Archive: February 2024

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a great Valentines day, filled with love and joy. We had a great time in the shop with all the decorations and amazing deals we had on.

As always on a Monday we had plenty of online orders to keep us busy, yet again the versatility of our team really showed as once Sarah finished picking her online orders, she moved into the packing team to give them a boost with packing. Leaving myself and Porscha in the shop, stocking the shelves and entertaining a customer I only get to see once a year. He is a lovely man who I always look forward to seeing, and he certainly enjoys a wide variety of cigars. He usually enjoys his Cohibas and H. Upmanns, but this time he wanted to try some new world cigars. I explained the quality behind the Davidoffs and how the Yamasa range would suit him perfectly so he purchased a box of Yamasa Robusto as well as a few singles of the Davidoff Orchant Seleccion Liverpool edition. For a lighter cigar he decided to have a box of Mitchellero Robusto and a box of Mitchellero Peru Robusto Extra. I feel like he buys in bulk so he can only shop once a year.

On Tuesday, it was my office day where I was able to catch up on all of my computer work, I created an article for the C.Gars cigar library about Kristoff cigars, an overlooked range which I think everyone should try. I tried the Maduro Robusto last week and was really surprised as to how good they were. I also spent the time to take the pictures for the article and I think they came out pretty good, what do you think? Click here to view the article. I also spent time creating rotas for the shop and updating our system to have the latest cigars.

On Thursday, Billy and I counted all of our New World cigars, previous readers will know how difficult and time consuming this is and the sense of relief when we have finally completed it. Meanwhile, Sarah and Ciaran handled the shop perfectly, I was able to see many smiling customers.

Friday we all rotated around a bit, Porscha worked her first Friday! This was so Ciaran could move into the warehouse for online picking and handling deliveries, and Sarah stayed in packing to assist Robyn due to Lisa being on holiday. Altogether we worked as a team and the day went brilliantly. As always in the afternoon Ciaran and I completed the Cuban stock count. This time round though I had noticed many Cuban cigars that I hadn’t seen for a very long time! Check out the website to see what we have in stock!

On Saturday, I was working with Ciaran and Porscha, and we decided to re-arrange the Cuban room to represent the strength of all the cigars. We have gone from the lightest to the strongest, this way it will be easier for newer members of staff to learn about the strengths and aid them when serving a customer. We had a vast array of customers, including one that Ciaran served for over an hour! Talking everything to do with pipes. This really shows that we do have all the time in the world for our customers, I often get a customer say “I hope i’m not taking up too much of your time” and I always say “I’m here until the shop shuts so take all the time you need”, You can see this really relaxes them and lets them take their time for a purchase. 

I hope you have enjoyed this weeks goings on and I hope to see you in the Norfolk store very soon!

So long for now

Oliver

Hi everyone! It’s time for another one of my blogs! Yet again I have had a very different week, it really makes me appreciate where I work as no day is the same!

On Monday we had so many orders I couldn’t believe it! They certainly kept us all busy. Once Sarah, Porscha and myself finished the bulk of the order, Sarah helped out in the packing department, leaving the two of us to finish the orders and serve our lovely customers. We had decided at the start of the day that Porscha would serve as many customers as possible to get her more experience and boy did she get a great customer to test her. He regularly enjoys his Tabak Especials, so Porscha showed him our new sizes for him to try – the Medio Robusto, the Medio Corona and the Toraja. He purchased one of each as well as one each of the Undercrown Robusto too, all together the total came to a higher amount than Porscha is used to but she handled it perfectly and I think it has made her confident to serve all of our customers now! 

On Tuesday, it was my day in the office completing marketing tasks. I created a new monitor picture to advertise the Mitchellero Robusto to our customers. 

Everyone who comes into our store either knows or should know all about them, but it does surprise a lot of people when I tell them it is our best selling cigar! So If you haven’t had one, what’s stopping you?! Also I wrote my weekly article for the C.Gars cigar library. It’s all about cutting your cigar in half, I often get customers asking if you can do such a thing and I say no but others will say yes so this article is perfect to find out more. Click here to read all about it. Once I had taken the pictures for the article I was called in by Ben to help him with one of the largest delivery of cigars I had ever seen! He required my expertise to ensure every cigar was accounted for.

On Wednesday, Sarah was required in the Packing department so that left myself and Ciaran to handle the shop which we did brilliantly, we stocked up on the alcohol bottles and made sure all the prices were correct. We had a lovely gentleman come in, he was sent there by his manager who is a regular in our store. Under his manager’s instructions he purchased two Por Larranaga Galanes, they are very pretty looking cigars which are quite medium in strength so perfect for relaxing.

Thursday was a deep clean day for Sarah and myself. I spent almost all of my day moving cigars around in the new world humidor and hoovering all the mess and bits of tobacco that naturally fall off of the cigars. I was also able to fit more cigars out on the shelves, more cigars equals more options for our customers. Sarah organised and deep cleaned the pipe cupboards and it looks much nicer and organised! We had one gentleman come in to purchase a few cigars and we seem to have the same tastes as one of his favourite cigars is the Alec Bradley Orchant Seleccion Shorty. Many readers on here will know my favourite cigar is the Alec Bradley Orchant Seleccion Skinny so it’s nice to meet someone who’s favourite is the same.

Friday was another big delivery day, Ben was needed to do them all so we all shifted around as a team to help him out. We try to be as multi-skilled as we can, it wasn’t that long ago that I remember working full time in the packing department and when you needed help, no one was trained well enough and so it was difficult. Now we have multiple people able to help if needed. In the afternoon it was the usual Cuban stock take but this time Sarah helped me out.

I hope you enjoyed this weeks going’s on in Norfolk and I hope to see you all very soon

So long for now

Oliver

Hi Everyone, It’s almost Valentine’s day which means we have great offers in store for your loved ones! In the store I have been decorating the shop, with help from the team of course. Sarah has decorated the pipe room lovingly with pipes that she feels represents love and I have put some great his and hers gift sets on the centre table. Why would you shop anywhere else?

Monday was incredibly busy with online orders! It’s good to see the love for Mitchellero’s have continued into 2024 as I had plenty of online orders requiring them, but don’t worry we have plenty of stock so keep on ordering and I’ll keep picking them for you. Porscha, who has only been working for us for around 3 weeks now is getting more confident each day and is now serving customers confidently by herself, which is a great achievement. I remember when I first started and how difficult it was for me to serve a customer by myself, I always needed help from whoever was working with me, but with time, and a lot of studying I eventually gained the confidence and now everyone looks towards me to help them, which fills me with pride. Later on in the day, we had a gentleman who comes in once a month and usually purchases nub sized cigars, however this time he had a top ten list and wanted to see if we had them all, of which we did! He treated himself to a good selection of Padrons, Trinidads and many other brands from Havana and the New world. I’m sure that will keep him going for the next month!

On Tuesday I was actually working in the office and left the shop in the capable hands of Sarah and Porscha. When I’m in the office, I work incredibly hard to get my marketing work completed, this includes pictures for the monitors in the humidor, new articles, news pieces and newsletters. Talking of new articles, I created a new article for the C.Gars cigar library which is about our top 10 cigars of 2023, of which was really chosen by our loyal customers as they were our best sellers. You can read that article here. I was able to complete our shop newsletters, did you receive them? If not let me know and I’ll add you to the mailing list!

Thursday was New World stock take day for Billy and I. We dedicate the day to counting all of our New World cigars and I can tell you there are a lot. However, this time it only took us around 4 hours to complete, which is definitely a new record! We did it so fast that we didn’t know what to do with ourselves for the rest of the day. However customers came calling so I gotta do what I do best and that is serve our customers. Meanwhile Ciaran and Porscha both received training about Cuban cigars, including how to cut, light and smoke them. Ciaran certainly enjoyed his cigar and then claimed the spare one too!

On Friday I spent time with Ciaran, teaching him how to organise the till system. This process is very time consuming so the more people the better. To ensure there are no mistakes, we will be doing this process together as I have been fully trained and it is very important there are no mistakes. In the afternoon Ciaran and I counted our Cuban stock as always. We also had a visit from one our favourite customer, Tony. He was celebrating having a new job and treated himself to a bottle of Glenfiddich 15 year old! I have recently tried this and found it to be beautifully sweet and incredibly smooth!

Saturday came along so quickly I couldn’t believe it. I spent plenty more time with Ciaran, who I can say is very confident with customers and with pickings, together with Porscha we all did lots of little tasks, which need doing but often get forgotten about.

I hope you have enjoyed this weeks blog and I can’t wait to see you all in the store again soon

So long for now

Oliver