A Day in the Life of a Retail Assistant #66 
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
