A Day in the Life of a Retail Assistant #51 
Hi everyone! I hope you have been enjoying your smokes in the crazy weather we have had recently. I was on holiday the week before but I know you were all looked after by Sarah, Porscha, Ciaran and Josh.
My return was on Saturday, I had a lovely look around the shop to see the team had kept up with our regular high standards. I was also amazed to see we have a new Orchant Seleccion! The Rocky Patel Orchant Seleccion! This comes in three different vitolas and features a Honduran Wrapper, Binder and Filler as well as Nicaraguan Binder and Filler. A blend that will soon be considered to be a masterpiece!
On Monday it was incredibly busy with online orders, myself and Sarah were running around like crazy to get them complete! And we did by the afternoon! In the afternoon we decided to have a complete revamp of the pipe room displays, we took what we had existing off the shelves and came up with new ideas. Sarah decided she wanted to promote Missouri Meerschaum pipes, so we put more of their pipes out on display, especially the more eccentric looking ones and I think it looks great!
On Tuesday, I was having a big marketing day! I made two new images for the monitors in the humidor, One is about Orchant Seleccion cigars (Including the new Rocky Patel). The other is for the cigar Pick ‘n’ Mix which is an in-store only offer and boy is it a good one! A choice of five cigars, a travel humidor, a cutter and a lighter – all for £99.99! An absolute bargain! I got myself ahead on the second monitor by taking the pictures of next month’s cigars of the month early, so I wouldn’t have to worry next week. I also wrote an article for the C.Gars cigar library all about E.P. Carrillo! You can click here to view the article. Meanwhile Sarah was carrying on with her pipe displays. She has made a lovely pipe filter pyramid, which took a lot of patience to do as well as another display on a separate table displaying some beautiful pipes.
On Wednesday, I was back in the shop with Josh. If you haven’t met Josh you really need to as he is a great character and an even better sales assistant! We had a lovely couple come in and were looking to get themselves a box of C.Gars Dutch Senoritas. Not only did they buy the box but Josh was able to advise them into purchasing a tin of Tabak Oscuro. They left very happy indeed. I also added to the pipe display! On another shelf I put out a beginners pipe tobacco sampler as you get a lot for your money and as the name implies, great for beginners! It has already garnered interest! I also put some cleaning accessories on display, the main one that caught my eye was the Neerup leather pipe mat and brush kit – It is all you need to fully maintain your pipe!
On Thursday I took part in the fortnightly marketing meeting. We discussed Lewis’ and Billy’s new podcast Sip ‘n’ Smoke, it was received by our audience really well! You can watch it on Youtube here or on Spotify. We have also decided to put more pipe tobacco samplers in store and relate them to the shop staff, I have already created mine but you’ll have to wait and see what it is when it appears on the website!
On Friday, It was Josh and myself in the shop as the dream team. We worked through our pickings and had many customers coming in to purchase pipes! I think this is the first time I have ever known pipes to outsell cigars! As always Peterson was the most popular brand but I would say that Vauen is catching up, I think the unique designs of Vauen are starting to catch the eye of our customers. In the afternoon Sarah and I completed the Cuban stock take.
I hope you have had a lovely weekend and I hope to see you in store soon!
Olly
