Hi everyone, I hope you’ve all had an amazing week! The sun is breaking through more often which means more time to relax and enjoy a smoke! I’ve been enjoying the Flor de Oliva Robusto, anyone who has been in our store knows that I rate these very highly. They are medium bodied but don’t overpower the palate. 

We had a very busy Monday with all the online orders coming in thick and fast! When I had finished them (finally) I started researching for my new article. Whilst doing this I had a regular customer come in, as always he purchased a box of Mitchellero Novellini and in a little change he treated himself to three Montecristo Petit Edmundo, certainly a nice treat!

On Tuesday I started writing my article after finishing the research yesterday, it is about different aspects of purchasing the correct pipe lighter which you can read here. Once I had finished writing, I went to take pictures, however this week I was assisting Sharon with website product images as this is a new venture for her! In fact, all the pictures in my article were taken by Sharon and she did a really good job! 

Wednesday was a humidor stock up day, after the amount of online orders and pickings we have it’s only natural for the shelves to get a little bit bare. So I went around and stocked up and re-arranged shelves to fit more cigars on. Once done I  then passed on what stock needed ordering to Chris our Senior Buyer, it’s all about teamwork here!

Sharon was off on Thursday so I handled all the shop front, there were two young lads who came in and they always request for their cigars to be cut for them (a service we have always provided). Whilst using an inexpensive cutter I realised I need to treat myself to a new one so I invested myself to a Cigarism Cutter as I have always admired them but never thought about using one my thoughts?… SMOOTHEST CUT I HAVE EVER DONE! You never realise the struggle of a cheap cutter until you use a high quality cutter with extra sharp blades, you all need to get yours now! As well as serving the customers we have made a small but very effective change in the humidor: Gurkha have humipacks of cigars and they are always hidden on the top shelf but not anymore! We have put some hooks up in our humidor to really show them off and it looks amazing!

Later on in the day I was asked to create a short video for our C.Gars Youtube channel, I was nervous as I’m usually behind the camera but after a few takes I felt comfortable and sent it to the marketing team – Now i’m starring in a my own mini series of treasures in the humidor! On top of the videos I have also been asked to take pictures of our shop so we can promote it more on facebook too!

Friday I took some lovely pictures of our humidor ready for our marketing team to share and helped them with weekend samplers as I tend to know what stock we have to hand so we can send out your orders efficiently. In the afternoon it was mine and Sharon’s weekly Cuban stock take and there was a lot of change this week as the box bundle deal has been very popular!

I hope you have enjoyed this weeks blog, as you can see there has been lots of changes in store and now to my role too. Make sure you pop in next time you’re around even if it’s just to say hello!

So long for now

Oliver 🙂

Hi everyone, I hope you’ve been enjoying the sun with a lovely cigar, we’ve been enjoying the release of the new limited edition Davidoff Millennium Lancero and what an amazing stick it is! 

So bank holiday Mondays are always crazy for online pickings as it’s the usual amount we get on Mondays but there’s only me available to pick them! So this bank holiday Monday we opened the shop at 12 and almost immediately our first customer came in, a lovely gentleman who came in on the Saturday before, he treated himself to a Corn cob pipe and a Rattrays tobacco pouch. When he left I was able to start printing orders, however I clicked print and then the second customer came in, I’d never known anything like it on a bank holiday. They were a lovely couple who had been in before, they both enjoyed our open bottles of whisky and rum which are available for sampling and eventually chose a bottle of Nikka Days and Diplomatico to go home with as well as a good selection of cigars. Whilst I was serving them a third customer came in, luckily I had Hayley, our customer care manager available to help serve him whilst I was busy with my customers. By the time I had finished serving customers it was 1.30pm and I hadn’t started picking orders! I swiftly started organising through and away I went picking as many orders as I could. I was able to do most of them by the time we closed at 5pm

Wednesday began with the usual pickings, I have noticed since I mentioned the Alec Bradley Project 40 Maduro being one of my favourite cigars they have been flying off the shelves so I hope you guys are enjoying it too? I spent the afternoon organising the June cigar subscription. I always try to find the best cigars for everyone to try as I like to experiment with different brands and different blends that those brands provide. I like to pass my passion on to my subscribers and customers alike. The June subscription box also includes an incredible gift included of which will help any cigar beginner as well as the connoisseur.

On Thursday I spend a lot of time on my article on the C.Gars cigar library, This time I was asked by out marketing department to create one for pipe smokers as they wanted to put out more pipe content which you will see in our newsletters, I hope you have all signed up for those as they have great deals as well as information! I decided to write about the history of Churchwarden pipes and how big they were in history, you can read about it here. 

On Friday I had the pleasure of serving two of my favourite customers, who I hadn’t seen for ages! They we’re getting some cigars for their sons birthday (another favourite customer of mine) and they went away with some cigars that they know he liked as well as a Rocky Patel Disciple Robusto (of which I knew he wanted to try) and as I knew it was for him I included an empty cigar box so it would be packaged nicely too.

As always on a Friday the afternoon was filled with Cuban stock take to keep on top of our Cuban inventory as the supply issues with these cigars is still ongoing and we like to ensure we can provide you with as many of your favourite smokes as possible

I hope you’ve all enjoyed this weeks blog and I will see you all again soon

So long for now

Oliver

Hi everyone, we’ve had one hell of a week in Norfolk this week, plenty of online orders to keep us busy as well as many in store customers.

Monday was the usual picking for online orders for most of the day but in between I was able to research for my next article on why cigars lose humidity which you can read here. 

We had plenty of customers to keep us busy too, including one gentleman who treated himself to an Arturo Fuente Opux X No77 – The Shark. As you may have noticed you currently can’t purchase Arturo Fuente cigars online so you have to come in-store to purchase them, this gentleman drove for 45 minutes just to look at our Arturo Fuente range and he was flabbergasted to see how many we have in store, if you like your Arturo Fuente you should definitely pop in-store to see what we have and you’ll be surprised to see how much we have! 

On Tuesday Me and Sharon started preparing for the quarterly stock take which was on Wednesday. All employees have to help count everything in the building and it takes all day and in some cases it can spill over into the next day. Me and Sharon were tasked with counting every single cigar we have in store! So we started a day early and counted all of the rest of the world cigars like Henri Wintermans and King Edwards and adjusted as and when we needed to. After 3pm when we finished our last lot of pickings and we counted the Cuban humidor as quickly as we could, Sharon counted and I inputted the data and we made a damn good team! So when it came to Wednesday all we had to do was the New World humidor and regular readers will know how challenging it is for me and Billy to do but it turns out Sharon is so quick at counting and I’m so good and inputting data that we completed it by 2.30! A new record! We even had a chance to help others with theirs. During this we still kept our high level of service and sold quite a few Cigarism accessories.

On Friday I served a gentleman who travelled 45 minutes to look at our pipes and he was in disbelief when he saw how many we had, he treated himself to a nice and reliable Peterson – Another happy customer. Around lunch time one of my favourite customers came in and bought his payday smoke – The La Unica no. 100, I have never tried a La Unica so I shall wait to see what he says but he also purchased a box of one of my favourite cigars in the Alec Bradley Orchant Seleccion Skinny. They are a beautiful and sweet smoke with a few spicy tones too, definitely a good purchase there.

On Saturdays I am joined by our apprentice Sarah, Due to constantly being busy with her apprenticeship and packing orders she rarely gets a chance to come into the shop anymore so whenever she works a Saturday she works her socks off picking orders and serving customers, she is even getting her own regular customers now! Obviously working only 1 day a fortnight in the shop is a difficult feat, trying to learn the shop and cigars but she is doing well and I hope she continues to enjoy what she is doing. We spent some time stocking and re-organising the pipe tobacco, due to Rattrays no longer producing pipe tobacco we are finding more and more gaps on the shelf as people try to get their favourites before stock runs out and we are now starting to run very low indeed so get it while you still can. To fill in the gaps I put more beautiful accessories out for you all to see – the Lotus gift sets are particularly eye catching, a beautiful lighter a cutter set which would be great as a gift or for yourself to enjoy.

I hope you are enjoying reading my weekly blogs

So long for now

Oliver 🙂

Hi everyone, I hope you’ve all been keeping well? The weather can’t decide if it’s cigar smoking weather or not yet but as i’m writing this the sun is out so it’s time for one of my favourite cigars Alec Bradley Project 40 Maduro Robusto. When I first tried this cigar I instantly fell in love, the sweetness of the maduro wrapper paired with coffee notes is perfect in my eyes.

Monday began with the usual orders which keeps me busy up until around lunch time. After lunch, Sharon and myself took down the St. Patricks day decorations and started to put up the Easter decorations, beginning with the pipe room. While we were in there we received more pipes to put into stock! So we had to rearrange the whole room to fit them in! I feel like we are the Ollivanders of the pipe world! (I hope you all understand the Harry Potter reference there). 

Tuesday after our pickings, Sharon and myself separated… Sharon created the main display in the shop and it is very unique, I would never have thought of creating a cigar tree! This is where I believe me and Sharon compliment each other. She has the creativity and I have the knowledge which makes us a great team! Whilst Sharon was doing that I was writing my latest article all about King Edward cigars, which you can read here. 

Wednesday was my picture taking day, I took all the pictures for my King Edward article as well as the pictures for the cigar of the month for April ready to go on our humidor monitor. I also spent a lot of time uploading more articles to the Turmeaus cigar library, just a few more articles and I think it’ll be ready to go live. 

Thursday was a strange day, we have had many behind the scenes changes that you won’t even notice but will improve productivity as well as company security. So we have all been spending the day sorting out our settings after all, if you fail to prepare… prepare to fail. We have had a lot of price changes recently so Sharon has spent the day organising that. As a treat our management ordered us all a pizza, we do have the nicest management team I have ever worked with who regularly treat us and listen to all of our ideas and I have never known directors of companies who work as hard as ours do!

Friday I made sure to get all of my work completed so I could spend the day with Courtney to train her in the shop. Our shop is very unique compared to other retail environments where we stay with you all the time like your very own personal shopper, but this does make training someone very difficult as we have to be very knowledgeable on all the products as well as be able to think on your feet, it’s not just a case of learning to put items through a till.

I hope you enjoyed this weeks blog and if you have any questions feel free to drop me an email at [email protected]

So long for now

Oliver 🙂

Hi everyone, it seems like a while since I’ve posted a blog. I have been ill and had a holiday so this is my first full week back and what a week we had!

On Monday it was the usual pickings which keeps us busy for almost the whole day but we had a very special guest! Our Managing Director Mitchell Orchant came for a visit and he looked very pleased with the shop. He certainly enjoyed all of Sharon’s displays and gave our humidor supervisor Billy some great advice to keep on top of our humidors. Sharon also created a Mother’s day gift box, exclusive to the Norfolk store; it contains a Larutan JL cigar, a Y BĒT Rose Vodka and an Orchant Seleccion candle! All for the great price of £19.99! Perfect for any mother! 

Tuesday I wrote an article all about Gurkha cigars for the C.Gars cigar library which you can read here, I took the time to take all of the pictures for the article too. In the afternoon I finished my subscription leaflets and ordered them ready for the April boxes and if you haven’t subscribed, why haven’t you?! The value of subscription boxes are really high in comparison to what you actually pay and you might find your new favourite cigar.

Wednesday I had Courtney in the shop, training her on all things cigars. You will start to see her a lot more especially on weekends as she starts to learn how to sell cigars to our lovely customers, so please welcome her and be patient as she learns.

Thursday after the massive amount of pickings I wrote another article for the Turmeaus cigar library which will be ready soon.

Friday had the usual pickings but the shop was unusually quiet and I think that may be because of the snow blizzard we had outside! We had to set the heating extremely high just to keep warm. To help us keep warm me and Sharon organised the pipe room to be able to fit even more pipes! It seems like everyday we get new pipes in so it can be hard to keep up. We also tried the new Dominique London Privee Liberation Cigar Cognac! I’ve never been a fan of Cognac, however, this is actually rather tasty! You could taste the grapes as well as fresh apples. Very yummy indeed!

I hope you all enjoyed my blog and I hope to see you all in store very soon!

So long for now

Oliver 🙂

Hi everyone, I hope you’ve all had a great week, I know I have and we even had a visit from one of my fans.

Monday was a day filled with many pickings again, which took up most of my day! But once I finished them and after a lovely cup of coffee, I started to stock up all the humidors as Monday tends to take most of our stock. Tuesday once I finished picking I wrote my weekly article for the cigar library which is about different types of whisky, you can read that here. I’m still in the process of adding content onto the Turmeaus cigar library which is taking me longer than I wanted but we are so busy in the shop and the customer will always come first, but once it’s online you guys will love it!

I was off on Wednesday but Sharon was a busy bee and redesigned the displays from Valentines day to St Patrick’s Day and they look great, including the Alec Bradley Filthy Hooligan cigars and Teeling whiskey as well as Peterson for the pipe display. Make sure you come and have a look.

Thursday was a lovely day for me as one of my favourite customers came in, he’s new to the cigar world but is enjoying his journey and tries anything! He had ordered a click and collect the night before and we were talking about when it would be ready and when he could collect, I quickly looked up his order and noticed I had it in with my pickings so I swiftly picked them for him and he was over the moon! So much so that he left me and Sharon a lovely review on trustpilot! Later in the day another regular popped in who used to be a Cuban smoker only however he is trying out New World cigars and is vastly impressed by them! I think so far one of his favourites is the La Invicta Nicaraguan Robusto. He also said he will come to one of our cigar sampling events but wants to bring his backgammon board and challenged Sharon to a game, that would be worth the entry ticket alone! 

On friday I concentrated on updating the alcohol articles on the C.Gars cigar library to make the mobile friendly as previously on mobile the edge of pictures would cut off and look strange so it is a work in process situation but will be finished soon! One of our regulars came in and treated himself to 3 boxes of Regius Orchant Seleccion Hermosos, one of our favourite cigars in the shop and turns out one of his too.

Saturday is one of my favourite days to work as I get to do the jobs I can’t otherwise do as we have hourly pickings and deliveries constantly needing to be put away but on Saturday there is none of that. This Saturday I organised the New World humidor again and put a system in place so we know when boxes are open or not which will certainly help at stock take! I also served a lovely gentleman who is new to cigars and had £100 to spend so we went around and I was picking out my preferred cigars and he took them all to try (best way to get started if you ask me). My last customer was someone who just travelled to Great Yarmouth on holiday and his wife found us on Google! He was amazed with the amount of cigars we have and I think he spent more than he was expecting but he was happy which was the main thing!

Hope you have enjoyed reading this week’s goings on and i’ll see you all again soon and hopefully i’ll see you in our Norfolk shop very soon!

So long for now 

Oliver 🙂

Hello everyone, another busy week has gone by! Where does the time go! Monday was again another busy day with picking orders and in the store we had our regulars come in for their usual cigars. I love working in a shop with regular customers as I get to learn about their lives and what they enjoy/don’t enjoy. One gentleman loves King Edwards Imperials and only smokes them when he’s golfing. He told me one lasts 3 holes… not bad. In the afternoon I was finalising the leaflets for the March subscription. I often forget what month we are in as I try to get ahead of the game so I could be working on April’s subscriptions in February and then start using the wrong date for everything.

Tuesday was more relaxed for pickings so I finished those quickly so I could stock up the humidors. Our humidor manager is having a great time with Davidoff in the Dominican Republic right now so me and Sharon are taking care of the humidors for him and I would say we are doing a great job of it. 

On Wednesday after our pickings Sharon was updating the pricing as they change constantly, however this time it made me happy to say that the Davidoff, Plasencia, Camacho, PSyKo 7 and Avo range has gone down in price! So get them while they are at this great price! Both me and Sharon also helped out in the packing room as they were understaffed due to illnesses. We also try to ensure all orders ordered during the day are sent the same day as we believe you deserve your cigars as soon as possible.

Thursday I was without Sharon so had all of the cigar picking so it took me longer than what I wanted but they take priority over anything else I do (other than serving my lovely customers in store ofcourse). Once I finished them I wrote an article for the C.Gars cigar library all about Padron Cigars which you can read here. I also made a start on the Turmeaus cigar library, we are not making it available yet until I have enough content for you all to enjoy so hopefully soon!

Friday I was without Sharon again so I had a lot of picking. Friday is Cuban stocktake day but as im on my own it does make it more difficult to do and I do have to do it in bits in between my pickings and customers but if I don’t complete it today it’s not an issue as Sharon is working on Saturday so she will finish it for me

Hope you’re enjoying my blogs and so long for now

Oliver

Hello everyone I hope you are well. We have had a busy week here in Norfolk, Monday was a lot of order picking which never seemed to end! But when it did me and Sharon decided to organise the display pipes a bit more making sure it was easier for customers to see and for our pickers to find the boxes for each pipe, this has been successful and our pickers are more than happy! Tuesday was Sharons last day for the rest of the week, so she made sure she finished her displays as they are her pride and joy now. I concentrated on taking pictures for my new article and finally finished writing it which you can read here, it’s about the differences between Artisan pipes and factory made pipes. I hope you enjoy it!

Wednesday I was surprised to see our Brands manager Paul bringing in boxes from his car into the shop. They contained new gift bags for any purchase of Foragers and I must say they are lovely, you should buy a bottle to see for yourself! Paul was also here to have a meeting with Davidoff and the marketing team, I was not involved in this meeting however one of the highlights is already on the website available to purchase, the release of the Davidoff Signature no.1 which is the first limited edition of 2023! And if they’re as good as the Signature no.2 I would suggest getting yours now! The meeting seemed to go well as there were smiling faces afterwards.

Paul came back to us on Thursday, this time meeting another supplier of ours Tor Imports. This would be my first time meeting Scott who is the Managing Director of Tor and I can say he is a lovely gentleman and taught me a lot about New World cigars which is what they mainly provide us. Also on Thursday I had another nice gentleman come in and spend a hefty amount with us, he spent the second biggest amount I’ve ever seen here! I didn’t see what website he was on but he had two top 10 lists he was looking at and wanted to purchase 5 of each! Unfortunately we didn’t have all he was looking for but he certainly left with many bags full of cigars! We definitely hit many targets.

Friday I was busy picking orders again and then Cuban stock take, I was able to enlist the help of Shanel, one our apprentices, to help me out. She’s trying to learn the different shapes and sizes of cigars to help with her studies, she seems to be picking it up fast. At the end of the day one our Directors Laura announced to me that we finally have a cigar library on the Turmeaus website! So from now on I will be writing articles on there to help you all with your cigar knowledge! 

I hope you are enjoying my blog, I am off next week so you guys won’t hear from me until the week after.

So long for now!

Oliver 🙂

Hi all, I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and New Year. The Norfolk shop has been so busy that I haven’t had a chance to write to you all. 

The first bank holiday of a new year is always strange as we all come in to count all the stock in the building! As you know me and Sharon do a weekly stock take of the Cuban humidor however this time we had to split up and count the Cuban, New world and machine made cigars! It took the whole day but we got there in the end, so much so that I helped count some of the pipes in our pipe room. 

Tuesday began in a strange way. Instead of the usual pickings we actually couldn’t pick as we had an auditor in to ensure our stock-take was correct so as we waited eagerly, me and Sharon decided to have a move around of the displays in the shop, moving our fantastic Snowdonia Distillery range to a more prominent position and sorting out the display cabinet to show off our accessories. At around 10.30 our pickings finally came and there was a lot! A lot of people were certainly taking advantage of our January sale! With many pickings lasting the day, I couldn’t believe how long it took but alas we all got there in the end. 

When you come in next you will find there has been quite a few changes, Sharon has been busy creating some lovely displays, we are also updating all of our pricing in store which is a very long and arduous process but we will get there. I served a lovely man on holiday from London, he recently started his cigar journey and wanted to try a variety. He began his cigar journey by smoking Ashton cigars in Las Vegas so wanted to try something new, I suggested a Regius Serie Limitada Wide Churchill as they are too good not to try. He also tried the Casa Turrent 1880 Maduro Lancero, if you know me by now I prefer Maduro cigars over anything so will always suggest them, his last cigar was the Brick House Double Connecticut Corona Larga, again another favourite of mine. He was a lovely man and really appreciated my help, I do enjoy serving everyone who comes into our store and it feels even better when they appreciate your help.

So long for now

Oliver 🙂