MOORHEAD – With the Minnesota Legislature recently raising state taxes on cigarettes to $2.52-per-pack, convenience store owners are concerned that many people will head across the border to Fargo (North Dakota) to purchase cigarettes, the Grand Forks Herald reports.

“I think people will definitely go into Fargo to buy cartons,” said Josh Larson, store manager at an Oasis Convenience store in north Moorhead, emphasizing that the tax will very likely cut into the store’s cigarette sales.

Chuck Chadwick, executive director of the Moorhead Business Association, said area stores are rightly worried that their customers will shop in Fargo, located two miles away.

North Dakota hasn’t raised its taxes on cigarettes since 1993. Its state tax is 44 cents per pack.

“The devastating piece is, once the traffic patterns change … it’s really difficult to break a customer’s habits,” Chadwick said, adding the Moorhead stores will lose cigarette sales along with the impulse buys that go along with their sales.

Larson said he thinks his business will still retain customers, as his stores are one of the few in the area that sells bait.