Lobbying The CIGAR Cause

[Robusto]

I had to buy a selection of good wines for my neighbour because he decorated the outside of my house for me when I was in Brussels. Good man.

I drove to a great independent wine merchant in a small town called Sandwich about five miles away. It's quite an affluent town and hosts world class golf tournaments on its courses. There is a steady stream of golfers from the UK and many other countries passing through in the months of good weather.

Whilst selecting some very decent wines, I was looking behind the counter for a humidor and a selection of cigars. This seemed just the sort of place to be able to buy a decent Havana.

Anyway... When I got home, I emailed the store. The chap there told me that they had looked into a humidor a couple of years ago and not gone any further with the idea.

I thought I'd make him think a bit more lol and emailed him this.

Do you think it's over-the-top to press businesses who fit the profile, as it were, to stock cigars?

I'll let you know if I get a reply.




Hello David.

I was with you buying wines this morning. I'm the chap who asked you if you sell cigars.

I am not a cigarette smoker, but like many men I adore a good Havana cigar. Your store is just the sort of place a casual cigar smoker would expect to find a small humidor with a few choice Havanas.

Actually I am a cigar aficionado and I am a member of a busy cigar website for UK cigar smokers. I go up to JJ Fox, Davidoff and Sautter's when I'm in London, and have recently been to la casa del Habana in Teddington and the Dickens Wine Emporium in Rochester to buy and check out their cigars.

In each of these places, the same message came through that many more men are picking up Havana cigars for their night out.

I buy my cigars online and offshore as they are ridiculously expensive at London prices, but it would be a pleasure to know that you stored Havanas as I would drop in now and again when out and about in Sandwich. I live in Deal, and I can tell you as a cigar aficionado there is absolutely no cigar outlet in this part of the world if you discount the limited sticks in supermarket kiosks.

I thought I'd drop you a line and get this email out of my system!

With my very best wishes.

Bryan Orwell

[moidoid]

It's not over the top at all. I try my best to sell cigar smoking to people I know to counter the wave of propaganda telling us what we should and should not enjoy.

Nothing wrong with a bit of prosletysing!

[misterbulgarin]

Real nice robusto, wish there was some more stockists in kent. Gimmie the guys email and i'll ask him too. maybe im just a random dude whos seen his site and am wondering if he sells cigars?

That might give him incentive if he gets some emails like that

[Robusto]

mail@herculeswines.co.uk

[misterbulgarin]

nice one, ill email him tommorow or something, incase two cigar related emails looks a bit fishy

[Robusto]

Maybe these experienced people know that in business terms it's just a non-starter.

Which is really sad.

I'm going to bring the subject up wherever I think cigars would enhance the attractiveness of a shop or business - especially on barren home turf.

[Stogiedog]

Bryan never over the top, he would certainly get two people dropping in on him.

Be interesting to hear the response from him??????? if indeed he replies.

I wished you had told me about your neighbour earlier, as he could have done the outside of my house while i was in belgium the week before you.

Welcome back to the Thunderdome Mr Robusto.

[Robusto]

Cheers, Paul.
I'm lucky to have a rock solid good bloke neighbour and we look out for each other.
Brussels was great, Paul.
Off to Derbyshire in the morning...

Yeah. You and I could bowl over there to pick up a smoke or two and knock back a couple of Havana-enhanced pints on Sandwich Quay with no problem.

[Stogiedog]

Rock climbing............................

[daverave999]

It certainly wouldn't drive custom away. Did he mention why they'd got no further with the idea?

As we all know, it's not going to require a huge amount of maintenance, and will appeal to both aficionados and casual smokers alike. Just by the till as an impulse buy. Tubos would probably be best for ease of transport from the shop, but a few naked sticks would also be visually appealing. Some cheap cutters for the casual crowd.

I don't know how things work with H&F, but they might have small display humidors available for non-specialist retailers.

Two possible problems though.
First, they may simply not know or care about cigars at all, and consider any effort required as too great (regardless of the reality) for the income generated.
Also, as a self-confessed aficionado emailing him, it's possible your view of demand/ease of care may be viewed as biased.

That said, you do see quite a few off-licenses with racks of tubos. As a specialist wine merchant, it would look good (to me at least) that they can visibly look after something that requires similar conditions that I believe good wine requires i.e. temperature and humidity.

I see nothing wrong with suggesting this to them Bryan! Perhaps even create another fan while we're at it.

[Simon-JG-hr]

Very good idea Robusto! If they see that there is a small amount of interest anyway, then they might give it a go. As others have said, a small selection of tubos should be fairly straight-forward to maintain and would probably pick up a few of those 'impulse buys' that Dave mentioned.

H&F do indeed offer aid to anyone who wishes to stock Cubans (or their Non-Cubans) - they can even supply display cases too, according to their website.

I'm waiting for one of their guys to get back to me at the moment...

[Robusto]

The guy told me they had been in contact with H&F.

[RhiannonBW]

I am not a cigarette smoker, but like many men I adore a good Havana cigar.

** coughs loudly!!!! ** Just because I am temporarily off the cigars due to pregnancy doesn't mean I no longer look longingly into every humidor I see !! I have my own campaign going to persuade more women to indulge

The problem I have found with small wine stores selling cigars is that they are rarely stored correctly and the humidors are not managed regularly. We have bought a few sticks from such places and they have invariably been so dry as to be barely smokable. This is not the introduction to cigars that I would wish for those impulse purchases by those new to cigars.

So whilst I would love to see more shops selling great cigars, I would much prefer to see fewer shops selling great cigars that are well kept.

Rhiannon x

[deltawhisky]

Bryan, top idea. That's a good thing to do, because it's true that the central London stores are pricing the likes of myself and others, I am sure, out of cigars.

I return to Cambridge in this post -- Tranters has closed down, and the wine merchants etc etc stock the basics. I mean, the basics that are perfectly fine, but not the ones the connoisseur is going to read and write about.

Such shops must know there is a hulking market out there, surely?

[deltawhisky]

Oh, and also, in reply to a recent previous post - there has been a move in my studies from 'mankind' to 'humankind'. So should one consider the existence of cigar connoisseurs as well as connoisseuresses? I'd quite like to know the plural tbh!