A Week in the Life of a Retail Assistant #3

Hi everyone! Hope you’ve all had a lovely week! We had a very stormy weekend last week, the thunder was absolutely amazing! I have been on my own in the shop all week which means I get to serve everyone that comes in the door, regular or not. I had some lovely catch ups and was introduced to new customers who have ordered online and had orders picked by me but never made it into the shop. It’s always lovely to put a face to a name.

We’re all so excited for Halloween here that we are having a costume contest on the 31st! If you come to visit us you’ll see many staff dressed up in their scariest outfits all for a bit of fun. I’m still doing figures for the Subscriptions to try to provide you with the best cigars possible, if you have any suggestions please feel free to email me at [email protected] and you may see your favourite cigar in the next box! I’m also having a busy day stocking up the humidor to try to free up some more space for more New World cigars, we recently got in K by Karen Berger cigars and we have already sold 2 boxes! I may have to give them a try to see why they are so popular.

You will start to see some changes in our shop over the next few weeks of which we believe will vastly improve it visually. It may take some getting used to (especially for myself) but change is always good and you won’t even remember what it used to look like. The first change came with the main display you see, it was on a long table which I was always worried about people knocking over so we have a smaller round table which looks much better.

Friday started with a large amount of pickings! But once that was done I had an interesting encounter with someone who wanted to get a valuation for a cigar, for this it has to be sent off to Mitchell himself to value as he is the best at valuing rare and vintage Havanas. This cigar is one I never knew existed! It’s amazing to just look at, it was a Partagas Visible Inmenso and it was almost the size of my arm! This cigar was massive. Afterwards one of my regulars came in who i’m always happy to see as he drives around 100 miles round trip just to come to our shop. He purchased for himself a beautiful Vauen Paris pipe, I think Vauen is very underrated as a pipe brand, their pipes use top quality materials and most of them look very beautiful and unique. You should take a look at them by clicking here.

Saturday is always a fun day in the shop, we get many tourists who have never been here before and enjoy their experience as well as a few regulars but i do love serving the holidaymakers as they are always in awe of our shop and really enjoy their experience, but it also keeps me on my toes as with the regulars I get to have a casual conversation (while remaining professional) whereas with new customers I keep professional the whole time and answer whatever questions they have. The questions new customers have is what keeps my brain ticking and if i don’t have the answer I make sure I research it so I know it the next time someone asks. 

I hope you are all enjoying my blog and if you have any questions feel free to email me 

So long for now my friends

Oliver