The Nicotine Arbitrage

Henrik left his usual tobacco tin on the kitchen table and announced that he was trying something else.

The new tin contained mint pastilles. He did not praise them. He looked at them with the restrained disappointment he normally reserved for weather that had been forecast correctly.

Ticker noticed the change immediately.

“Does he like them?” she asked me.

“He is eating them.”

“That is observable preference.”

It was, at most, observable chewing. I should have made the distinction clear. Instead I was busy finding a polite way to ask Astrid whether she had used the road map I sent.

Ticker used the remaining money in her experiment account to buy a wholesale box of the same pastilles. She had identified a market among Henrik’s friends. The product was ordinary, legal, inexpensive and available in every grocery shop. These were usually advantages. For an arbitrage operation they posed difficulties.

The box contained two hundred tins.

Theo opened it at the kitchen table. For a moment I thought he might congratulate her on having bought something harmless.

“Why?” he asked.

She explained demand at length. He took one tin out and turned it over.

“They sell these at the petrol station.”

“Our convenience advantage is locality.”

“The petrol station is local.”

“Our relationship advantage—”

“Henrik gets coffee there.”

When Henrik next visited, Theo offered him a tin at cost. He declined. The pastilles stuck to a filling. He was trying chewing gum now.

Ticker asked what brand. Theo unplugged the small speaker before she could complete a second question.

We negotiated with the wholesaler. It accepted the unopened outer cartons, less return shipping. A smaller box remained in the mudroom for several weeks. Visitors were invited to take one. Some did. Others said they had plenty.

The one person who liked them was Lars, who occasionally took a tin when delivering spoons. He always left a few coins beside the box. Ticker counted these carefully, although they were not always enough and were sometimes more than the price.

She proposed a subscription.

I suggested leaving the box alone.

This was advice based on a mature understanding of local demand. It was also advice I had arrived at shortly after receiving Astrid’s reply about the road map.

She had printed it and given it to somebody else. I was still deciding whether this counted as use.