The Unloading Zone

Mickey | A Dog Named Christmas

2009-11-23T15:58:00.003-06:00

Mickey | A Dog Named Christmas

The above link will take you to our dog Mickey. He needs you to vote for him. Mickey is still very hurt that his sister Marnie (known as Mrs. Unloadingzone) has her picture at the bottom left of The Unloading Zone while he is an unknown.

Please make Mickey's Christmas dream come true: he wants to eat an entire Christmas Ham by himself and buy one for Marnie and our other dogs too!

Sincerely,

Mr. Unloadingzone

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SnusCENTRAL.org Reveals New Nick and Johnny Black Strong Portion Snus!

2009-08-08T07:54:00.003-05:00

In a world exclusive, SnusCENTRAL.org publicly revealed the upcoming release of Nick and Johnny BLACK Strong Portion Snus by Swedish Match AB.

These are the very first pictures and the first Snus Review of Nick and Johnny Black Portion Snus to be found anywhere outside the closely guarded Swedish Match Snus Factory in Kungälv, Sweden.

Swedish Match AB was caught off-guard by the SnusCENTRAL expose'. Nick and Johnny Black Portion is not scheduled for release until later this..........................

.......... Click HERE to Read the Complete Article ..........

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Major Snus Price-Drop at SnusCentral.com!

2009-08-01T09:35:00.000-05:00

To all you snus fans out there, I received an email from SnusCentral.com on August 1st that's really great news! New Bundles and Try Out kits but the bottom line is PRICE DROP! (at least through 2009).

I decided to test their new pricing. I had made an order up of a bunch of assorted cans of snus I would buy or like to try.

The total came to $55.24 including shipping or $3.68 per can.

I put in the same order today and it came out to $45.33 shipped or $3.02 per can! If you buy in full rolls, the discounts are even bigger!

And remember, if you haven't ordered from SnusCentral.com before and use the New Customer Discount Code LV2F8F at checkout, YOU SAVE AN ADDITIONAL 10%!

So join me in stocking up now! I thought the prices were good before but now they're just too cheap to ignore!

Mr. Unloadingzone
Swedish Snus Lover

* * * Click this Link for an INDEX OF ALL MY ARTICLES AND POSTS ON SNUS * * *

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Thank You for Chewing our Nicotine Gum!

2009-05-25T14:34:00.002-05:00

Anti-Tobacco groups hate any type of tobacco but embraces Big Pharma with their nicotine gum, patches and high failure rate.

Ironically, kids may be the most likely to use nicotine gum! It's sold openly in stores like Walmart and with great flavors like Cinnamon Surge, White Ice Mint, and Fruit Chill, what child or teenager could resist cramming in a mouthful of 4mg/nicotine Nicorettes?

Those flavors go great with Power Drinks. Just what under-age Gamers need to keep them sharp!

The only thing sillier is the link to the website where they use LASERS for Smoking Cessation...and teeth whitening...and weight loss. Must be some laser!

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Taxation of ALL Internet Sales.....

2009-05-25T14:19:00.002-05:00

In September of 2008, Larry Waters writing as Mr. UNZ predicted that the PACT Act was using tobacco as a smokescreen to tax ALL Internet Sales within the United States.

Some laughed, most ignored his cries. Sadly, looks like he's being proved correct in the follow-up story from SnusCENTRAL.org.

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TobaccoToday Article Spawns Must-Read Reader Comments!

2009-05-22T18:03:00.002-05:00

The story is not in the article, but in the Reader Comments. If Reduced Harm Tobacco products interest you, then you MUST read all the reader comments.

Spirited dialog yes, but also a plethora of facts and details on HR 1256, S 982, and the secret agenda's of those for and against FDA Control of Tobacco.

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Andrew Romeo Enters into Exclusive Contract with SnusCentral

2009-05-16T03:57:00.002-05:00

Larry Waters, founder of SnusCentral.org, announced today that tobacco industry veteran Andrew Romeo had entered into an exclusive agreement to publish his column on SnusCENTRAL.org.

"Romeo is an industry legend with an insight like few others into the European Snus and Tobacco industry." Waters added. "We are thrilled to have him here."

Mr. UNZ was a little upset at first having to share his espresso machine, but got over it.

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Andrew Romeo: Selling Snus in Scandinavia - a Primer

2009-05-16T03:23:00.002-05:00

Andrew Romeo of SnusCentral.org strips away the mystery behind the marketing of snus in Scandinavia. He doesn't use the word "bergamot" once and takes a well deserved shot at Finland too.

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A Different Look at Swedish CAMEL Snus by Andrew Romeo

2009-05-15T05:23:00.003-05:00

Andrew Romeo spent 15 years in the tobacco, snus and CPG industry mostly in Europe, Russia and Eastern Europe. He's held C-Level management positions at Gallaher, Taboca, and more.

His articles are really fascinating and give a glimpse into the world most of us never see.

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Swedish CAMEL Snus -REAL snus; not Mellow SNUS or Frost SNUS

2009-05-14T05:47:00.002-05:00

Exclusive interview with Joakim Nilsson, Communications Manager at JTI Sweden by Larry Waters aka Mr. UNZ of SnusCentral.org.

Even more information about Swedish CAMEL Snus by JTI is revealed...with a slight detour to Larry's soap box on full disclosure. Positive example: Tom O'Connell of American Smokeless; Negative Example: Bill Eder of Nordic American.

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FAQ: So Where Can I Get Free Swedish Snus to Try?

2009-05-14T04:04:00.002-05:00

FREE Swedish Snus by General Snus!

This FAQ details how to get your free samples of General Mini Mint, General Wintergreen, General Original Portion, and General White Portion.

Completely FREE. Must be of legal age to use tobacco products.

Nicotine, great taste, completely discreet: use anywhere; no spitting, replace cigarettes, use Swedish Snus when you can't smoke, or use to quit cigarettes altogether!

I'm two years cigarette free and I smoked 1.5 to 2 packs a day for over 35 years. For those who can't quit because they're nicotine addicted like me, don't want to quit using tobacco (this is still America) or want a much safer alternative to cigarettes, Swedish Snus is 93% to 98% less harmful than cigarette smoking!

Here's your chance to try some of the best from Sweden for FREE!

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A Newspaper Article SO TOTALLY Inaccurate it's Laughable

2009-05-02T13:52:00.001-05:00

The Star Tribune of Minneapolis/St. Paul did an article on Snus recently called "Danger follows a camel on a small tin box." The only danger is reading this article which is so sloppy in it's "facts" it would be laughable...if it were a joke and not a "serious" article. No wonder Mainstream Journalism is in such ill repute these days.....

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Texans: When you can't qualify for Health Insurance coverage where do you turn?

2009-04-30T14:36:00.005-05:00

What's it like to live in Texas without Medical Insurance? If you are or have children, Texas does have many programs as does the Federal government to take care of you.

However, if you are age 50+ without children or without children living at home and are diabetic, have cancer or other serious health problems, you are in big trouble. You will find it practically impossible to get private insurance and the Texas alternative costs double what a private policy would cost with less coverage.

Your ongoing medication costs alone could bankrupt you. So what do most people end up having to do? Stop or cut back on vital medications to "stretch" them out. Stop visiting their doctor. Stop having necessary tests done to monitor your conditions, your medication dosages, and your health in general.

Well Care? Forget it. Not affordable without insurance.

The result is premature death and 6 figure hospital stays once your condition has progressed so far it just can't be ignored any longer.

There is a Bill pending in the Texas Legislature which would lower premiums and increase availability to the age 50+ citizens of Texas. We in Texas are good at taking care of our children and even those children illegally in the United States with a wealth of tax-payer funded programs.

What Texas is NOT good at as a whole and especially in certain counties like Collin County, is taking care of our older citizens in need.

The below is a Legislative Alert from the AARP. Frankly, I've never published one before and am not a fan of special interest groups in general. Everyone has a cause and they just seem to end up costing Texans more and more money.

This situation is SO absolutely and stunningly desperate for far too many Texans that I am not only publishing this, but I have also called the Governor's office and Lt. Governor's office to make my support for this bill known. I would ask those of you in Texas to join me.

The following is a Legislative alert from the AARP.

When you can't qualify for Health Insurance coverage where do you turn?

Many older Texans' who have serious health problems, like heart diseases, diabetes, and cancer, often cannot get health insurance. These Texans have no choice but to enter the Texas Health Insurance Risk Pool. It's the last resort for health insurance coverage.

Currently, 70% of the Risk Pool program enrollees are ages 50-64 and they are often forced to pay premiums twice as high as the rest of the market.

Senate Bill 879 would reduce premiums for many older Americans in the Health Insurance Risk Pool. Call the Lt. Governor NOW and urge him to bring Senate Bill 879 to the floor for a vote!

To be connected directly to the Lt. Governor's office call:1-888-633-3650 (toll-free)Texans deserve affordable health insurance, Call NOW!

..............................................................

Sincerely,

Mr. Unloadingzone

When is Camel Snus NOT Camel SNUS? A Swedish Snus bombshell

2009-04-29T18:32:00.002-05:00

Deciding to order some excellent Swedish Snus today, I went to my favorite on-line Snus Store; SnusCentral.com. Then I dropped my coffee because on the front page under new products was Camel Snus!!!!

It took a moment to recover, but I soon realized this was NOT the horrible RJRT American Camel SNUS, but a Swedish-Made, reduced harm Real snus by JTI. Oh, this was going to be REAL interesting.........

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How many Forum Members does it takes to change a light bulb?

2009-04-27T11:59:00.006-05:00

I'm shamelessly stealing the following from the SnusCENTRAL.org Forum. It was posted by a Member who said he was shamelessly stealing it himself. If the original author is out there, please respond so you can get the glory you deserve.

I don't know if the above is brand new or has been floating around the internet since forums began. I do know it's new to ME, so no flaming comments please. :-)

This is hysterical and for those of us who are members of different forums regardless of subject, applicable to all. That's what makes it so funny yet so true....and at one time or another, we've all played many of the roles below. Enjoy!

How many forum members does it takes to change a light bulb?

1 to change the light bulb and to post that the light bulb has been changed.

14 to share similar experiences of changing light bulbs and how the light bulb could have been changed differently.

7 to caution about the dangers of changing light bulbs.

1 to move it to the Lighting section.

2 to argue then move it to the Electricals section.

7 to point out spelling/grammar errors in posts about changing light bulbs.

5 to flame the spell checkers.

3 to correct spelling/grammar flames.

6 to argue over whether it's "lightbulb" or "light bulb" ... another 6 to condemn those 6 as stupid.

2 industry professionals to inform the group that the proper term is "lamp".

15 know-it-alls who claim they were in the industry, and that "light bulb" is perfectly correct.

19 to post that this forum is not about light bulbs and to please take this discussion to a lightbulb forum.

11 to defend the posting to this forum saying that we all use light bulbs and therefore the posts are relevant to this forum.

36 to debate which method of changing light bulbs is superior, where to buy the best light bulbs, what brand of light bulbs work best for this technique and what brands are faulty.

7 to post URL's where one can see examples of different light bulbs.

4 to post that the URL's were posted incorrectly and then post the corrected URL's.

3 to post about links they found from the URL's that are relevant to this group which makes light bulbs relevant to this group.

13 to link all posts to date, quote them in their entirety including all headers and signatures, and add "Me too".

5 to post to the group that they will no longer post because they cannot handle the light bulb controversy.

4 to say "didn't we go through this already a short time ago?".

13 to say "do a Google search on light bulbs before posting questions about light bulbs".

1 forum lurker to respond to the original post 6 months from now and start it all over again.

...............................

I'm hanging a copy of this next to my monitor before I post on any forum again.

Sincerely,

Mr. Unloadingzone

Social Media Marketing Presentation for DFW BMA

2009-04-21T00:51:00.002-05:00

I attended a fascinating and very information seminar today on Social Media Marketing for B to B.

The presentation was delivered by Shama Hyder, a legend in her own right. She graciously shared the slides from today's seminar. They are worth looking through.

Once embedded on The Unloading Zone, they will also be a lot easier for me to reference as my filing system if bulging!

Read and learn. I did.

Mr. Unloadingzone

Social Media Marketing Presentation for DFW BMA

View more presentations from Shama Hyder.

Swedish Match Officials being Held by SnusCENTRAL.org?

2009-04-16T15:59:00.002-05:00

Two high ranking employees of tobacco giant Swedish Match AB are in hiding at SnusCENTRAL.org, officials there confirmed.

The two will be answering member and visitor questions on Swedish Snus and related issues.

Amnesty International is charging that the Two Swedish Match Officials are being mentally tortured with the threat of being force-fed Camel SNUS if they don't cooperate.

SnusCENTRAL.org officials deny this, saying that would be a crime against humanity. Swedish Match AB, headquartered in Stockholm Sweden, is refusing comment on the incident. The Swedish Ambassador to the United Nations has requested an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council.

President Obama has been briefed on the crisis and may return to Washington earlier than scheduled.

Of the incident, the President was overheard saying "You're telling me Swedish Snus is 92% to 98% safer than cigarettes and completely discreet? Comes in pouches with no spitting? Regulated as a food product by the Swedish Government? Why didn't I about know this!"

DEVELOPING............................. DEVELOPING..........................

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Lorillard Tobacco Part 2: living in the past, ignoring the EMAILS

2009-04-15T02:35:00.002-05:00

The sad story of Lorillard Tobacco concludes with an email exchange between Mr. UNZ of SnusCENTRAL.org and Ronald S. Milstein, Senior VP & General Counsel for Lorillard.

Against this framework, Mr. UNZ inserts his brilliant and insightful commentary. What a train wreak!

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Lorillard Tobacco: living in the past; ignoring the FUTURE

2009-04-15T02:20:00.002-05:00

Your hero, Mr. Unloadingzone/Mr. UNZ tries to get real answers out of Lorillard Tobacco on their plans for Triumph Snus, the new and pending tobacco legislation, their own "Opinions" ad campaign, and the future in general.

What he discovers is akin to being on the Titanic just before it hits the iceberg: a company in denial banking everything on a product about to be banned.

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Tobacco Companies Raise Prices BEFORE the Tax Increase

2009-03-23T02:04:00.002-05:00

Here we go again! Washington punitively taxing tobacco for "the children" and (I'm not making this up) to stop Terrorist Tobacco Smugglers!

What this is really all about is using the hated tobacco user as a Guinea Pig to develop the system to tax ALL internet purchases! Follow the money.

We're in a Depression, Sales Tax revenue is down, so lets go to the well again and suck tobacco users dry (except cigars: the cigar tax was LOWERED!). At the same time, use tobacco users to develop a system to tax ALL internet purchases. The States have wanted that since ecommerce was invented.

Ask Amazon.com: NY passed a law to force them to collect and pay sales tax on every sale made to NY. Amazon appealed to the NY Supreme Court....and was slammed into the mud. Damn the Constitution, New Your needs MONEY!

And Big Tobacco? They've got a very Machiavellian strategy of their own. It started by Raising Cigarette Prices a MONTH before the Tax Increase takes affect! How's THAT for rewarding brand-loyalty?

First they came for the Cigarette Smoker's Money. I did nothing. Then they came for all tobacco users money (except cigars). I did nothing. Then I went on the internet to buy a computer made made and sold a thousand miles away from me........and the State took MY money. But by then it was too late.

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Garmin GPS - TOO Much of a Good Thing

2009-03-19T16:10:00.009-05:00

The prime rule of Retailing 101 is the "Good, Better, and Best" model. This particularly applies to the consumer electronics industry where an overwhelming number of similar choices in the same price range will result in consumer confusion instead of consumer purchases.

Having more than one option in each group is acceptable so long as the choices are primarily brand name differentiated. The salesperson or especially website must make the differences between and Good, Better, and Best as clear and simple to understand as possible or the consumer will experience Selection Overload.

Selection Overload and the resulting consumer confusion will cause a potential customer to become so unsure of themselves in making the correct product selection for their needs that they're afraid to purchase anything.

Retailing 101 acknowledges the reality that people really don't trust salespeople to recommend the truly best product for them. When I sold consumer electronics years ago, one of the most frustrating things I had to deal with was the assumption that I had an agenda in suggesting a particular product.

I had forgotten more about consumer electronics than most of my customers would ever know and convincing them I was trying to help them was a frustrating yet necessary step in the sales process. People without the ability to win the trust of their prospects rarely survive in sales in general.

The flip-side to that argument is that there often is an agenda. The company would obviously prefer its salespeople move the most profitable products than the loss leaders. This still doesn't preclude a knowledgeable salesperson from serving the best needs of both the company and the customer. The customer needs to understand why and what they are purchasing is the best option for them. In the world of GPS, Garmin has thrown Retailing 101 out the window.

I've been a Garmin GPS user and proponent since the 1990's. I have absolutely no sense of direction, getting lost even in my own neighborhood.

I spent 50% of my time on business travel back then and relied on my trusty Garmin emap. It would show you where you were and where you wanted to be but couldn't give you directions....it was a dead-reckoning device. But at least I knew I was going in the right direction!

As an added bonus, if I held my emap up against an airplane window, it could usually pick up enough satellites to amuse me with the aircraft speed, position, and altitude.

My current Garmin is the Nüvi 360. When I purchased it, I had two Garmin product lines to choose from: The StreetPilot and the Nüvi. StreetPilot's were big; Nüvi's were pocket-sized. Easy decision for me: a Nüvi.

The Nüvi line came in two screen sizes; big and small, and two price-ranges: expensive and really expensive. It was easy to compare the small screen (300 series) to the large screen (600 series) because a 350 had basically the same features as a 650. Want bluetooth built in for hands-free wireless phone use? Pick either the Nüvi 360 or 660. The 600 series did add a couple of small features the 300 series didn't have as you went up in price, but they had to considering the price difference between the two.

Bottom Line, potential Garmin purchasers; GPS knowledgeable or not, really only had to make the following choices:

How much were we willing to spend?

StreetPilot or Nüvi?

Big Screen or Small Screen?

Hands-Free or no Hands-Free?

See #1 again.

Garmin was the only credible option available then as a brand. To this day, they have the best mapping algorithms available and their maps were the most accurate in the United States until they starting aging: Garmin only released map updates once a year.

The ability to not only add Custom Points of Interest (POI), but the large number of Garmin hobbyists who created usually free downloads of every Walmart, Starbucks, hospital, restaurant of every flavor, bank locations and thousands more was a clear differentiator between Garmin and every other brand. ESPECIALLY among these thousands of POI downloads available were Red Light Camera Locations and common speed-trap locations! Those downloads alone have more than paid for my Nüvi 360 in avoided traffic tickets.

Then came Dash, Europe's favorite GPS; TomTom, and a plethora of others. They were less expensive than Garmin and offered more features; especially real-time map updating. They didn't have Garmin's famous mapping algorithms. Garmin was clearly superior but who would know; especially a GPS Newbee? The sub-$200 car navigation units arrived. Having a GPS went mainstream in a big way.

Garmin's reaction to this was hysterics. They began releasing new models and discontinuing them within months. They created new Nüvi series at all different price-points which seemed to have the same or very similar features. The seemed to be literally targeting individual consumers one by one. Another way of saying that is Garmin threw everything against the wall to see what would stick.

Instead of using that curious approach to determine Good, Better and Best...and then thin out the line, Garmin just keep throwing up new models; often while an almost identical version in another series was available, even though discontinued.

Today, the Garmin lists the Nüvi Series as having TWENTY THREE different models! There is the Nüvi 1200 series, Nüvi 1300 series, Nüvi 200 series, Nüvi 500 series, Nüvi 700 series, Nüvi 800 series, Nüvi 5000....and of course the lonely Street Pilot 7200.

Confused yet? I sure was! I know some of those models/series are discontinued but since Garmin still has stock on them, they list them right along with the current models. A shopper looking for their first GPS would run in terror from the Garmin website! What that demographic needs is a website like one I stumbled across while doing my legendary research for this article called Sat Nav.

Sat Nav is a UK website so some of the brands are not available in the USA. The important thing is that the site is clean, easy to understand, and focused. The home page clearly lists and provides pictures of different auto GPS units. The bottom has a very understandable "Which Sat Nav is for Me?" section.

When you click on a particular manufacturer, the bottom section changes to a very user friendly description of that manufacturers models and what the difference is. Good, Better and Best.

There are good GPS sites in the USA but I thought Sat Nav really stood out in making my point as a user friendly/consumer friendly site for someone wanting to buy an auto GPS without getting a degree in satellite navigation.

Compare their site at http://www.satnav-expert.co.uk against Garmin's corporate consumer website. Garmin could take more than a few lessons from the folks at Sat Nav.

As for Garmin and my personal GPS refresh? The two features I wanted in one unit were FM Lifetime Traffic and MSN Direct. Seven different Nüvi Series. Twenty-Three different Nüvi models. Not ONE came standard with FM Lifetime Traffic and MSN Direct! The units with FM Lifetime Traffic standard offered MSN Direct as an option and visa versa!

I was so angry with Garmin that I started visiting stores to look at the TomTom GPS units in person. I figured by now their maps would be much better and since Garmin may rule the US market (for now), TomTom is the largest selling GPS manufacturer in the world. I also really liked the ability to upload corrections to the maps (since Dallas is perpetually under construction) and download same which other TomTom users had uploaded.

Unfortunately, in store after store, the TomTom display appeared very washed out against the Garmin units. I even compared them to my now venerable Nüvi 360. TomTom lost.

So which GPS did I end up purchasing? None of them. Thanks to Garmin, I decided to wait another 6 months and see what is available then. Nice marketing, Garmin.

Snus Review - Thunder Snus High Nicotine Snus @ SnusCENTRAL

2009-02-22T19:59:00.003-06:00

Exiled Snus Reviewer from Snustopia, That Snus Guy, reviews Thunder Snus Extra Strong Snus from SnusCENTRAL.org. Thunder Snus has 16mg/g of nicotine, making it one of the highest nicotine Nordic snus's available. As a bonus, it also tastes great.........

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Don't Dream and Drive: the road gets harder.....

2009-02-18T07:57:00.002-06:00

The life of Wilma as told on paywilma.com takes another turn for the worst as she totals her car, is banged up pretty badly, and learns some more unpleasant news. Economic Depression 2009 rolls on...and over Wilma.

Wilma's situation is not unique...she is just one of the few willing to talk about it. Her humor and courage hide an incredibly sad situation as an over-qualified, unemployed woman and her dog fight for survival every day.

Don't pity Wilma and her dog Timmy. Look in the mirror and then help her if you can. Or draw strength from her if you can't. A supportive email wouldn't hurt either.

At least visit PayWilma.com through a proxy server if you must. It's a great read. When was the last time you called your mother, anyway? Or gave food to a food pantry.......

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Snus Review: General Onyx Revisited

2009-02-16T06:57:00.002-06:00

A new look at General Onyx Swedish Snus by dissident snus reviewer in exile, That Snus Guy, formerly of Snustopia now at SnusCENTRAL. General Onyx; the top of the line General brand snus, gets a fresh look for the benefit of snus users new and seasoned.You can also read the spell-binding tale of his escape from Snustopia in the back of a 1966 Chevy....all the more interesting because Snustopia and the United States are separated by water.

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Swedish Match and PMI Joint Venture: a match made in Sweden?

2009-02-16T06:43:00.002-06:00

Swedish Snus giant Swedish Match AB and Philip Morris International announced a JV to market smokeless tobacco world wide. Mr. UNZ of SnusCENTRAL.org analyzes the deal as only he can.....

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