A Day in the Life of a Retail Assistant #107 Hi everyone, we have had another fantastic week here in Norfolk.
On Monday, It was Josh and I working in the shop, we were amazed with the amount of online pickings we had to complete! It is always great to see, we noticed there was a lot of cigar orders that had accessories too, which is always great to see! So we both worked together picking cigars and then Josh went off and picked the accessories whilst I kept picking all of the cigars. I was pleasantly surprised to see how well the Drew Estate Blackened cigars have been selling! I knew they would be popular but I wasn’t expecting them to be this popular! I also served a lovely gentleman who had always purchased Conquistador Coronas, however he wanted a slight change. So I suggested the Mitchellero Corona – as they are both Nicaraguan, the Regius Serie Limitada Corona – as they are a lovely sweet smoke, and my personal favourite, the Alec Bradley Orchant Seleccion Skinny – always a good smoke. The customer left happy and I can’t wait to see him again to see how he gets on with them.
Tuesday was my promotional day. In the morning before work I had made a list of things I wanted to get done. The first thing was to take a picture of the cigars of the month. I was slightly behind on this but I made sure it was the first thing I did and got them on the monitors in the humidor before the shop even opened! Next up was to write an article for the C.Gars cigar library, It was about the latest release in Havana cigars – The Montecristo Open Slam – You can read it by clicking here. Next on my list was to create the leaflets for all three of our cigar subscriptions. It is a surprisingly long process to complete each leaflet as they contain a lot of information as well as editing each cigar to fit on, but it is a vital piece of information for our loyal subscribers. Last on my list was to create a new article for our Director of Ecommerce. She had dug out a very old article about Cuban cigars for beginners. A lot of the cigars mentioned, I had never heard of! So I added more information and changed the cigars for ones we currently have. As soon as that article has approval I will make sure to share it with everyone as there was a lot of very useful information in that one article!
Wednesday was my day off, however I did treat myself to a cigar, The Drew Estate Blackened M81 Corona. I smoked it by the beach and thoroughly enjoyed it! I can see why everyone has been purchasing them!
On Thursday, I was order picking with Josh and Robyn. We had a great day picking plenty of online orders. Josh was particularly excited as he was hosting his first event with Lewis! So he spent some time preparing for that. In the afternoon, we realised we were doing really well with the online orders and were ahead, so I suggested for Josh to go and smoke one of his cigars for his next review! The cigar for his next review was the PDR Flores y Rodriguez 10th Anniversary Reserva Limitada Millerfleur Corona. So I spent some time with him, taking pictures of him cutting and lighting the cigar. Keep an eye on the C.Gars cigar library for when his latest review is uploaded!
On Friday, I was in my favourite place, the Norfolk shop! And I was joined by Will. I taught him how to add cigars onto the till system. We have still been introducing new cigars and so they all need adding to the till too. I was particularly surprised by the Drew Estate Factory Smokes Cigarillos! They are great for those who want a Factory smoke but don’t have the time to smoke a Robusto or Toro. Meanwhile we received a delivery of some top quality Panama hats! They look incredible and so I knew I had to get them on display, and of course, hats need models to wear them… Look no further as Will and I were more than happy to wear them! I also spent some time re-arranging the Foundation cigars shelf in our New World Humidor. Lisa, our humidor supervisor, wanted to display the new Wise Man cigars and so she had re-arranged two shelves to accommodate them. We have a lot more Foundation cigars on the shelf for you all to choose from. In the afternoon, Will and I worked through the Cuban stock count together.
On Saturday, it was Josh, Will and myself working together. Will has certainly fitted in well with Josh and I, as well as the whole team. Together, we picked all of the online orders and then set to work re-arranging the pipe tobacco tins. Ben, our Pipe tobacco expert, had asked for us to find a way to fit out the new range of Cornell & Diehl pipe tobacco. So we cleared some space and decided, for the first time in many years, to move around all of the pipe tobacco! It will take a lot of getting used to but it certainly looks better! What do you think? Meanwhile, I decided to treat Josh to a cigar as he had been helping me out a lot recently (as well as providing me with plenty of coffee). I picked the Alec Bradley Orchant Seleccion Skinny, I knew he had one a while ago but it’s always nice to have a refresh, I also carried on my exploration of smaller cigars by purchasing a Davidoff Demi-Tasse.
I hope you have enjoyed this week’s goings on and I hope to see you all in Norfolk very soon.
So long for now
Oliver
