To address pipe tobacco… It is hard to find good pipe tobacco in America, one headshop has a great variety near where I live and they also have a good selection of rolling tobacco but they’re the exception as kids now smoke marijuana at a higher rate than tobacco so all the headshops are going towards that market and quickstops and gas stations only carry roll your owns and packs.
It is pretty much the only commodity with different tax schemes aside from gasoline, some states regulate bars and alcohol differently but the base price for a bottle of vodka doesn’t vary by state although the sales tax is different from state to state however this is true for all items. For example New York has a vary high sales tax and Alaska has no sales tax so a big purchase in Alaska would be cheaper, but since Alaska is like 1500 miles from the rest of the country it would cost more to even get a large item back to the lower 48 states compared to paying the sales tax elsewhere so this is only valuable knowledge if you’re traveling to Alaska anyways and are buying something small and expensive like a watch, but again since Alaska is the backwoods the selection for high end boutique items is minimal.
Also as far as sales tax goes, you’re only obligated to pay it for online purchases if the seller has a physical store presence in your state.
Other items with different taxes are other ‘sin’ taxes such as junk food and soda being super expensive relatively speaking in New York City. I’m not sure if this has caught on for alcohol but it might have, but this practice with junk food and soda is not widespread at all and is limited to New York and possibly a few other cities on the East Coast, as far as alcohol I can’t think of somewhere that taxes it differently but a google search would clear that up.
Gasoline is another one with different taxes, the price might vary by almost $0.50 if you are located near state boarders and one state taxes it heavily and the other doesn’t, this is on top of the federal tax.
Big Tobacco had to pay out a ton of money for wellness programs and settlements about 20 years ago but can still advertise, but not on TV, roughly equivalent to what happens in Europe.
