Archive: June 2024

Hi everyone! It’s been another busy week here in Norfolk. We have had plenty of online orders as well as the sun shining through our shop!

On Monday, my usual partner Porscha was enjoying a day off in the sun, so it was Josh and I dealing with all of the online orders, he did incredibly well considering he doesn’t work a Monday often. We had all of our pickings completed in the afternoon and started re-stocking the shelves. In the meantime I served a lovely gentleman who was in Norfolk on business and decided to stop by our shop, he has visited the C.Gars store in St. James’s street and was impressed with how both stores are so unique. The gentleman didn’t know what he wanted, so I suggested some of my favourite cigars, the Alec Bradley Orchant Seleccion Skinny and the Plasencia Reserva Original Perfectico. He left to enjoy his cigars on the beach, sounds like the perfect afternoon!

Tuesday was my marketing day, where I get to complete my marketing tasks for the month. This time around I had six shop newsletters to complete as well as my usual article writing for the C.Gars cigar library. The article this week was about pipe lighters for beginners, which you can read here. I have been concentrating on articles for beginners recently as I found it quite intimidating when I first started enjoying a cigar as I felt like I was doing everything wrong. So by writing beginners articles for accessories or pipes, I like to think I’m helping others out there. I also spent time taking the pictures for the article. I’m really enjoying picture taking at the moment and with the help of our marketing manager, I do believe I’m improving under his guidance. 

On Wednesday, I was working in the shop with Ciaran. We always work well together, helping each other pick orders, and that rubs off on our customer service. We have had numerous customers give us a great review on Trustpilot and ask for us when they come back. I enjoyed being able to serve a lovely gentleman who has been coming to the shop for longer than I have worked here! When I first started, I was intimidated by how many cigars he would purchase, I used to get worried about over or under charging him due to my lack of knowledge at the time. However now, I am incredibly confident and can handle any customer that comes in.

Thursday was a bit of a strange day for me, I was doing multiple jobs, I scheduled my newsletters after the last few tweeks and then stocked up the humidors. On Friday we have our whole building stock take, where all staff take part to count different items. So I was preparing all the humidors ready for a busy day of counting. I did general cleaning in the shop, as you can never do too much cleaning and stocked up on pipe tobacco.

On Friday, it was time for the whole building stock take. Ciaran and I was counting the Cuban room, as well as the packs of non-premium cigars and helping out in the New World humidor. As we are a great team we had it all done by midday so we started the day’s pickings as we were behind.

I hope you have enjoyed this weeks going on in Norfolk and hopefully I can see you all in store very soon.

So long for now

Oliver

Hi everyone! I hope all the Fathers out there enjoyed their special day! I spent mine at a theme park with my wife and son, a perfect day and luckily the rain held off! How did you spend yours? Let me know!

Monday was incredibly busy with online orders taking up much of my time, luckily I had Porscha with me to help out massively! We spent almost all day picking all of the online orders, to the point that when we finally sat down, we were exhausted! During our picking, Porscha served a lovely couple who had never been in before. The gentleman purchased a few Nub Maduros as well as the Zino Nicaraguan Robusto, which was suggested by Porscha. Afterwards the lady went back in the humidor to treat her husband to some Perdomos as a gift, she chose the 10th anniversary Robusto as well as a tin of puritos. He is certainly a lucky man!

Tuesday was my marketing day, I created an article for the C.Gars cigar library, I have been doing a lot of beginners recommendations about cigar accessories so I thought I would change it a little and create one about pipes for beginners. You can read it here. I also spent plenty of time taking pictures of the pipes for the article. I don’t tend to take many pictures of pipes so it took me quite a while (and plenty of attempts) to get them right, but they came out quite good in the end! I also took pictures of the cigars of the month ready for July! Billy, our humidor manager, has made quite an interesting choice this time, unfortunately I can’t tell you what they are, so you’ll have to wait until the 1st of July. Later on I started creating the shops newsletters for all of our shops around the UK, they have such unique settings, i’ll need to see them one day!

I got to enjoy two days off so I returned on Friday to more online orders being placed. The Euros samplers have been incredibly popular! And they are such a good idea, you pick a team who you want to support and if that team wins you get 300 loyalty points as well as some great smokes! I served a regular customer who always purchases pipe tobacco, usually it’s one tin a week, however this time he decided to have a cigar with his tobacco! I was shocked, he treated himself to an Alec Bradley Orchant Seleccion Orchie. Many of you may know that it is one of my favourite cigars. In the Afternoon, Josh and myself counted the Cuban cigars.

It was Porscha, Josh and myself on Saturday. We quickly picked our orders and then cleaned and stocked up the humidors ready for a busy Monday. We had Tony, one of our favourite regulars come in after seeing Foo Fighters! He was looking worse for wear but he treated himself to a Casa Turrent 1880 Maduro Robusto, he hasn’t tried a Casa Turrent yet so I hope he enjoys it as much as I do!

I hope you have enjoyed this slightly shortened entry, I hope to see you all in Norfolk very soon!

So long for now

Oliver

Hello everyone! I hope you’ve all had a great week! I know we have been in Norfolk! We have had many people coming in for Fathers day gifts, as a nice surprise we are doing £7 off any 70cl bottle of spirit in store so make sure you come in and treat your Father!

On Monday, It was a very busy day in store and online! We had plenty of online orders that took Porscha and myself most of the day to complete. I noticed a lot of Father’s day samplers were on order ready for the big day! Meanwhile I served a lovely man who was relatively new to cigars and wanted a nice selection to take on holiday. As a new cigar smoker you have to be careful as if they don’t enjoy smoking a cigar you will never see them again, whereas if they do enjoy it, you will have a customer for life. I suggested some of my favourites, Regius Serie Limitada, Plasencia Reserva Original, and of course the Mitchellero Robusto. He was recommended by his friend to try a torpedo shaped cigar, not something I traditionally suggest to a newer smoker, however I always say, once you have something in your mind, you are going to wish you bought it and only wonder what it would have tasted like. So I suggested the Joya De Nicaragua Clasico Torpedo, I remembered when Josh, one of our latest shop employees, began coming in as a customer, he tried the Clasico Torpedo when he first started smoking cigars and fell in love with it. I hope to see that customer again so he can let me know how he got on. Later on that day, I was asked to create a shop newsletter promoting the Trinidad 55th Anniversary Cigar Sampling Event. As these newsletters are aimed at customers who live near the shops, it’s only right to heavily advertise these events to those clients.

On Wednesday, I received an interesting email from one of our Directors. We had a lovely gentleman called Andy coming to Norfolk. Andy is a friend of the company and travels a lot to many different cigar events. So Ciaran and I were preparing ourselves ready to meet and serve him on whatever cigar and whisky needs he had. He treated himself to a Plasencia Orchant Seleccion 2024 Orchante, a Mitchellero Robusto and a La Gloria Medaille No. 4. We had a lovely chat about his numerous events he had been to, as well as snuff. He is also a big fan of snuff, he asked if we wanted to try some and taught us how to actually take snuff. I can say now from experience that snuff is actually quite nice, I suppose it will depend on the flavour but it was a delightful peach scent we had. 

Thursday was marketing day, I created an article for the C.Gars cigar library about five great lighters for beginners which you can read here. Similarly to the beginners cutter article, I wanted to have a variety of lighters and prices. I also spent some time taking pictures of the lighters. I didn’t realise how difficult it was taking pictures of lighters, it really shows the talent our marketing team have, being able to take beautiful pictures effortlessly. As it is the Euros coming up the staff has done a sweepstake for a bit of fun (and a bit of cash). I got Italy so now Sosteniamo l’Italia! For those that don’t speak Italian it means we support Italy. Obviously I would love England to win, but I would also like to win the competition! Later on I helped out the packing departments organise their packaging ready for another busy day.

On Friday, I was back in the shop with Josh. We had a lovely lady come in looking for a bottle of Bushmills, unfortunately we didn’t have what she wanted in stock, so we suggested a bottle of Tullamore Dew, it is relatively similar but most importantly it is an Irish Whiskey. She also bought a bottle of C.Gars malt which is always a good whisky to try! Afterwards, I fully stocked up both humidors ready for a busy weekend, we tend to get quite a few people come in and get last minute Fathers day gifts, so we always need to be prepared.

I hope you enjoyed this weeks happenings in the store and I hope to see you all in Norfolk very soon!

So long for now

Oliver

Hi Everyone, It’s been a very busy week here in Norfolk, although I haven’t been working in shop much this week, it has been very busy and behind the scenes I have been very busy too!

On Monday, I would usually be in the shop, picking the mountains of orders we get from over the weekend! However this week, I was booking parcels onto the Royal Mail system. Due to staff holidays, I was needed to help out, Ben and I were a dream team, getting through all of the orders with no problems! Meanwhile Sarah and Porscha took care of all of our customers, with a smile on their face!

Tuesday was my marketing day, I wrote an article for the C.Gars cigar library about the top 5 cigar cutters for beginners, which you can read here. Josh, who many of you know is relatively new to Turmeaus, had been mentioning to me about beginners not knowing what kind of cutter to get and he wanted to really show off what we do other than the big brands like Xikar and Colibri. So using this as my inspiration I chose five cutters that I believe are great for beginners and range across different price points too. Afterwards I spent extra time taking the pictures for the article, listening to the advice I took my time and really thought about what I wanted to take a picture of and what would accompany it. Afterwards I also created an article telling everyone about the great news we have had! Dominique London has opened a new La Casa Del Habano in Gran Canaria, you can read all about it here. I also started to piece together the C.Gars New World Cigar Subscription! And it is another incredible month for my subscribers! Make sure you take a look at our subscriptions here, you really do get a great bargain!

On Thursday, Billy and I was counting the New World cigars, in the process we noticed that there were many new cigars that we didn’t have last time! It’s almost like every time we count the New World humidor we discover a new release or a new brand entirely, this week we discovered a new range to the UK from Foundation cigars – Foundation Olmec Claro. I’m sure it will be another winner as everything from Foundation so far has certainly been a brilliant smoke! 

Friday was suddenly upon us and it was my first day actually working in the shop this week! I got through my pickings with Josh and then worked on the Cuban humidor, stocking it up as much as possible and even trying to get more ranges out! I then served a gentleman who knew exactly what he wanted – the Davidoff Signature No. 2 tubos, he was looking for a pack of four as it was convenient, however we didn’t have a pack in stock so as a compromise he bought four but at the same price of a pack, so he left as a happy customer and we still had a good sale. Later on I had one of my favourite customers who has been coming in for years, he treated himself to three boxes of Regius Orchant Seleccion Nicaragua 2023 Robusto. In the afternoon, Josh and I completed the Cuban stock count.

On Saturday, Porscha, Josh and myself had lots of price changes to do, it seems like the Cuban cigars have slightly gone down in price! So now is the time to treat yourself to a Cuban cigar! I served a great gentleman who was getting married in August and wanted a cigar corner at the reception. I know from experience that people at a wedding love a cigar whether they are a cigar smoker or not. So it is always good to get mostly cheaper premium cigars and then a few good cigars for the ones who actually smoke as they will get the full enjoyment. The gentleman chose to have 10 Mitchellero Robustos which are a great premium cigar for an unbelievable price, perfect for new smokers and A Tasty Selection Sampler which are for the experienced smokers. He also wanted a nice box to present them in, so I suggested a Regius Serie Limitada box as the gold will certainly shine at a wedding. He couldn’t believe how amazing the shop is and how he certainly will be a returning customer!

I hope you enjoyed what was going on in Norfolk this week! And I hope to see you all next week.

So long for now 

Oliver