he has asked me a lot of advice on what to carry in his walk in since he opened up about 8 months ago...
so far things have been going well for the guy and the cigar side of things is growing steadily...
the rep just called me and asked what I wanted to order, which is a very cool feeling...
it's a small shop... and they're under the mighty hand of the california tax nazi's, so, just as an example,
AF 858 is $10...
Ashton VSG Robusto is $16...
We might consider carrying something as expensive as davidoff, but not big enough to carry tatuaje or opus x...
I know it's hard to make suggestions without knowing what they carry, so here's a list of most of what we've got...
ALEC BRADLEY
Alec Bradley American Classic
Alec Bradley Filthy Hooligan (candela)
Alec Bradley Black Market
ARTURO FUENTE
Chateau Fuente Natural
Chateau Fuente Sungrown
Hemingway Signature
858 Maduro
ASHTON
Virgin Sun Grown
A. TURRENT
Triple Play Maduro
AVO
Avo NEW Classic
CAO
CAO MX2
CAO La Traviata
LA AROMA DE CUBA
La Aroma De Cuba
LIGA PRIVADA
Undercrown Corona Viva
MACANUDO
Hampton Court?
MY FATHER
My Father Flor de los Antillas
My Father la Antiguedad
OLIVA
Oliva V Melanio
Oliva O
ONYX
Onyx Reserve
PADRON
2000 Natural
3000 Natural
6000 Natural
ROCKY PATEL
Rocky Patel Decade
Rocky Patel Vintage 1992
Rocky Patel Super Ligero
ROOM 101
Room 101 Big Payback
SAN LOTANO
Oval Maduro
SAN LUIS REY
Serie G Natural
LAdC MI Amor
A. Everyman's shop? Heavy General/Altadis?
B. Boutique-y?
Hard when starting out to be both. Very hard to be B and be successful, but not impossible.
May need to be A until you get steady, repeatable business. Then, planned, organized transition into A/B hybrid, or even a B.
La Flor Dominicana
Litto Gomez
Expand CAO - Brasilia, Italia
Agree, get some top end Fuentes, Padrons, LP, Tat
Folks will go out of their way to get the top shelf, limited availability smokes.
Do you want to be:
dstieger wrote:
very wise... the inventory I "inherited" was heavily General/Altadis... we've cleared/discontinued a lot, but not all of that... we still carry a couple of RyJ's, a few punch's, a couple H.Upmannns, and a few Montecristo's...
The plan right now is and has been to help educate new/newer smokers (about 80%-90% of our cigar sales)... a lot of that is me sitting in there for 3 and 4 hours a night and talking to every person who comes in about the cigars they smoke or have smoked and trying to pass on to them the info I have received from other guys - many of whom frequent this forum...
when customers who frequent us ask us to carry something and we know it isn't garbage, we'll carry it... that's how we got the Onyx and the Patel Super Ligero's... that's worked well as it's helped me to help others smoke stuff they normally wouldn't... turns out a bunch of people really like the Super ligero...
The thing we have going for us in trying to accomplish "B" is that the shop is not a cigar shop/not dependent on cigar sales... we're a california smoke shop... lots of hookah's, upright waterpipes (like a bong but for tobacco), cigarettes, black and mild's, a bigger selection of white owl's than you've probably ever seen, rolling papers, oil burners (crack pipes not meant for crack), and a ton of other stuff that keeps the lights on...
Get some of the higher up Padron's… honestly if I walked into a shpo and that was the selection I'd walk righ back out, but that's just my opionon.
Plowboy221 wrote:
never have had that happen... most people are thrilled to find a smoke shop that has a walk-in at all... closest "cigar shop" is 30 miles away...
La Gloria Cubana
Mandoman wrote:
we have a box of the LGC R's... they don't move at all but for the price, there's lots of better things we offer, I think...
As far as high end fuentes and padrons, I'd definitely like to get some, but anything we have to retail for over $20 isn't going to move at this stage in the game... Oliva V Melanio's go for $15 and people have a hard time with it...
Local police chief love's CAO so that's a good suggestion... Brasilia and Italia are higher end or lower end for them? I've not smoked a CAO in years...
Fuente Magnum R's
ZRX1200 wrote:
Fuente Magnum R's - just checked, can't get them but we can get the don carlos...
LAdC MI Amor - better than the reserva? about a dollar per stick difference...
Not sure about accounts, minimum facings, etc. But, I'd imagine a couple more different Ashtons might do well. There's usually one in CA top-10's, so they have some name recognition. Brickhouse is one that many will now recognize and has an appealing price point. I suspect they bring repeat customers. Litto's stuff is good and has fans, but I suspect min orders are bad because so many shops I go to seem to devote entire wall or table to them for no other apparent reason. I'd set my sights on a couple smaller brands that have huge upside but aren't big enough to demand 20 feet of facings: 2 or 3 may be all you need to begin to establish your shop as a destination for more serious botl: maybe Romacraft, or La Palina, or Caldwell or Terazona....maybe Crowned Heads....You don't need to try to parse 50 high end boutiques, but just a couple/few to get it started
just talked to the guy, and ya, lfd's are off the table... ridiculous minimum orders... it would fill 1/3 of our humidor...
Ashton - Cabinet Vintage Selection and probably the ESG will go on the list...
Brickhouse - I have no experience with them but we could do the rob's @ $7 which is not bad for california... I'll check them out...
Romacraft, or La Palina, or Caldwell or Terazona - 4 I am not familiar with... apparently I'm not a "serious botl" lol... in all seriousness, the more I learn about cigars, the more I realize how little I know... I will check into these... thanks greatly for the suggestions...
Reserva MI Amor should be more than the regular line, the regular line isn't as strong but both are VERY good.
if only one, the 3000 maduro
+1 on higher end Padrons.
Maybe a vitola or 2 of the regular MF line.
Maybe some Regular Oliva Vs
gotta have some maduros in that Padron "000" list..................
KingoftheCove wrote:
someone who didn't know cigars ordered the padrons... I know nothing about their regular lines other than
a) I hate the naturals
b) the maduro's have to be better than the naturals
that said, I'll be squeezing in a box of 3000 maduro's post haste... thank you...
opelmanta1900 wrote:
Well damn, guess I'm getting picky. Caldwell is a great suggestion, maybe try to expand the AJ selection, has some great cigars and people seem to love them. What about DPG/ My Father?
Also can get you in contact with a BOTL that has a line of cigars rolled by AB. I know, I know. But truly a great cigar. Pm if interested and I'll give you his contact info.
AB as in Alec Bradley? I'm actually a recent fan of their stuff as it's got good construction and a good price point after ca taxes... I'll send you a pm as soon as I can...
Well damn, guess I'm getting picky.
I think the general mindset out here is to kinda support your local by buying decent stuff at incredibly inflated prices, but then buy your high end stuff online...
seriously, I don't mind paying $9 for a black market even though they can be had for $5... but I probably won't spend $29 for an Ashton ESG when I can get that so much cheaper online...
