Hello everyone! I hope you have had a brilliant week? Mine has been interesting to say the least!

On Monday, I wasn’t in the shop for a change! I had a slightly late start so missed the first round of online orders and so I went into the booking on department to book on the parcels. As always we worked well as a team and by the end of the day we were swimming in parcels!

Tuesday was my marketing day, I spent a lot of time researching my article for the C.Gars cigar library. In the end I settled on writing about Casa 1910 cigars, I think they’re a very underrated brand, but they are starting to win awards which will prove how good they are. You can read the article here. I also spent some time taking the pictures, recently our marketing manager gave me a bit of feedback with my pictures and so hopefully these ones represent what he wanted. I also created a news article about the new Bolivar Belicosos Finos 60th Birthday Orchant Seleccion. These cigars have been flying off the shelves and really shows the quality of an Orchant Seleccion cigar.

On Wednesday, I was working with Josh… Partly. After my morning order pickings, I helped out in the packing department, they were a bit overwhelmed with a few deliveries so I helped where I could, using my packing experience I gained when I first started. Robyn and I packed all of the orders and so, knowing I wasn’t needed in packing, I moved back into the shop with Josh. We filled up the humidor shelves and gave it a bit of a clean. I also got to serve a semi regular customer who has been coming into the store for a very long time, his cigar selection has gone down in recent years, however his humour hasn’t changed. This time he had two Eagle by Rocky Patel Torpedo, a Rocky Patel Number 6 Corona and then let me select his last one, which I suggested the Plasencia Orchant Seleccion 2024 Exclusive Orchante. I remembered previously he enjoyed the Plasencia Orchant Seleccion Toro 2021 and so I knew he would enjoy this new release.

On Thursday, I was meant to be doing the New World Stock take, however, Billy, our humidor manager, was too busy and suggested we do it on Friday as well as Cuban (he’s a bit crazy like that), so I set myself up to do other administrative tasks, however the person booking on orders went home. So I moved into the shop with Ciaran and Sarah booked on! What a muddle! However we worked through it and had another great day. In the afternoon I had two gentlemen come in who had recently finished construction on a bridge in a local town of Lowestoft and the team wanted to celebrate. The two that came in treated themselves to Regius Connecticut Gran Toro and got the rest of the team Mitchellero Peru Toro. They went away very happy. We also had our marketing meeting to discuss the C.Gars magazine. It will be getting made very soon, with a few minor adjustments. You can actually register your interest by clicking here.

On Friday, it was the dreaded New world and Cuban stock count! Billy was confident we could get it done. We smashed it! We got it done with an hour to spare! I couldn’t believe it! It really felt like a great achievement.

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

Hello everyone! I hope you all enjoyed your three day weekend? For those of us in retail it was business as usual!

On Bank holiday Monday, it was myself, Josh and Sarah. We worked as a team and decided to let Sarah pack online orders all day to try to help out team with their workload Tuesday. Josh and I had the monumental task of picking all of the online orders from over the weekend, and there were loads! But as always we get them all done in the end. In the middle of picking I served a gentleman who had travelled from Norwich and wasn’t happy with the cigars on offer there. I showed him our two humidors and he was stunned at how amazing it looked! He left with a couple of Davidoff Grand Cru Robusto and made sure he brought more money with him for the next visit. 

On Tuesday, we were back to being a full team. I was working with Ciaran in the shop, we swiftly got through pickings, so I started doing the finishing touches on my shop newsletters. Each individual store has their own offer in store, so if you can, ask your local tobacconist what they have on offer this month, or ask to sign up to the newsletter and you will get them all to your inbox. You can also email me and let me know which store is closest to you and I can add you to the mailing list. My email is [email protected]. In Norfolk we are doing £5 off any Savinelli pipe (Not to be used in conjunction with any other offer) for the whole of September! So pop in and get your new Savinelli pipe today!

On Wednesday, I was in the shop with Porscha, I had a new task for her to be the lead on. We are now adding all of the barcodes for accessories onto our till system so we can research which items historically sell well in store and which ones sell better online. It is a massive task to do as we have thousands of items here in Norfolk, but over time we will get there. Meanwhile I carried on adding my content to the C.Gars magazine, I spent a lot of time seeing what is going on in the UK cigar world but I finally found some information that I could put in.

Thursday was my marketing day, I wrote an article for the C.Gars cigar library, it’s all about Mac Baren pipe tobacco, they were a family owned company up until July of this year when they got bought by Scandinavian Tobacco Group, you can read more by clicking here. I also took part in the marketing meeting discussing the magazine and where we need to improve. I’d like to think we are almost finished! I really can’t wait for you all to see it. After the meeting I started making improvements and with help from the marketing department, we vastly improved my sections. Towards the end of the day I started planning the October New World Cigar Subscription. Another incredible box for such a brilliant price, I cannot suggest subscribing to it enough. 

On Friday, I was back in the shop with Josh, we both completed our pickings and then started filling up the shelves. Josh was particularly excited as this afternoon he is filming a video all about a couple of spirits he has been sampling. Obviously to “help” I had to try these spirits for “research” purposes and to help him with the flavour notes. I then realised I had forgot to do images for the cigars of the month! So I quickly took some pictures of them for the monitors in our humidor. In the Afternoon I enlisted the help of Porscha to count the Cuban stock with me. It was only her second time but she did a very good job.

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

So long for now

Oliver

Hi everyone, I hope you’re all having a great bank holiday weekend?! As always we are still open and bank holiday hours are 12-5pm so make sure you come and say hello. 

On Monday, it seemed to be a never ending day of online order picking. Josh and I spent a lot of time picking our orders but as always we get them all done. I served a lovely couple who were on holiday from Nottingham, they just wanted pipe tobacco but I said while they were here they might as well have a look in our pipe room. They were amazed at how many pipes we had! The gentleman decided to get a couple of Corn Cob pipes as he had seen them online but not in person and decided to give them a go. Later on in the day I helped out the packing department, packing up some orders to give them a little boost. 

Tuesday was my marketing day, and boy did I have lots to do! I started by writing and taking pictures for my article on the C.Gars cigar library. This time I decided to research Flor de Selva, you can read that article by clicking here. During this time, I was talking to Laura, one of our directors about changing the layout of my articles to make them less magazine style and more mobile friendly. So I spent a bit of time experimenting and we came to an agreement with the style and I think it does look much better! What do you think? Afterwards, I carried on creating my content for the C.Gars magazine. We have a strict deadline to meet and I would say I’m a little bit behind but I’m sure I will catch up. I can’t wait for you all to see the magazine, many people have put a lot of effort into this and it really looks stunning! 

I had the next couple of days off and came back on Friday. I was back in the shop with Josh. After our pickings I went back to working on the C.Gars magazine. Josh was working on improvements to our humidor, which hopefully you will see very soon. Josh was very understanding with me on Friday and served most of our customers so I could concentrate on my magazine content, and thanks to him I got most of the written information done. In the afternoon we completed the Cuban stock count. Near the end of the day, I served a lovely lady who comes in from time to time always purchasing aftershave for her partner. She loves the Cuba Original Mens Cigar Style Aftershave – Wild Heart, but this time she also had the Cuba Prestige Platinum Eau de Toilette Spray for Him. She always likes to have a little wonder around the shop, and she stumbled across the Ron El Rumbo Superior Cuban Coconut Rum, she had a little taster and instantly fell in love! So she purchased a bottle of that too! 

Saturday was a bit strange as it was Josh, Sarah and I. Usually Sarah and I work alternate Saturdays, however Porscha was away so I came in to cover. We got through all of our pickings and concentrated on stocking up, ready for the bank holiday Monday. 

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

So long for now

Oliver

Hi everyone, it has been a very productive week here in Norfolk, we have seen many of our favourite customers as well as plenty of holiday makers.

On Monday, as always there were lots of online orders to pick! However Josh and I got through them quickly and by the afternoon we were onto new tasks. I started by creating a new advertising image for the monitors in our humidor, I chose to use J Cure products, they have some amazing hand crafted lighters and cigar cases – I have never seen such high quality products. At the moment they are 10% off in the Norfolk store only! So if that isn’t a reason to come down I don’t know what is! Afterwards I decided to change the design of our price tags. Before they were hand written, meaning if someone (like myself) had bad handwriting, it would be difficult to understand, now they are printed and look so much better. Creating the design was difficult, I was discussing it with my manager and creating different designs to see what she thought was best. I think we have made a great decision.

On Tuesday, I was back in the shop with Porscha! It had been a long time since we have worked together in the shop and we had a great time! I showed her how to make the new tags for pricing and she swiftly made a start on pricing up the pipe room. Meanwhile I started on my marketing tasks. Unfortunately this week due to staff holidays I was unable to dedicate a day to this so I did it in between serving customers. I wrote an article for the C.Gars cigar library, it was about the Drew Estate Tabak Especial, which you can read here. The Tabak range has become a favourite amongst the newer staff here, including myself, so I decided to research what went into the process and it really is fascinating! Make sure you read all about it! I took some time to take the pictures for it too, luckily Porscha was able to look after the shop by herself. I also wrote a news piece for the new La Gloria Turquinos, since the release of the Medaille d’Or No. 4, La Gloria has been incredibly sought after and now with the exciting release of the Turquinos, the hype has gotten larger. Later on in the day I served a gentleman who only wanted 20 minutes smokes, this can be quite difficult as there aren’t many smaller cigars that aren’t cigarillos. We had a look through the humidors and decided upon the Inka Secret Blend Red Chicos, Casa Turrent 1880 Maduro Coronita and the Tabak Oscuro. Hopefully I get to see him again so he can let me know if he enjoyed them.

Thursday was a rather strange day. I started in the shop, picking online orders with Josh, once I completed them, Sarah became available so I moved out of the shop and concentrated on more marketing tasks. We have a very exciting development at the moment which is the focus of our marketing department, We will have our very first C.Gars magazine coming out very soon! And I play my part too, I will be writing two articles which won’t be available online, as well as a general cigar news page and then in the afternoon, we had a meeting to discuss further. At the meeting all of marketing put forward their ideas and looked at everyone’s effort and suggested ways to help improve.  I also served a great gentleman who was completely new to cigars, he was given a Cohiba from a friend but upon cutting, it fell apart. When I had a look it was very obvious that the cigar was fake! I had never seen a fake Cohiba in person! So I was amazed to see how bad it was! We looked around the humidors and I was helping him decide which cigars to try for a first time, he decided on the Montecristo No. 4, Regius Orchant Seleccion Peru 2023 Wide Churchill and the Tabak Especial Toraja. Afterwards he mentioned that he loved whisky and so Sarah and I showed him the Stalla Dhu range and let him try the Speyside, Islay and C.Gars malt. He enjoyed all three so I said he could take one of each miniatures for the special price of £9.99! He was overjoyed! He left so happy and was really looking forward to trying them all.

On Friday, I was working in the packing department for the first time in a very long time! For those who know me, know I started in the packing department in 2019 and have since moved onto to running the shop and the C.Gars cigar library as well as much more. This time I was working with Porscha, I packed as quick as I could, however my pace isn’t what it once was. As a team we got through it successfully with all orders going out.

On Saturday, It was Porscha, Josh and I, picking all of the online orders and having a general stock up on products. Josh spent plenty of time depluming the cigars to make them look pristine.

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

So long for now

Oliver

Hi everyone! Another busy week has passed in Norfolk and we have had some great customers come in to say hello!

On Monday, I was in the shop with Josh. We had loads of online orders to pick! So we got through those as quickly as we could and the next thing you know it’s the afternoon. After the pickings, I spent most of my day stocking up the Cuban humidor and wiping the plume off all of the cigars. I served a gentleman who had never been to the Norfolk store before, he had been to our old location in Rollesby, but this was the first time to our current store in Great Yarmouth and he couldn’t believe his eyes. He went away with some Inka Secret Blend Blue Petit Corona as well as a tin of Neos Country Wilde cigars. 

On Tuesday, we had ourselves a visit from the main men themselves – Mitchell Orchant and Ron Morrison. We did the last bits of polishing as well as final bits of stocking up. I also had a slightly reduced marketing day. I created an article for the C.Gars cigar library, it was all about cigar binders, which you can read here. I also made a new display in our Cuban Humidor to show off our Regius Orchant Seleccion cigars.

I enjoyed a couple of days off and returned on Friday, I had plenty of pickings and it was due to our marketing team running a double up Cuban quick puff sampler. This sampler has always been incredibly popular and when they reduce it even more it flies off the shelf! You need to sign up to our newsletters to receive the amazing offers our team create! I served a great gentleman who is very new to cigars, he had a look on our website, but wanted to come in store to see what we have. We went through both of our humidors and I explained different cigars to him. He went away with a Drew Estate Tabak Especial Toraja and two Mitchellero Picadillo. Safe to say he was happy when he left. Later on in the afternoon it was the Cuban stock count, this time it was Ciaran and myself counting. It has been a while since we both did it together, however we counted it incredibly quick as always!

I hope you have enjoyed this shortened blog, next week it will be back to the usual as I am in store all week, so make sure you come and say hello!

So long for now.

Oliver

Hi everyone, It has been a boiling week here in Norfolk, however we do have some amazing Air conditioning to keep us and our fabulous customers cool. As you know it is currently the summer holidays and so I have been having a few extra days off to spend with my wife and son, that means these blogs will be a little bit shorter due to working less days.

On Monday, I was working in the shop with Josh, we had so many online orders it was unbelievable. However we worked our way through them and I then found time to help Ciaran out picking his pipe and accessory orders. Teamwork makes the dream work right? Towards the end of the day, we had three young gentlemen come in looking to get into the world of cigars. Josh served them perfectly, listening to their needs and suggesting cigars they should have. They were all pretty nervous about cutting the cigar, as you may know if you ruin the cut, the cigar will fall apart. So I showed them how to do it on one of their cigars, I could see one particular gentleman was still worried, I said “why don’t you cut one here so I can help guide”. So he did and he did it quite well, no ruined cigar, just needs more confidence, but I am sure they are all enjoying their cigars now!

On Tuesday, due to staff illness, I was working the morning in the shop and the afternoon doing my marketing content. In the morning Billy, our humidor manager, and I had a complete revamp of our New World humidor. For those who haven’t visited, our New World humidor was always quite cramped when there were more than three people inside, and we had stock everywhere due to holding so many brands. Billy and I moved some brands that were not so popular and put them away and then moved other brands around to create more space, we then removed a table from inside and put in a new humidifier and now it looks like a brand new room! You’ll need to come and visit and let us know what you think of our humidors.

In the afternoon I was working on my marketing. This was particularly tough for me as I had to get my shop newsletters completed and scheduled, which was incredibly difficult to do in a short time as I still had to take pictures of some products.  I also created an article for the C.Gars cigar library, this one was about a very underrated cigar vitola – The Lancero, you can read the article here. I also spent the time taking the pictures, alongside the ones for my newsletters. Taking a picture of such a long cigar is quite difficult as you need to try to keep the whole cigar in focus and one mistake can cause a part of it to become blurry. 

I then enjoyed two days off and returned on Friday. It was Josh and I in the shop again, getting through our pickings and then moving onto other tasks. I spent my morning cleaning our spirits shelves. I took every bottle off and dusted each shelf and in the process created more space for more spirits to come out of our cellar. Afterwards I then started dusting behind counters and by our pipe tobacco section. I then realised we had gaps on our shelves so I quickly filled them up and now it looks brilliant! Afterwards I then stocked up and ordered stock for our New World humidor. In the afternoon, it was the usual Cuban stock count with Josh. We were disturbed by a set of customers I enjoy serving, they tend to have Inka Secret Blend Red Robustos as well as Mitchelleros, however they had a slight change, one of them wanted a cigar that created a great aroma and I instantly showed them the Tabak Especial. I initially showed them the Toraja, however they decided it was too big, so they chose the Medio Corona, which is similar but you miss out on the Oscuro wrapper. 

On Saturday, I was working with Josh and Porscha. We worked through the pickings and then set to work filling up our spirit miniatures display and cigar accessory display. We try to have as many spirit options in the shop as possible as you never know what a customer may want or ask for. Afterwards we spent some time cleaning the pipe room fully as well as stocking any pipes needed.

I hope you enjoyed this weeks events in Norfolk and I hope to see you all in store very soon

So long for now

Oliver

Hi everyone! It has been another great week in sunny Norfolk, as it is now holiday season we are getting a lot more holiday makers coming in, however my favourite part of the week was seeing two customers who I hadn’t seen for a very long time.

On Monday, I was back in my usual role of shop assistant and online order picker and the orders were huge! But Josh and I worked our way through like we usually do. One of the orders was incredible, a box of the new E.P. Carrillo New Wave Connecticut Divinos and a box of the new E.P Carrillo Encore Edicion Unica Solidarios. Since getting these new ranges of E.P. Carrillo cigars, they have been flying off the shelf! I also served a customer, who was a regular online customer but only just realised we have a store too. He really enjoyed the experience as he felt looking online doesn’t give the cigar justice and having someone talk through the cigars with you helps much more. That is what the shops are all about, having that personal experience to help find the perfect cigar for you. 

Tuesday was my marketing day and boy was I busy! I started by writing my article on the C.Gars cigar library. It’s about five cigars to enjoy in summer, which you can read here. I have chosen what I believe are five enjoyable cigars to sit outside in the sunshine, you’ll have to try them and let me know. Once I finished writing, I went to take my pictures and it seemed like I had loads to take. I took five pictures for the article as well as a banner, I then took the cigar of the month pictures for the monitors in our humidor – as always I can’t tell you what they are yet but I may have to try the New World selection. I then worked on all of the shops’ newsletters, they always send me pictures from their shops of their products and they do try their best, however sometimes they do ask for my help as they don’t have the marketing equipment that we have here. So I took more pictures to help out with their newsletters. Later on in the afternoon I started making the September New World Subscription box and this one is a must have! Again I can’t tell you what’s inside but there is a newer release from a highly respected brand.

On Wednesday, I was back in the shop with Josh. I was able to serve one of my favourite customers. The first time I met him was about two years ago, he brought in his wife and son. He wanted some cigars for himself and his son to try, however they liked different strengths. His son preferred lighter smokes as he was relatively new, however the father wanted the strongest cigars you could find. In the end the father decided to try a Davidoff Yamasa Piramides and has never looked back, his son tried the Romeo y Julieta Mille Fleur and has come back since to get more. Fast forward back to this visit and I haven’t seen any of the family for a long time. Finally the father came back and he is so happy with his new favourite cigar, the Davidoff Yamasa Piramides. It always feels me with joy when a suggestion of mine is someone’s new favourite cigar, anyway he came just looking for a couple of cigars for his son and his friend, and wanted something that wasn’t expensive and quite light. So I suggested the Mitchellero Peru Gordo – It is under £10 each and great smokes that won’t be too strong at all. He was happy with that selection and away he went, It’s always great when you get on with a customer so well. Later on that day, Josh was talking to a gentleman I have served plenty of times before. He then asked if I could serve him as I know what he tends to enjoy. In the end he walked away with five Charatan Churchills as well as four Mitchellero Peru Robusto Extra. He has tried the original robusto before and was going to try the same again but I wanted him to try the Peru as I felt they were better. He left with a smile on his face.

Later on in the day I had a general tidy up of the pipe room and started to change the displays around. Josh and I had a brainstorming session to see what we can do and we are happy with the results.

On Thursday, Billy and I were doing the New World stock count. It seemed to go on for ages and then we looked at the time and it wasn’t even 1pm and we were finished! It was unbelievable that we got it finished so quickly. So afterwards, Josh and I went back to the pipe room to continue working on the displays, you’ll have to come in and let us know what you think.

On Friday, I fully stocked up our humidors ready for another busy weekend! The Drew Estate Tabak Especial Toraja has been flying off the shelf ever since Josh bought himself a box. I’m sure he’s been enjoying them so much he has been telling everyone that comes through the door. In the afternoon Josh and I completed the weekly Cuban stock take, we do it so often it’s almost like clockwork.

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

So long for now 

Oliver

Hi everyone! Another week has passed by and we’re now finally getting some British sunshine! We have had another great week here in Norfolk.

On Monday, I found myself in a different role! Instead of my usual order picking, I was booking on parcels, ready to be dispatched. As many of you know we have loads of orders from the weekend, so all departments are busy. Josh and Porscha were in charge of the shop and online order picking and they did a brilliant job. I helped out in between parcels to make sure there was a smooth flow of orders picked. I found it rather strange to spend most of my Monday sitting down!

On Tuesday, I was back in the shop with Ciaran, we spent the day picking our orders and replenishing the shelves after a busy Monday! The week before I made sure to order some extra stock in as the nicer weather tends to bring more customers and I am right, we have had plenty of customers having larger cigars. So Ciaran and I filled up the shelves and they are looking pretty good! In the afternoon, I spent some time filling up our Ardor pipes, they are beautiful works of art and a real joy to look at. While I was stocking up the pipes, I had a gentleman come in who had previously visited us in our previous shop in the village of Rollesby. He was amazed by our pipe room and the amount of choice we had to offer. He spent a lot of time deciding which pipe to have but settled for a Chacom Maigret Brown Sandblast 1201. He left very happy.

Thursday was my marketing day, I created an article for the C.Gars cigar library about a very common question we get in the shop – Does a dark wrapper mean it is a full strength cigar? To find out the answer you will have to read the article by clicking here. I also spent some time taking the pictures which relate to the article. I attended our fortnightly marketing, and even though I can’t discuss what was mentioned in those meetings, one thing I can say is keep an eye on our social media pages as we will have some different content coming soon. In the afternoon I was working on your till system to see if there is another way to make the till process quicker and easier. The worst part of coming to a shop is waiting in a queue to pay for your items, so if we can find a way to speed up the process then hopefully the queues won’t be so long. This will be a work in progress situation so for the moment please be patient with us.

On Friday I was back in the shop with Josh, however I was doing double duty as I was also needed in the packing department to help pack some of the orders. As well as helping out I did a full restock of our Cuban cigars and packs. In the afternoon it was the usual Cuban stock count, however we were interrupted by a customer who I haven’t seen for a very long time! He used to come in all the time, but he has been travelling a lot and hasn’t been able to find time to come in. It was great to see him and it looks like he will be going to our August cigar sampling event too! So if you are going to the event, make sure you say hello!

Saturday was incredibly busy, we had so many customers coming through the door, at one point the humidor was full of customers looking for their weekend smokes. It’s always great to see how much our shop grows year upon year and it keeps my job very interesting as there will always be questions that I would never expect. This Saturday Josh and I was joined by Ciaran – we picked our orders and then went to work stocking up the pipe tobacco shelves. We had a gentleman purchase one of our exclusive in store only cigar pick ‘n’ mix! You get to choose five cigars out of a selection of ten as well as a travel humidor, cutter and lighter and it’s a great price for £99.99. You can really save a lot of money by doing this, I would highly suggest having a look next time you come in.

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, I hope you are enjoying July! But I have one question… Where is the sun?! Well regardless of the weather, we are still open and happy to see you all! 

On Monday, Josh and I were non-stop, quite literally! We had mountains of online orders to pick, it was like a never ending stack of orders! And in between we were serving customers too, it felt like every time we decided to take 5 minutes to rest, another customer would come in! We always enjoy serving our customers and our service was still top tier despite our hidden tiredness. It was during this period that Josh served a lovely gentleman who had travelled for over an hour and a half with his niece to our store! Josh served the gentleman, while I stayed with his niece, keeping her entertained while the gentleman chose his cigars. She took advantage of our in store coffee machine, enjoying a hot chocolate, and we had a general chat. I was amazed when Josh came back out with an incredible amount of cigars on the tray! It took us both a little while to put his cigars through the till but we got there in the end and it was the most Josh has ever taken in one transaction, I could see the joy in his face, and when the customers left he needed 5 minutes to relax. It can be really draining being with a customer for a long time, staying focused and helping them with their cigar selection. But after he rested, he was back to serve and pick his orders. Later on he decided to treat himself to a box of his new favourite cigar – The Drew Estate Tabak Especial Toraja as well as a few other cigars. A well deserved treat.

Tuesday was my marketing day, I decided I wanted to create a whisky article for the C.Gars cigar library, as it had felt like it had been a long time since I created one. So I looked around the Norfolk store and there was a bottle that stood out for me – Glenglassaugh. I spent a lot of time researching about the brand and I was fascinated by how many times the distillery had closed and reopened. You can read more about it by clicking here. As well as my article I emailed all of our stores to start thinking about their content for the August shop newsletter. As always it was interesting to see what they have going on in store. I also had a meeting with our shop staff to see what they wanted to promote in the store, so I could begin creating the content. If you are signed up to our newsletters, you will see what we have in store for you. 

On Wednesday, I was booking on parcels, ready for dispatch, I do get a little nervous doing this as I haven’t done it much, however, I would like to think it was a success as all the parcels were booked on and ready to be shipped!

Thursday was New World stock count day with our humidor manager Billy, as always we were super quick at doing this, but this time we needed to be very fast as I was leaving early for a family event. We got to a point where there was only a few brands left before I had to go, so Billy was able to complete the rest by himself.

On Friday, I spent some time doing general shop housekeeping and then in the afternoon, it was time to do the Cuban stock count. For the first time I had the help of Porscha, she has recently started working Friday’s so this may be a new tradition for us both.

I hope you enjoyed this weeks going on and I hope to see you all in store really soon.

So long for now.

Oliver.

Hello everyone! How are you all doing? We have had some incredible weather in Norfolk! Some days have been really hot, other days it has been raining all day! But that hasn’t stopped our loyal customers from coming in and buying their favourite smokes!

So what has been going on this week?

On Monday, It was Josh and I working in the shop and picking the mountains of online orders! Josh has been impressing so much recently that he is now working full time! So there are more opportunities for you all to meet him and have a lovely chat all about cigars. I also served a lovely lady who was buying a few cigars for her husband when he got back from travelling. He used to have Cuban cigars, however due to the price of them in the UK, he recently changed to New World cigars. Unfortunately due to the change, the lady didn’t know what to get him, she just wanted three good cigars for a decent price. This is a specialty of mine as one big consideration for me when buying cigars is the price. She went away very happy with a Regius Serie Limitada Robusto, Aladino Corojo Robusto and the Alec Bradley Orchant Seleccion Shorty. Once we finished our pickings, we went around restocking the humidors, ready for the rest of the week.

On Tuesday, I was back in the shop with Ciaran. After our pickings, we started cleaning the pipe room, polishing the metal on the pipes as well as stocking up. Everyday we seem to have new pipes on our website and some of them look incredible. I particularly like the Vauen pipes, they are not just your standard pipe, most of them look unique, but also create a cool smoke. 

Thursday was my marketing day. I started off by researching for an article for the C.Gars cigar library, I then took part in our marketing meeting, which we have every two weeks. We discuss what has worked well as well as what we can improve on. We have combined together for an excellent idea which we are all working on, you will hopefully see the finished product soon. Between me and you though, it will be a game changer. After the meeting, I started writing my article. This week was a break from the lists as I wrote about Rattrays pipes and the history, you can read all about it here. Later that day we had a bit of fun – If you remember from a previous blog, we had a Euros sweepstake, I got Italy… Unlucky for me. Those whos teams were still in the tournament got to play some games to win prizes. They played table football with Malteasers as well as stacking towers out of marshmallows. 

On Friday, It was Josh and myself again as it usually is on a Friday. I served a great gentleman who has been coming to the store a long time before I started working here. He used to have a supplier who would send him cigars from the US. However that person had to stop so now he can only buy a few from our store to keep him going. I also recommended the Mitchellero range as it is a bargain price for a hand rolled cigar! So he took two coronas as well as some CAOs and left happy. Later on that afternoon we had the Cuban stock take. I think Josh had an extra coffee as he was counting extremely fast! It was difficult for me to keep up sometimes. 

On Saturday, myself, Josh and Porscha were running the shop. We got through the pickings and then got on with shop tasks. This included shuffling the Peterson pipes as they were in the wrong order! We like to organise them in an order that makes it easy for us to find as well as keeping all the different ranges together. So we went through all the Peterson pipes to put them in the correct order and re-stock the ones that needed to go out. Josh went through the humidors and wiped off any plume that could be seen. Many of you will know that plume is a good thing, however it doesn’t look particularly appetising, so we wipe it of so when you receive your cigar it is ready to be smoked. If you don’t know what plume is then I have an article you can read all about it, just click here.

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

So long for now

Oliver