Roll-your-own cigarette shops popping up in region

Tom Maier smoked Winston cigarettes for 40 years.

Now in his 60s, he has decided to start rolling his own cigarettes at Cheap Smokes in White Center to save money. He said he didn't think he'd like the taste. But, it "turns out I like these better."

Maier sits on a stool catching his smokes in a plastic tub as they fly out of a slot at the bottom of the 600-pound maroon machine that hums and bangs like a beat-up washing machine.

He comes in once a week, adds loose tobacco to the top of the machine, adds 200 empty, filtered tubes and pushes a button. Eight minutes later, he has a carton of cigarettes at about half the cost he used to pay at a gas station.

"They're smoother and have no additives," Maier said. "Besides, the machine does it for me."

Health officials are concerned that the cheap cigarettes make smoking more available to those who usually would not be able to afford it. And the federal government is questioning the legality of the shops by arguing they are manufacturers.

But health concerns and a federal-court case aren't keeping the customers away. More than 30 shops with roll-your-own (RYO) machines have opened in the greater Seattle area in the last year, local shop owner Joe Baba said.

Shops popping up

The machines took a couple of years to gain popularity in Washington. Phil Accordino, president of RYO Machine Rental, said the Ohio company has 1,000 machines in 35 states.

"Retailers have been putting electric machines in their stores since the '90s for customers to use for a fee," Accordino said. His company started making the machines, which cost $32,500, in 2008. "Our machine is still very, very slow. If we've replaced the horse and buggy, we've replaced it with a Model T, not a Ferrari."

RYO shops made it to Washington when Baba was looking to buy a business in the spring of last year. He came across the machines online and decided to give it a shot. He opened Washington's first RYO store, Tobacco Joes, a year ago in Everett. He now has more than 400 repeat customers and two RYO machines.

Clint Hedin, owner of Cheap Smokes, did his own research and saw Baba's success. A nonsmoker, Hedin still saw the business potential. He's the only employee right now, but he said he has seen a steady increase in business and wants to hire five employees eventually.

Now, there are shops in Port Orchard, Bellingham, Mount Vernon, Fife, Graham, Arlington, Monroe and Renton, and the list goes on. Baba licensed the name "Tobacco Joes" to other stores, but he owns only the one in Everett.

The tobacco and tubes for 200 smokes and machine rental costs about $34. The state tax for pre-manufactured cigarettes was increased by a dollar to $3.025 last year, making a store-bought pack of 20 cigarettes cost around $8 and a carton around $70.

The machine presses the tobacco into a round log. A rod pushes that log of tobacco into a paper tube. The smokes are the same length as cigarettes but a little wider.

Hedin said his average customer is a 42-year-old male. Baba said his customers are usually 40 or older and blue-collar workers.

"This service that is provided by this machine and the stores that own them is catering to current smokers," Baba said. "I don't know of any customers in my store after a full year that started smoking because of the machines."