Hi everyone! Another brilliant week has passed by here in Turmeaus Norfolk.

On Monday, it was Josh and I in the shop, we had plenty of online orders to pick! As a team we got through them as quickly as we could and then I got to work stocking up our walk-in humidors. I started in our Cuban humidor, despite the price, Cuban cigars are still incredibly popular. The amount of work that goes into making a Cuban cigar really does reflect in the price as the cigar tends to taste impeccable. Afterwards, I started to stock up our New World walk-in humidor. The amount of different brands you find from the New World is incredible and the fact they can pull so many flavours from different types of tobacco leaves really blows my mind. As much as the tradition lies with Cuban cigars, never turn down a New World cigar as a lot of the brands like My Father and Padron actually had their beginnings in Cuba! I ordered plenty of New World cigars to come in, ready to stock our shelves.

Tuesday was my marketing day. I started by deciding on what article to write for the C.Gars cigar library. I chose to write about five unique cigars, everyone loves a top 5 list and so I thought I’d make another one for unique cigars. I spent some time taking a picture of each of the cigars too, so with the banner that is 6 pictures in total. Unfortunately it wasn’t a smooth process and I wasn’t happy with some images so I had to go to retake them but I think they came out well in the end. What do you think? Click here to read the article. 

Whilst I was writing my article, my assistance was needed in the shop. A customer had come in looking for a box of La Flor de Cano Selectos No. 3, the latest UK release. Unfortunately, we didn’t have a box so we started looking around for something else he may have been interested in. He chose a few singles, like the LCDH Punch Punch 48 and then asked if we had any aged cigars. Our Aged and Vintage cigars tend to be kept in our London stores for safe keeping, however we happened to have 4 singles of Cuaba Salomones from 2006. So he gladly took them and left happy. Late afternoon, I made a start on the shop newsletters. I had a lovely email sent from Roy, the manager of our Chester store. He had just come back from Nicaragua! He toured around many different factories whilst he was there and even got to create his own blend of cigars at Joya de Nicaragua! He wanted to put his whole journey in the newsletter but unfortunately there was too much! So I have asked him to give me some more detail so I can put it on the cigar library instead so you can all have a read. It sounded like the trip of a lifetime and I can’t wait to upload what he was written.

On Thursday, I was in the shop. The previous day Josh took care of the Cuban cigars, he checked for damages and de-ploomed them. So I decided to do the same with the Davidoff cigars. I de-ploomed and went one further by taking each cigar off the shelf and hoovering so any tobacco residue was gone and it really made a difference. I also served a lovely gentleman who had only just started smoking cigars. He said originally he just wanted cigar tubes to display in his man cave and so ordered some online, he wasn’t expecting cigars to come in them! Once he tried them he realised he really enjoyed them and wanted to explore more. I asked how much he wanted to spend and he said £10. I like to ask for a customers budget as I wouldn’t want to waste our time talking about £40 cigars if you only have £10 to spend, we always respect our customers and never try to get them to spend more than they really want to, however, after talking about the different cigars, many customers do spend more than their original budget, but we are always upfront and honest. Back to my customer, once he had said £10, I knew instantly that he needed to try the Mitchellero Robusto. A great smoke for anyone to try and it only costs £9.99! I did explain to the gentleman, the difference between the Mitchellero and the Mitchellero Peru, he then decided to try both to see if he could taste a difference. He left incredibly happy and said he would definitely be back. That always feels great as a Retail Assistant to know that you’ve made a customer happy and they will be back for more.

I was also asked by my manager to create an article promoting our new Ultra-Exclusive Cigar Club in Monaco, you can read it here.

On Friday, I spent the day picking orders, ready to be packed. In between our hourly order pickings, I spent time adding accessories onto the till system. We are trying to add each accessory that has a barcode onto the system so there is no time wasted trying to find prices. It also helps us research what is selling well and what isn’t. In the afternoon, Ciaran and I completed the Cuban cigar stock count.

On Saturday, it was the Tantalising Trio of Ciaran, Josh and myself. We went to work picking online orders, and then making up cigar samplers so they will be ready to be picked. 

I hope you have enjoyed this weeks goings on and I hope to see you all in store very soon

So long for now

Oliver

Hi everyone! Another busy day here in Norfolk! I have been a jack of all trades this week.

Monday was another busy day with online orders. Josh and I worked through them together and then went to work re-stocking the shelves that were diminished from all of the online orders. I walked through packing and saw there were lots of orders that needed packing, so I decided to help out and pack some orders to help keep the team going! I also emailed my monthly marketing content to my manager, and I nervously awaited a response.

Tuesday was my marketing day, I firstly decided what to write about for the C.Gars cigar library. I thought to myself, “I haven’t written about pipes or tobacco for a while” so I decided to write an article comparing Ready Rubbed pipe tobacco and Flake Cut pipe tobacco. You can read it here. I also spent some time taking the pictures, and I am really proud of them. I then received my feedback and it was great! I was given a few tips and recommendations to work on but overall my manager was impressed with what I have been up to. After reading the delightful email, I helped out with parcel booking on. Some parcels are more complex than others so I left the experts to do the difficult ones and I concentrated on the more standard ones, together we got through a big bulk of parcels. In between booking on, I helped Ciaran with a Missouri Meerschaum corn cob pipe delivery. As these come straight from the USA, we tend to order in bulk and it can be quite overwhelming for one person to go check over.

On Wednesday, I was in my comfort zone – the shop. Firstly, I added our new cigars onto the till system – The Kristoff Tres Compadres range, as well as the Kristoff JT and GC Signature series. I look forward to reading all about them! I then did some alcohol pricing to ensure we had the latest pricing and noticed a lot of items had gone down in price! We also have some great special offers in store! You could get a bottle of Glendronach Traditionally Peated for £45.99 instead of £54.99! That is almost £10 off! We also have a bottle of Ron Abuelo 12 Year Old Rum that has been reduced from £48.99 to £39.99 and as the cherry on top, you will receive a 5cl miniature with your purchase! I also spent some time adding some new accessories in the Cuban humidor that certainly relates! There is a Cuban Flag Cutter, Lighter, Cigar case and Hip Flask! So if you know someone who loves a Cuban cigar, you can get an accessory to go along with it. I also served one of our regulars who has recently transitioned from New World Cigars to Cuban cigars. He decided to treat himself to a tin of Partagas Capitols as he had one in a sampler he purchased before Christmas and really enjoyed it! (and he also likes the tin too). He got his usual Liga Privada T52 Coronets and left very happy. 

On Thursday, I was doing New World stock count with our humidor manager Billy! It had been a while since we have completed it together but we soon got it done and we finished by lunch! So afterwards, I checked in on the rest of the team and helped stock up the shelves again. We are also promoting our range of Les Fines Lames pocket cigar knives. We are running a 10% off offer and their knives are really cool! You need to check them out by clicking here. I recycled an old Zippo display cabinet and with the help of some of the team we made it look lovely!

On Friday, I was back to picking orders. With the team we picked them all incredibly fast and then helped to pack them. In the afternoon, Josh and I completed the Cuban cigar stock count.

I hope you have enjoyed this weeks goings on and I hope to see you all in Norfolk very soon

So long for now

Oliver

Hi everyone! It’s been a very different week here in Norfolk! We have started a new system in our team which I like to think is working a treat!

On Monday, I was working with Josh in the shop, we really do work together well. We had most of our customers in the first hour of the day! So we split them out evenly and carried on with our online order picking. After my online order pickings, I stocked up our Cuban humidor. Cuban cigars are still incredibly popular despite the rise of New World cigars and so after online orders were picked, I have to stock them back up as the shelves always look empty. In the afternoon, I went to work stocking up and organising our Missouri Meerschaum pipes as well as the budget pipes. I then decided to bring down some budget friendly pipe lighters. I often have customers asking for pipe lighters so if I have them ready in the shop instead of a stock room, at least our customers can get the lighter a lot quicker and test it out before making a decision. I particularly like the look of the Promise Earl Pipe Lighter, any pipe lighter that has the tools inside is a big win for me.

On Tuesday, it was time to try out our new system! So instead of shop staff picking orders as well as a few others, we cut down the amount of pickers to just two who are not working in the shop, and then the shop person can just concentrate on keeping the shop pristine! So I look forward to being in the shop without having to worry about online orders. So Ciaran was in the shop, while Ben and I picked all of the orders. I really enjoyed it, I had no pressure of serving customers in between pickings. So when I finished my pickings, I helped the packing department pack orders and then organised our pre-made cigar samplers ready to be picked/sold in store. This is a task that has needed doing for a long time but no one had the time to do it, until now! I also received an email from one of our favourite regulars. He is going on holiday very soon and wanted to take some cigars to enjoy whilst he was there. He wanted at least ten Mitchellero Coronas put to one side for him and then a general look around the shop to decide on some special ones. Of course, we helped him out and when he eventually came in, he went home very happy indeed! I hope he enjoys his holiday too.

Thursday was my marketing day, firstly I checked over my shop newsletters to make sure they were ready to be sent out. Afterwards, I started writing an article for the C.Gars cigar library, I have personally chosen five great Maduros that you need to try! Click here to read it. I spent a lot of time taking pictures for the article, I decided to do five pictures instead of the usual two or three so each cigar is showcased. At midday, all the shop staff gathered together to decide on our Valentines displays. We decided on a his and hers kind of display, with Sarah and Ciaran taking the lead in the main shop with the display. Later on in the afternoon I took more pictures, this time it was of the cigars of the month. The New World cigar of the month happens to be from one of my range, the Alec Bradley Orchant Seleccion! Many of my loyal readers will know the Alec Bradley Orchant Seleccion Skinny is probably my favourite cigar. So for us to be able to showcase its bigger brother, the Shorty, it made me very happy. 

On Friday, I was working in the packing department with Porscha! We are a brilliant team when we are together! We had plenty of orders to pack and then we were told by the sales team that we would be putting an incredible quick puff sampler online. It’s called Springtime Shorts Quick Puff Sampler and it is a great mix of little cubans as well as a La Paz which is a very underrated mini cigarillo. As a team we got together and made up enough to last us for a while. 

On Saturday, it was the dream team of Josh, Porscha and I! Josh and myself picked all of the online orders, whilst Porscha did a beautiful display in our pipe room! Showcasing a lot of our pipes that we felt represented love in a fantastic way. Afterwards, we worked through some price changes, a lot of our prices went down! Which you rarely see in this day and age! The ones that caught my eye were the Flor de Olivas. They are a terrific smoke, full of rich earthy notes!

I hope you have enjoyed this weeks blog and I hope to see you all in store very soon!

So long for now

Oliver

Hi everyone, this is my first full week back since the new year! But it has certainly gone by so fast.

On Monday, I was in the shop with Josh, we worked through loads of our online orders to get them shipped out as quickly as possible. I served one of our regulars, who is absolutely loving the Tabernacle Knight Commander, he said it is the best that Foundation Cigars has ever released! It is exclusive to Norfolk so you need to come here to purchase for yourself! Later on I spent some time with Porscha, explaining how we order stock and with which supplier, she did an excellent job and I would like to think she will be confident enough to do it more in future. 

Tuesday was my marketing day. I started by writing a slightly smaller article for the C.Gars cigar library. It is about why a lot of Scotch whiskies names start with “Glen”, you can read why by clicking here. Afterwards I carried on with completing the shop newsletters, I enjoy reading what they will be getting up to in February and some of their photography is brilliant but in some instances I do have to train them on how to take a picture of certain items, but I do love training people. In the afternoon I spent some time organising the March New World Subscription. It is very difficult to decide which cigars to put in each month but I think a lot of you will enjoy what I have chosen.

On Wednesday, I was back in the shop with Josh. We had a lot of price changes come through in the night so we spent a lot of time changing them on the till system and on our shelves, as well as picking our online orders. It can be difficult to do all these changes but patience and plenty of coffee always does the trick. We have also started an in-store offer on our pipes! We are offering 20% off all pipes (not in conjunction with any other offer). One gentleman took advantage of this offer and purchased a beautiful Savinielli Monsieur as well as some Peterson pipe tobacco. 

On Thursday, I was joined in the shop, for the first time in a while, by Ciaran. We worked through our online orders and then back to more price changes! Afterwards I had a look in the pipe room and saw some of the displays were missing pipes so I filled them up and then organised the pipes that weren’t on display, I just love a nice organised shelf! In the afternoon, I helped Billy and Josh with their New World stock count. Billy and I have decided to train the rest of the staff on stock counts so we can occasionally swap out if we need to. I could see Josh and Billy were a little bit behind so I jumped in and counted what I could and I think it really gave them a boost.

On Friday, I was given time to alter my newsletters. All newsletters get checked over before they go out in case there are any mistakes, or if someone has any recommendations. I only had a couple of minor tweaks to do and then I scheduled them all. I then helped the shop staff with labels for pipes that needed to be put out on the shelf and afterwards I created the New World Subscription leaflet for March, ready for the team to pack ahead of time.

I hope you have enjoyed this weeks going on in and I hope to see you all in Norfolk very soon.

So long for now.

Oliver.

Hi everyone! It has been another great week in Norfolk today, with one of my favourite customers coming in to purchase a special box of cigars.

My week started on Tuesday, I was working on my own in the shop, so I spent my time stocking up the Cuban humidor, as well as putting different ranges of Davidoffs on the shelves. I came across the Davidoff Grand Cru Diadema and thought it looked incredible so I put them on the shelf. I served one of my favourite customers who had been visiting since before I started at Turmeaus! He came in looking for a box of Davidoff Winston Churchill The Artist Limited Edition 2025 Churchill as well as one single. He does this every time Davidoff releases a Limited Edition Winston Churchill. He purchases a full box and a single so he can smoke the single and keep the box in the humidor to re-sell or enjoy himself if he really enjoys them. Unfortunately, we didn’t have a full box, so he purchased the single, then decided on a Davidoff Yamasa Toro and a Davidoff Maduro Toro Limited Edition. I then spoke to our humidor manager to see if we could get a box in for him and it turned out our products administrator had the box! So I quickly phoned him (in my customer service voice) and let him know we actually had a box for him! He happily came back and purchased the box, I then got him to sign up to C.Gars Plus so he can start collecting points and using our rewards system. 

On Wednesday, I was joined in the shop with Josh. After our online pickings, we spent time organising the shelves. Afterwards we had a nice sit down just to talk about different cigars. Josh smokes a lot more cigars than me and so I like to learn from his smoking experience, we also spent time researching brands we haven’t tried. It’s a great thing to do as we discover some great cigars that we can promote to our customers – one example was the Casa Magna Colorado which sounds like a little gem of a brand, they are rolled in the Plasencia factory and is also a Nicaraguan Puro, so if you like strong coffee with a cedar sweetness, this is your brand to try!

Thursday was my marketing day. I had received an article from our Humidor manager Billy about the top 10 cigars of 2024 and it makes for an interesting read on the C.Gars cigar library. As expected the top cigar of 2025 was the Mitchellero Robusto. I spent some time taking the pictures and editing them to make it clear which cigar is which. You can read it here. Afterwards I completed two shop newsletters, ready to be sent at the start of February (crazy to think ahead already!). We also had a team meeting discussing new ways to make ourselves more efficient, this may mean you might not see your favourite shop assistant as much any more but I have not gone anywhere! Feel free to ask for me if you want me to make an appearance. 

On Friday, It was another blast from the past for me as I found myself in the packing department! Porscha and I worked together to get all of the online orders packed ready to be sent to their awaiting recipient!

I hope you have enjoyed this week’s blog and I hope to see you all in Norfolk very soon.

So long for now.

Oliver.

Hi everyone, I have actually enjoyed plenty of time off this week, but I have seen the rest of the team have kept our customers very happy with plenty of cigars and spirits.

I came back in on Thursday and it was my marketing day. Firstly I had our first marketing meeting of the year. We discussed how well our Christmas and New Year marketing went and then discussed our plans for Burn’s night and looked ahead to April Fools day,  which will be brilliant! Keep an eye out for that! We then started to discuss the spring/summer edition of the C.Gars magazine. If you have ordered on C.Gars recently, you would have received the autumn/winter edition, which has been enjoyed by many. I look forward to taking part in the next magazine and seeing what brilliant content we create. Afterwards I started writing my article for the C.Gars cigar library, it was about a commonly asked question – the impact of cigar size on flavour. This one was a fascinating read for myself and I’m sure you will enjoy it too. You can read it by clicking here. Afterwards I spent some time taking pictures for the article. In the afternoon, I wrote a news article about the new My Father The Judge. I have looked forward to seeing these as I know they are incredibly popular in the USA and I decided to take a nice picture of them too for the news page, which you can see here.

On Friday, I was back in the shop with Josh. I got through our online order pickings and started to stock up our humidors. The New World humidor needed a lot of attention as New World cigars have been very popular with our customers recently and I can’t blame them. I prefer New World cigars as I find they have a lot more flavour to them due to the brands being able to experiment with different blends of tobacco from different countries. After stocking I ordered extra stock that we were running low with as well as worked on putting new ranges out. You’ll have to come in-store to see what we have! Meanwhile one of my regular customers came in to purchase two boxes of Regius Orchant Seleccion 2023 Hermosos as well as using his online points for two bottles of Ramos Pinto 10 year old Tawny Port, it certainly seems like he’s in for a great night! In the afternoon, Josh and I worked through the Cuban stock count.

On Saturday, Porscha and I were joined by Ciaran. He was happy to be in and helped us stock up the shelves in the shop as well. We also changed one of the display cases, we decided to take our selection of aftershave back into the store room and put out a brilliant range of cigar ashtrays. I find ashtrays are a very underrated accessory which makes them a brilliant gift. 

I hope you have enjoyed this slightly shorter blog and I hope to see you all in Norfolk very soon.

So long for now 

Oliver

Hi everyone, it has been a long time since I have posted! We have been so busy in store and online that I haven’t had the chance to keep you all updated! So what has been going on?

Well we enjoyed a lovely Christmas period but we certainly came back to a lot of online orders! So on Monday Josh and I spent most of our day picking orders as quickly as we could. In between I served one of my favourite customers who loves the Inka Secret Blend Red Bombaso Maduro. He treated himself to a box of those and the Liga Privada no. 9 Flying Pig and then said, “Can you tell I have been paid?” which made me laugh a bit. I then served a lovely couple. The gentleman wanted a cigar to enjoy on New Years Eve, we talked through a few and he chose the Mitchellero Peru Robusto Extra, he then asked if his wife wanted one to which she said only a small one, to which I pointed out the Petit Robusto. They both left very happy ready to enjoy the New Year celebrations.

Tuesday was New Years Eve, I was in the shop with Sarah, however I was trying to get marketing tasks done in between. Firstly I went upstairs to take pictures of the Cigars of the week for January. As it is already January I can actually show you the picture I have took, which you can see below:

Once I was happy with those pictures, I decided to update the other monitor in our Cuban Humidor. We recently received some beautiful cigar cases from a brand called VSB London, as soon as I saw them, I knew I had to advertise them. Have a look at them for yourself by clicking here. Later on in the day, I had a family come in looking for a couple of Davidoff Signature No. 2 to enjoy and then afterwards needed some advice for their humidor. It sounded like they had an issue and it has caused their cigars to go dry and crisp and they wanted to know if they could be saved. A lot of the time you can actually save them by putting the cigars in a ziplock bag at 65% humidity and then gradually bring them back up to 72%. It doesn’t work all of the time but it certainly has rescued a lot of my customers’ cigars in the past. I did say for them to bring their humidor in and I can have a look to see if the humidor is up to standard.

I got to enjoy New Years Day off with my family and then we were back in on Thursday doing our quarterly building stock count. This is a special one as we have to close the shop and not pick any orders for the duration to ensure there is no mistakes. My team was Josh and Sarah and we had to count all of the cigars. So that is the whole of the Cuban humidor, New World humidor and the packs in the main shop! As many of my loyal readers would know, it usually takes all day to count the New World humidor so to add the Cuban Humidor and shop packs, certainly takes a lot to do! We separated into two teams. Josh and Sarah did New World and I did Cuban on my own. I was confident I could complete it in the day but I was never expecting to have completed the Cuban Humidor by 1 o’clock! Afterwards I counted all of the packs in the shop and then helped Josh and Sarah with their stock take. 

On Friday, it was Josh and myself. We had all of the previous day’s pickings to do as well as Fridays! Josh and I worked through them as quick as we could and then went to work updating our displays. The Christmas decorations have been taken down and Josh created a lovely centre display using the Stylish Whisky bottles. They are great presents and look funky, I wish I had thought of it! And the centre piece was the Davidoff Cigar and Glass Sampler. For the brilliant price of £99.99 you get two incredible Davidoff cigars and two beautiful whisky glasses that also act as a cigar stand! I’m tempted to get it myself!

On Saturday, It was Josh and myself again. We worked through our online orders and then we received a massive delivery from one of our suppliers! So together we worked through it and put it away neatly ready for Monday morning. 

I hope you have enjoyed this week’s blog I am now on annual leave for the next three days so I hope you say hello to the team while I am gone!

So long for now

Oliver

Hi everyone! I hope you are all excited for Christmas! I know I am! It has been incredibly busy in store and online, which is always good to see.

Monday was one of our most busy days! It was Josh and myself and we were picking online orders all day! It was good to see everyone getting their smokes in time for Christmas. We were also very busy in the shop! We served so many customers too, including our regular who treated himself to many cigars. He said it was to keep him going through until February as he was going away in January. 

On Tuesday, I was back in the shop with Ciaran. Again we had many online orders to pick. We had a very strict deadline for our parcels to be sent out so we needed to work extra hard to make sure the packing department gets the orders to pack. We had plenty of customers come in again, and for a change there were lots of people wanting spirits. A popular choice was the Macallan Night on Earth which was reduced from £249.99 to £99.99, the customer couldn’t resist and bought two! 

On Wednesday, I was back with Ciaran in the shop. The online orders slowed down slightly and so I was able to help out the packing department. I was packing what I could in between order picking and serving customers. I served a lovely gentleman who wanted to buy some cigar gifts for his clients. He wanted to spend no more than £40 per client and wanted a few cigars for his money. I showed him our 100 days until Christmas samplers which had been hugely popular! But he didn’t seem impressed. One of his clients mentioned a Cohiba Siglo III but that didn’t fit in the budget. I mentioned the Ramon Allones Gift Boxes and they are a full strength cigar in a beautiful box. He decided they would be good enough and purchased 3. We then kept talking about cigars and our favourite videos we had seen. You should check out the C.Gars youtube channel to see some brilliant content! 

On Thursday, It was Josh and myself in the shop. We spent a lot of time picking our orders as it was the last dispatch date for the priority orders. Our regular from earlier came back in and looked around our new world humidor. I showed him the new Foundation Tabernacle Knight Commander, I explained how there are only 14 boxes of 12 cigars in the UK and so incredibly rare. He instantly wanted to purchased 2! I also served another regular gentleman who is well known amongst the staff. We all enjoy serving him, he purchased his cigars and then as a Christmas gift to myself he did a magic trick as he is an entertainer and magician. The trick was incredible! I would certainly book him if I had a wedding. Towards the end of the day, Josh and I found ourselves sitting down with no orders in front of us… For around 2 weeks now we have been picking orders non-stop and finally we sat down with all orders picked! We decided to stock up our Spirits shelves as they are looking a little worse for wear! 

Friday was my first marketing day for a while. I had to focus massively on the shop newsletters. I hadn’t even looked at the newsletters but now I had to complete all six in one day. So I worked through them all and eventually got there in the end. Afterwards, Ciaran, Josh and I completed the Cuban stock count.

I hope you enjoyed this weeks goings on and I hope you all have a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

Oliver

Hi everyone, another week passes here in Turmeaus Norfolk and it was one of the busiest I have seen for a long time!

On Monday, We were incredibly busy with online orders! A lot of people took advantage of our Black Friday offers and we were blown away with the amount of orders to pick! It was Josh and myself in the shop and we did not stop picking online orders! So much so that we had Humidor manager Billy organising our deliveries and Website manager Lewis helping pick some of the orders! We were all flying around the building getting our orders into the packing department as quickly as we could! So they could be packed and sent to our brilliant customers! Meanwhile, I had a great gentleman from Dudley (not too far from where I grew up), he was looking for a cigar to enjoy with his son. I suggested the Regius Serie Limitada Robusto, I’m sure many of you know this is one of my favourite cigars and I will always recommend it to everyone, he then wanted to get something special for his son and friend for Christmas. We looked at the Cuban selection, and he was blown away! We settled on the Diplomaticos No. 2, a very good cigar which is often overlooked for the Montecristo No. 2. He left very happy indeed.

On Tuesday, I was back in the shop with Sarah, and we were bringing the shop back to glory. Black Friday and Cyber Monday used a lot of our stock and the shelves were looking bare. I spent most of my time re-stocking the humidors and ordering stock we needed. It was a very long process but I got there in the end. 

Thursday was my marketing day, and I had a lot to do! Firstly I took pictures of cigar gift sets for an article on the C.Gars cigar library, and then I spent a lot of time writing the article. You can read it by clicking here. I was then given an article from Lewis about the recent Boisdale Cigar Smoker of the Year Awards 2024. Uploading articles are very easy but the images I receive tend to need resizing which can take a while. I then spent some time organising the January New World Subscription. It is another brilliant five cigars, chosen by me and I have some slightly different options in there, I would say they are ones that don’t always stand out in the humidor but deserve more attention. Later in the afternoon, the team and I were preparing for our shop launch of C.Gars Plus! If you haven’t seen it yet then click here. It is a great scheme on the C.Gars website that gives you lots of rewards! Sign up now to benefit. We put up a beautiful balloon arch in the shop and offered the chance to get 15% off your in store purchase if you signed up on that day! 

On Friday, I was back in the shop with Josh, we had plenty of online orders to pick and customers to serve. I served one gentleman who wanted to get three people cigar gifts. After finding out what kind of cigars they liked or didn’t like, I suggested the Christmas Countdown Quick Puff – It has 12 cigars for a bargain price of £39.99 and is presented in a lovely wooden empty cigar box. He bought three of them as well as a couple of lighters, he also signed up to C.Gars Plus and received 10% off his in store purchase so he was very happy. In the afternoon, Josh and I completed the Cuban cigar stock count. We disturbed one of my favourite regular customers. He was buying ahead of Christmas so he didn’t run out of cigars. He purchased 4 boxes of Regius Orchant Seleccion Hermoso 2023 and said we may see him before the new year!

On Saturday, I was joined by my regular Saturday crew Josh and Porscha. We picked the online orders and stocked the shelves, ready for another busy Monday!

I hope you have enjoyed this week’s goings on in Norfolk. Please make a visit to our store as you will get to see the magic happen first hand and meet all of our amazing staff.

So long for now

Oliver

Hi everyone! I hope you all have been enjoying Black Friday week! Online ordering has been very popular.

On Monday, I had another change! I spent my day in the parcel booking department. There were plenty of orders and I was busy all day putting parcels onto the system. We had the postman come four times due to the volume of parcels we had for them!

On Tuesday, I was back in the shop with Sarah. We had plenty of people take advantage of our special offer in store. For one day only we did spend £20 and get a free miniature of C.Gars Malt. I had a great gentleman come in who had wanted to purchase a bottle of the C.Gars Malt for a while but always put it off, so he was so happy when we gave him a miniature for free! In the meantime I spent plenty of time stocking our shelves ready for one of the busiest days of the year! Friday we are expecting plenty of customers and we need to prepare beforehand. 

On Wednesday, in the morning, I was in the shop with Josh. We focused on picking orders and updating our till systems. We have had so many price changes recently that it has been taking a lot of our time. In the afternoon, Ciaran took over from me in the shop, so I could focus on my shop newsletters. It is horrible having a time constraint against you but I always get there in the end and it’s nice that other staff are willing to help me in any way they can. Towards the end of the day, I planned out January’s subscriptions (it’s crazy that I’m even thinking about January right now). It’s looking like another great bargain that you need to get your hands on!

On Thursday, we were short staffed due to illnesses. Normally I would be doing the New World stock count with Humidor manager Billy, however, we decided to let Sarah have a go as I felt it would be a great experience with her and will expand her knowledge on where the product is. So I was running the shop on my own and had to do all of the cigar online pickings and there were loads! I didn’t stop until long into the afternoon! At the end I was worn out! But afterwards I still helped Sarah and Billy complete the stock count. In the middle of my pickings, I served two great gentlemen who wanted to get their father a cigar to enjoy over Christmas. They treated themselves to our Mitchellero Peru range as well as a nice EMS tube to put one of them in. They also took part in our special in store Christmas raffle! It’s just £1 a ticket and you can win a £100 voucher!

On Friday, it was the big day! Black Friday! We were running 20% off everything in store! So it was a case of get what you can as you will be saving a lot of money! We had plenty of online orders to keep us all busy too. It truly was a non-stop day

I hope you all enjoyed this Black Friday week special and I hope to see you all in Norfolk very soon

So long for now

Oliver