigarettes remain the first and second most commonly used tobacco product among US adults and youth, respectively.^2,3 Although cigarette consumption continues to decline, consumption of cigars and other non-cigarette tobacco products has increased in recent years.^4,5

Increasing the price of tobacco products is the most effective intervention to reduce tobacco consumption.^1,6 The tobacco industry has countered this strategy, however, by implementing merchandising tactics to reduce tobacco prices.^7–9 For instance, the largest advertising and promotional expense of major US cigarette manufacturers is for price or trade discounts. In 2014, tobacco companies spent more than $6.7 billion on discounts to reduce the price of cigarettes, accounting for 79.7% of total cigarette advertising and promotional expenses.¹⁰

To examine the impact of tobacco product price discounts at the point of sale, previous studies have relied on observational evidence^11–13 and self-reported purchasing behaviors.^14–16 Although retail scanner data have been used to assess trends in tobacco product sales volumes and prices,^17–19 analyses of price discounts are limited.^20,21 In 2006, Loomis et al.^20,21 examined the point of sale cigarette price discounts before and after the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement, demonstrating that sales trends can help guide tobacco control policy, planning, and practice.

No study has comprehensively explored national sales trends in price-discounted cigarettes and cigar subtypes across multiple retail channels. To address this gap, national retail scanner data from September 2011 to January 2016 were analyzed for product and brand-level unit sales of price-discounted cigarettes, large cigars, little cigars, and cigarillos.

From September 2011 to January 2016, total cigarette pack sales outpaced total cigar sales by a ratio of 5.8 to 1. Of those total sales, price discounts accounted for 11.3% of cigarette, 4.1% of little cigar, 3.9% of cigarillo, and 3.4% of large cigar sales in AOCs and C-stores combined. Furthermore, top-selling tobacco brands discounted on average up to 36.0% of cigarette, 7.7% of little cigar, 7.4% of large cigar, and 4.2% of cigarillo sales. Given the burden of combustible tobacco use on public health, these findings underscore the importance of evidence-based strategies to increase price, thereby reducing the availability and consumption of combustible tobacco in the US.^1,6

Studies have consistently shown that tobacco manufacturers implement pricing strategies to increase the affordability of cigarettes, including price-related discounts and lower-priced generic brands.^9,24 This is the first study, however, to demonstrate the extent of retail- and brand-level price discounts at the point of sale. On average, temporary price reductions lowered the price of cigarettes by more than one-fourth in C-stores and one-third in AOCs. Moreover, the proportion of price-discounted cigarette sales was higher for premium cigarette brands than generic brands. This variability in price-discounted cigarette sales aligns with data indicating that more cigarette smokers use premium brands and discounted product use is most common among premium brand users.²⁵ Accordingly, sustained population-level strategies to prohibit cigarette discounting,^1,6 particularly for premium brands, could help reduce tobacco consumption.

The US cigarette smokers can avoid the high cost of cigarettes by switching to lower-priced cigar subtypes.¹⁷ Given the declining trend in discounted and nondiscounted cigarillo prices, it is notable that one-fifth of little cigars and nearly half of all cigarillos sold in the United States during 2011–2016 were flavored, whereas total and flavored cigarillo sales increased.²⁶ Because flavors can mask the harshness of tobacco,^27,28 they can increase the likelihood of tobacco uptake, particularly among youth.^18,29 The decreasing price of non-cigarette tobacco products, combined with the availability of flavored options, suggests that strategies that restrict flavored tobacco product sales and reduce tobacco product price differentials could be effective in reducing tobacco initiation and promoting cessation.

Sustained increases in federal, state, and local excise taxes on tobacco have been consistently shown to promote cessation among current users, prevent initiation among nonusers, and reduce tobacco consumption.^6,30–33 Currently, federal and state excise taxes are disproportionately lower for cigars than for cigarettes.³⁴ Our findings indicate that the average price of a cigarette pack costs 6.0 times more than a single large cigar, 4.3 times more than a pack of 2 cigarillos, and 2.5 times more than a pack of 20 little cigars. These imbalances may have contributed to the recent increase in adult cigar consumption.⁴ Furthermore, the generally lower price point for cigars than for cigarettes could explain the gap between discount marketing patterns of these two tobacco categories. However, this study demonstrates that even a subset of nondiscounted tobacco products have become more affordable over time; this finding could be suggestive of shifting industry strategies and warrants further study to determine potential implications for public health research and practice. Efforts to eliminate the tax disparities across all tobacco product types could help reduce the number of smokers who switch to lower-priced products resulting from manufacturer discounts and/or lower excise taxes. To counteract price-reducing strategies at each level of distribution (ie, manufacturer, wholesaler, and retailer), states and localities can also consider pursuing various nontax price policies, such as enacting strict minimum price laws and regulating discounting mechanisms.^35,36 Minimum price laws may also be better equipped than cigarette excise taxes in reducing socioeconomic disparities in tobacco use.³⁶ Localities such as New York City, New York, and Providence, Rhode Island, have implemented minimum price laws, prohibited the redemption of coupons, and prohibited multipack discounts.^37,38

This study has some limitations. First, Nielsen’s projection methods are proprietary; however, these data are widely used in academic and marketing research and resemble estimates by other entities, including the US Treasury. Second, the results are representative of only those store types monitored by Nielsen, which excludes tobacco specialty shops, smaller retailers without scanners, and online sales. Third, because consumer redemption of price-reducing coupons is not tracked by Nielsen, the market share of price-discounted sales is likely understated. Finally, Nielsen’s national-level data aggregate sales over regions and cities where the same UPC can have different price points; moreover, it was not possible to account for geographic variations in the JoinPoint analysis. This may result in the average discounted price being greater than the average nondiscounted price, especially at the brand level. Future studies can examine subnational discounting patterns and how they may vary in the context of different state-level tax and price policies. Monitoring how a brand’s discounting patterns change upon acquisition by a new manufacturer, as well as discounting patterns by broader packaging categories (eg, carton vs. pack), can also help to understand the discounting landscape.

These findings highlight the prevalence and provide a baseline of price-discounted cigarettes, large cigars, little cigars, and cigarillos. Surveillance of tobacco sales data, including state-level trends and additional product types, is critical for informing approaches to reduce tobacco consumption. These approaches include countering tobacco product price-discounting practices and raising and maintaining a high sales price for all tobacco products. The implementation of evidence-based population-level interventions, together with local, state, and federal regulation of tobacco products, could prevent tobacco initiation, increase tobacco cessation, and reduce overall tobacco use among US youth and adults.¹