Avatar photo A Day in the Life of a Retail Assistant #90

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

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *