La Grange, MO Business Licensing & Operations: Tobacco Retail License (2026)

Article XIII, Offenses Concerning Tobacco, opens with definitions in § 215.610 covering 'tobacco products,' 'distribute,' 'sample' and 'vending machine,' then moves through a set of retailer obligations. Section 215.620 bars selling, providing or distributing tobacco products or rolling papers to anyone under eighteen and sets out vending-machine safeguards, such as keeping machines within an adult's unobstructed line of sight or fitted with a single-sale lock-out device; a violation of those subsections carries an escalating fine of $25 for a first offense, $100 for a second, and $250 for a third or subsequent offense under § 215.620(D).

Sitting inside that same Article, § 215.640 adds a separate, narrower requirement: 'No person shall sell cigarettes or tobacco products unless the person has a retail sales tax license.' The section names no exceptions and no location limits, so any retailer in the City of La Grange, whether a gas station, grocery store or vending-machine operator, must hold the license before making a sale. Because § 215.640 states no penalty of its own, the citywide general penalty in § 100.220 governs: a fine of $10 to $1,000, up to three months in jail, or both, with each day of unlicensed sale a separate offense.

The licensing duty layers on top of § 215.650's requirement that retailers post a red-lettered warning sign at every display and vending machine, and § 215.660's rule that individual cigarette packs be sold only through a vending machine or from behind the checkout counter. A retailer that loses a compliance dispute under Article XIII may appeal to the Administrative Hearing Commission under Chapter 621, RSMo., per § 215.620(I).