A Day in the Life of a Retail Assistant #98 Hi everyone! Another week has gone by in Norfolk and we’ve seen a lot of sunshine! We have also had plenty of familiar faces too!
On Monday, I was in the shop with Josh. We picked lots of orders that kept us incredibly busy for most of the day! In the meantime, I was serving a gentleman who likes to purchase Cuban cigars. This time he wanted to take advantage of our bundle deals, which we have on lots of different cigars. He wanted two boxes of LCDH Punch Punch 48 and two boxes of LCDH Hoyo de Monterrey Elegantes. Unfortunately, we didn’t have them in stock but I knew I could get them in from another store, so I took his details and told him I would contact him as soon as they came in. He still treated himself to a Montecristo Open Regata, a Montecristo Especial and a Juan Lopez Seleccion No. 2. He left very excited for when the other boxes come in.
Tuesday was my marketing day. I started by finishing off all of the shop newsletters and then sent them off to be checked. Afterwards, I started to research my next article for the C.Gars Cigar Library. I had decided on Chewing tobacco, as I was curious as to why people chew tobacco. After plenty of research I felt confident to start writing. I then spent some time taking the pictures and I even opened a pack to see what they look like with flavouring. The smell of menthol really took over, I can certainly see why you can enjoy chewing tobacco. You can read the article by clicking here. Towards the end of the day, I had a few corrections to do to my newsletters, so I spent the last hours completing them and scheduling them, ready to be sent out on the 1st of April. I also received the cigars for our customer from Monday, so I emailed him immediately and he replied to say he would be in on Thursday.
Thursday was our full building stock count. Everyone who works in Norfolk stops their work to count every item we have! I was counting New World cigars with Sarah, we started slow, and I needed a coffee almost immediately! But we got there in the end! Meanwhile during our stock count, the shop was incredibly busy. Firstly, I had my customer who wanted the boxes of Cuban cigars, and then Josh served a regular gentleman who enjoys his pipe tobacco, he purchased a Falcon pipe and bowl as he liked the idea of building his own pipe! Sarah then served another regular who purchased a box of Inka Secret Blend Red Bombaso Maduro. While we were putting his cigars through the till he noticed the Jura hip flask, I told him about our deal where you purchase the hip flask and we will fill it up! He chose Woodfords Reserve as he had never tried a Bourbon before. I can’t wait to see him to see what he thought. Towards the end of the day, when we had all finished our stock counts, we started to pick orders. We picked all of the priority orders first and then the regular postage orders. This is why it is important to get priority shipping as we will pick your order first.
On Friday, I had the morning off, so when I came in, I went to see everyone to see where I was needed. Luckily the team had everything under control! Josh had created a small Easter display for the centre of the shop, and was getting ready to complete the Cuban stock count. The packing department had everything under control, so it was quite nice to come in and find a slot to help out. Porscha served a customer who wanted the Drew Estate Deadwood SJ and Drew Estate Tabak Especial Oscuro, she suggested for the customer to try the Drew Estate Quick Puff sampler, which includes those two cigars and four more from the Drew Estate coronet range. She was so happy when the customer purchased her suggestion! Afterwards, Josh and I completed the Cuban stock count.
On Saturday, It was Josh, Porscha and I, we had loads of price changes to get through! Unfortunately tobacco is always affected by tax as well as the constant cost of living going up around the world. However it’s not all doom and gloom as we are getting even more ranges from well established brands like CLE, Plasencia and Meerapfel.
I hope you have enjoyed this weeks goings on in Norfolk and I hope to see you all in store very soon!
So long for now
Oliver
