Archive: September 2024

Hi everyone! You can certainly tell that Summer is over! The weather has been horrible but that hasn’t stopped our loyal customers from coming in to see us and buy their lovely smokes.

On Monday, I was luckily in the parcel booking on department – I say luckily due to hurting my ankle over the weekend prior and I was struggling to walk! So I would have been unable to pick any online orders. So I booked on as many parcels as I could and even helped the packing department, making sure I was standing on my good leg. 

Another exciting development is that you will all be seeing a lot more of Sarah soon. Due to my marketing commitments and being needed in other departments, it is difficult to run the shop too, so from now on Sarah will be taking responsibility for the shop! Although it isn’t a managerial position, as we have never had a shop manager, she is the second most experienced behind myself. It will be interesting to see what happens as it is her first responsibility since starting with us over two years ago.

On Tuesday, I was working in the shop with Sarah. As I didn’t have a marketing day planned, I completed my marketing content in the shop. Sarah was sorting out the pipes in the pipe room, so I was pretty much on my own all day. I wrote an article for the C.Gars Cigar Library about Boost packs which we absolutely love! They make maintaining a humidor much easier! You can read more about it here. I also finalised all of the shop newsletters, ready to be sent out on the 1st of October, which is also national coffee day! I spent some time creating new monitor pictures for the humidor, advertising the cigars of the month, as well as attempting to create a poster for the shop. I was working with our marketing manager trying to get it right, I sent over a few attempts and unfortunately, none of them reached the extremely high standards we have. But I never let criticism stop me! You must always learn from your mistakes and use them to improve yourself! I also served three great people who remember me from their last visit two years ago! Admittedly, I didn’t remember them to begin with but then they reminded me of what they bought and I remembered! They really appreciated the service they had last time and were happy to see me. I showed them through our humidors and we spoke about plenty of cigars until they found the ones they wanted. I hope they enjoyed their visit as much this time as they did two years ago.

On Thursday, It was our quarterly, full building stock count. For me this is more of the same, I always count cigars with a team. This time it was Josh, Ciaran and Sarah, so we split into two teams, Josh and Ciaran counted the Cuban room and Sarah and I counted the New World room. As always it took us all day but we always complete it in the end!

On Friday, I was needed in the Packing department. My packing skills are just as good as they ever were but luckily I did have Lisa, who is a Packing whizz, to look after me… Just in case. We were having a great time packing together as we rarely spend a whole day together in the same department. We also had the Cigar Subscriptions to be sent out too, so I left Lisa in the afternoon to help book on the parcels. It really shows how multi trained I am across multiple departments. We all know the saying, Jack of all trades, master of all?… I’m sure that’s what it is! We have an ongoing joke that I need to bring a cape, as I’m a superhero always saving the day.

On Saturday, It was Josh, Ciaran and I working together. We picked our orders and then started to organise the shop. We have changed our table displays ready for Halloween! We also have a great Halloween competition at the moment. If you purchase anything from our main display table, you get to have a go on our trick or treat! There are some great treats up for grabs as well as some evil tricks! I have also scattered some sweets around the shop so come on in and treat yourself!

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

So long for now

Oliver

Hi everyone! It’s been another busy week here in Norfolk, We have had plenty of familiar faces pop in.

On Monday, it was the usual crazy Monday, I spent plenty of time picking my online orders and then helped out the packing department. We were incredibly busy and I noticed a lot of people taking advantage of our Pipe sale! Currently we have loads of pipes reduced down, take a look and you may find your next favourite pipe! I also served a regular of mine who came in to purchase his usual Peruvian cigars. He has always enjoyed Peruvian tobacco but ever since the Mitchellero Peru was released, he has been visiting even more than usual!

Tuesday was my marketing day. Firstly I went out with Porscha to do some Halloween shopping! We always decorate the shop for Halloween and this year we got even more bits to scare you all! Afterwards I wrote an article for the C.Gars cigar library, all about the different ranges of Dunhill pipes which you can read here. I also spent the time to take two pictures and edit them too so you know exactly what pipe is from what range. Later on I spent some time creating the October Norfolk shop newsletter, as the 1st of October is national coffee day I decided to highlight our coffee machine in the newsletter, as well as other products.

On Wednesday, after the online order picking, I spent a lot of time in our New World Humidor, cleaning and stocking the shelves. I felt very productive as I was able to get even more cigars out on the shelf, meaning our lovely customers can have even more to choose from. I also served two young gentlemen who are becoming more regular these days, this time they came in to purchase a cigar I had mentioned to them previously – the Drew Estate Tabak Especial Toraja. They also decided to have a tin of the Drew Estate Acid Krush Morado Maduro between them, they left very happy and I look forward to seeing them again.

On Thursday, It was time for the New World stock count with humidor manager Billy. Somehow we had it all done in three and a half hours! We were amazed with ourselves but at the same time lost, as we never plan anything else for our day! So I decided to finish off my newsletters and get them proof read by marketing so they are all ready to be sent out. Luckily they were happy with what I had and they are all ready to go out on the 1st of October. 

On Friday, we were a little short staffed so numerous staff members had to do more roles. I was in the packing department as well as booking on the parcels to be sent out. As a team we got around the obstacle very well. In the afternoon, I luckily didn’t have to do the Cuban stock count as we decided to let Josh and Ciaran do it for a change. It will be a great learning experience for them and it lets me enjoy a Friday afternoon without the stress. In return I will be doing their online order pickings and serving the customers so they can fully focus on the count.

I hope you have enjoyed this week’s going on and I hope I get to see you all in store very soon!

So long for now

Oliver

Hello everyone! Hasn’t the weather gone chilly now! It certainly has in Norfolk. Being so close to sea really does bring a sea breeze all the way to our shop! It has been another busy week here in Norfolk, but it was great to see some of our regulars pop by.

On Monday, I was in the shop with Ciaran, we worked through our pickings, then I went into the packing department to help out as they had lots of orders and needed me to catch up on orders. I also served a lovely group of people who came from New Zealand! They were amazed with how the shop looked and the amount of cigars we have to offer. After a long look around they went away with three of our exclusive cigars, the Mitchellero Peru Robusto Extra, Plasencia Orchant Seleccion 2024 Orchante and the Regius Orchant Seleccion 2023 Peru Corona Gorda as well as a tin of Drew Estate Tabak Especial Oscuro. They went away very happy and they were great to serve too.

I had two days off and came back in on Thursday for my day of marketing. I started by researching my next article for the C.Gars cigar library. I had thought it had been a while since I had written one about spirits and when I was thinking about what brand, I looked around and saw an open bottle of Tomatin 14 year old and thought that is what I need to write about. So I did plenty of research and was amazed with the history behind the brand. So I wrote the article and found some pictures to go alongside, you can read the article here. I also took part in our bi-weekly marketing meeting. We discussed what samplers have been selling well and what we need to do more of, we are also preparing our Halloween marketing and I hope your ready as it all looks amazing! Of course we will be decorating the shop and doing a special Halloween offer in store too! Later in the afternoon, I completed the finishing touches to my part of the C.Gars magazine as well as sorting banners for the C.Gars cigar library as some pictures were not up to standard. To finish the day I started to create the shops newsletters ready for October, I hope you are subscribed to them all as these places look incredible!

On Friday, I was back in the shop with Porscha, I had a shop meeting with all the shop workers to discuss our Halloween marketing. We came up with some great ideas which you will see from the 1st of October! After the order picking, I served a lovely regular of mine who enjoys the Plasencia Orchant Seleccion cigars. He decided to pop by and purchase the Orchante and get on with his day, as always it was great to see him. We had another regular come in who loves his Inka Secret Blend Red Bombaso Maduro. Unfortunately, we have run out of stock of them in Norfolk so he tried something different. He knew he liked the Gurkha 15 year old Robusto, but he didn’t realise there was a Maduro version, so he was very happy and wanted to try something new. Knowing he likes Maduro cigars, I looked around and remembered that La Unica has a Maduro which is lovely, so he decided to try it. Hopefully I’ll see him soon.

On Saturday, I was joined by Porscha and Ciaran, we stocked up the humidors ready for a busy Monday and started changing the price tags on the Alcohol as well to make them similar to the ones we created for the pipes. 

I hope you have enjoyed this weeks goings on in store and I do wish you would all visit very soon.

So long for now

Oliver

Hello everyone! I hope you have had a brilliant week? Mine has been interesting to say the least!

On Monday, I wasn’t in the shop for a change! I had a slightly late start so missed the first round of online orders and so I went into the booking on department to book on the parcels. As always we worked well as a team and by the end of the day we were swimming in parcels!

Tuesday was my marketing day, I spent a lot of time researching my article for the C.Gars cigar library. In the end I settled on writing about Casa 1910 cigars, I think they’re a very underrated brand, but they are starting to win awards which will prove how good they are. You can read the article here. I also spent some time taking the pictures, recently our marketing manager gave me a bit of feedback with my pictures and so hopefully these ones represent what he wanted. I also created a news article about the new Bolivar Belicosos Finos 60th Birthday Orchant Seleccion. These cigars have been flying off the shelves and really shows the quality of an Orchant Seleccion cigar.

On Wednesday, I was working with Josh… Partly. After my morning order pickings, I helped out in the packing department, they were a bit overwhelmed with a few deliveries so I helped where I could, using my packing experience I gained when I first started. Robyn and I packed all of the orders and so, knowing I wasn’t needed in packing, I moved back into the shop with Josh. We filled up the humidor shelves and gave it a bit of a clean. I also got to serve a semi regular customer who has been coming into the store for a very long time, his cigar selection has gone down in recent years, however his humour hasn’t changed. This time he had two Eagle by Rocky Patel Torpedo, a Rocky Patel Number 6 Corona and then let me select his last one, which I suggested the Plasencia Orchant Seleccion 2024 Exclusive Orchante. I remembered previously he enjoyed the Plasencia Orchant Seleccion Toro 2021 and so I knew he would enjoy this new release.

On Thursday, I was meant to be doing the New World Stock take, however, Billy, our humidor manager, was too busy and suggested we do it on Friday as well as Cuban (he’s a bit crazy like that), so I set myself up to do other administrative tasks, however the person booking on orders went home. So I moved into the shop with Ciaran and Sarah booked on! What a muddle! However we worked through it and had another great day. In the afternoon I had two gentlemen come in who had recently finished construction on a bridge in a local town of Lowestoft and the team wanted to celebrate. The two that came in treated themselves to Regius Connecticut Gran Toro and got the rest of the team Mitchellero Peru Toro. They went away very happy. We also had our marketing meeting to discuss the C.Gars magazine. It will be getting made very soon, with a few minor adjustments. You can actually register your interest by clicking here.

On Friday, it was the dreaded New world and Cuban stock count! Billy was confident we could get it done. We smashed it! We got it done with an hour to spare! I couldn’t believe it! It really felt like a great achievement.

I hope you have enjoyed this weeks goings on and I hope to see you all in Norfolk very soon.

So long for now

Oliver