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 🙂

Hi all, It has been a crazy couple of weeks in store and online so much so that I didn’t have a chance to write my blog last week! Safe to say last week we had many customers purchasing last minute gifts and some after smokes to enjoy over the Christmas period.

Monday was incredibly busy in store and online, due to postal strikes we have been sending a lot of parcels with a courier service instead and this option has proved extremely popular for those wanting last minute gifts. In store we had a lot of people buying themselves cigars and tobacco as gifts to themselves, including one of my regulars who bought the most amount of pipe tobacco I have seen and said “I refuse to be disturbed, if anyone asks me to do something i’ll say no and keep smoking” A great attitude to have this Christmas if you ask me. We also pulled a name from a hat for our pipe competition and I must say congratulations to the winner who was so excited he came in the store about 10 minutes later to collect it.

Tuesday was again filled with lots of online order pickings with the majority of customers choosing the courier service to get their cigars in time for Christmas. Sharon was needed again to book on orders which means I get to serve all the customers (which is one of my favourite things to do). I spent an hour with one of my regulars and his brother just looking at cigars and helping them decide on their New Year smoke. They decided on the new Regius Serie Limitada Wide Churchill and what an amazing cigar they are, a must have if you ask me.

Wednesday was much quieter with the online orders. However, in store we have been very busy, a lot of customers had mentioned due to the Royal Mail strikes they wanted to come in so they could guarantee their gifts would make it on time. By the end of the day our shelves were looking bare so a quick stock up and we’re good to go again. During my down time a wrote an article on the new Regius Serie Limitada cigars as they are too good not to share, you can read that here.

Thursday was a festive day in the office as it was our secret Santa present giving! I had our whisky stock expert Imogen. As she had recently moved into a house of her own I decided to get her a lovely cookbook and penguin mug as she loves penguins. Jeanette the packing team leader in Norfolk, she got me some books for my daughter as she knows all I ever want is toys and books for my daughter.

You won’t see me until the 28th of December as I’m off to enjoy Christmas with my family but I look forward seeing you all from the 28th.

See you all next week

Oliver 🙂

Happy Monday to you all and what a busy one we had! The online orders went through the roof! It was a long and arduous day but we got there in the end. We have also decided to send all priority orders with DPD due to the Royal Mail strikes. At the weekend Sharon and Billy spent the whole day stocking up the shop and making it look amazing which they did very well. Has some lovely customers including a regular who always buys his Mitchellero Novellini box, he said they’re great quality cigars and the price is very affordable. On request of the packing team we had the Japan vs Croatia game on the radio. 

Tuesday began with a lot of orders yet again, Christmas season is certainly taking over but we are keeping up very well. I served a lovely gentleman who was after our Gawith Hoggarth Seasonal Reserve. He had contacted Gawith Hoggarth in August to make sure they were doing it again! That is commitment! He also treated himself to some Golden Blends no.3 as he claims it’s a lovely taste and very smooth. In between serving customers I have been finalising the cigar subscriptions, we have unfortunately decided to take the Cuban cigar out of the subscription due to the rising costs of Cubans so it is now the New World cigar subscription so you will get 5 high quality premium cigars and every now and then I may put in a little gift 😉

Thursday began with Sharon booking parcels all day to help us keep on top of orders, so I spent the day picking orders and keeping on top of the shop’s stock as we have been selling a lot of Colibri accessories recently. During the day I was a part of another marketing meeting to plan out January and see how good sales were over black friday. We also discussed more new samplers so make sure you keep an eye out on our social media or sign up to our newsletters to see what we have in store. The afternoon I carried on making the leaflet for the subscription as well as more pickings!

Friday was filled with lots of pickings as well as many customers. We have had many people enter our in store pipe contest but there’s still time to enter as the winner will be contacted on the 19th of December! Me and Sharon completed our weekly Cuban stock take in record time and despite the issues in Cuba we still have quite the range available to you.

Saturday felt a bit different this time as our Customer Service Manager Hayley was working from home with Covid so it was just myself, Sarah and Ben. Ben has only been with us a few weeks, but he has nailed the booking on parcels as well as picking and packing orders. We had a lot of orders to pick in the morning which took us up to midday but we got there in the end and then we started stocking the shelves. The Christmas period is always busy and so stocking up becomes more of a regular occurrence and one week you could fill up the pipe room and in a day or two it can look empty.

Hope you’ve enjoyed this insert and I look forward to see what the following week brings us

So long for now

Oliver 🙂

Hi everyone, I hope you’ve all had a good week. I treated myself to a Monday off but I can see Sharon has looked after the shop well and then Tuesday I took over as she is helping the Royal Mail team book parcels on, we are starting to feel the Christmas rush now with lots more orders for cigars and accessories coming in, I have also seen some orders with items I suggested in my Christmas gifts article which is great!

Also on Tuesday me and the Humidor Supervisor Billy started the stock count on New World cigars, this will took us until the end of Wednesday as there are many fantastic cigars in there. Whilst this was going on I also served many customers including a couple who wanted a new humidor for their son so I spent time with them browsing and explaining why Adorini is much better quality than most, you can also read about Adorini humidors here to find out for yourself. I also had a young man looking for Roku Gin, I advised that even though Roku is good but our Foragers range is better and is recommended by TV chef James Martin, by the end he bought the Foragers Yellow Label and used a gift voucher which we sell in store too!

Wednesday consisted of non stop New World stock taking for myself and Billy, this monumental task will be done once a month so we can keep our stock levels up for you all to enjoy. While I was doing this Sharon set up a new display with our Orchant Seleccion candles and I must say I’m very impressed with it and the scents available! Next time you come in I’m sure you’ll smell them.

Thursday began with a lot of pickings for online, however our apprentice Sarah was on hand to help as well as serve customers in the shop. She impressed me a lot on Saturday and only wants to improve more. I spent a lot of time with Billy again to try to organise the New World humidor so it’s not so cluttered and we have introduced a very nice table to showcase more cigars on. 

Friday started off with lots of pickings again and many of the new samplers we have online ready for Christmas! Had a lovely customer come in to buy for her husband but had no idea what cigars he liked so I mentioned many names and we finally settled on Montecristo, one of the best Cubans if you ask me. She chose the Linea 1935 Maltes which is a supreme smoke! As well as the cigar she chose a very nice Colibri Ashtray and Rolling stones Zippo, some lovely Christmas presents if you ask me. 

I hope you enjoyed this weeks blog and if you have any questions of what happens day to day behind the scenes i’m always available for a chat in the Norfolk store or email me at [email protected] 

So long for now

Oliver 🙂

Hi everyone, it seems like it’s been a long time since I’ve posted but please forgive me as I have been away on holiday. We are all prepared for Christmas here including my new shop partner Sharon who has now joined us in the shop ready to help you out with all your tobacco needs. 

Monday was extremely busy in store and online as we had many customers within the first hour of opening as well as having a lot of online pickings, many people ordering ready for Christmas. These pickings took me up until 1pm to finish, of which it was time for a lovely cup of coffee and relaxation. In the afternoon there was a certain sporting event that many members of staff were excited about… Myself included, I even put the radio on instead of the music in the shop so everyone working could listen in. 

Tuesday began with a lovely gentleman coming in and giving me an insight to his cigar journey and spending more than he wanted but he was still happy with his choices. This was followed by another gentleman who loved his Trinidad cigars, so much that he bought a box of 24 Reyes as well as some Vigias. A brilliant day in the shop indeed. I have been spending time still rearranging the New World humidor but we are almost there I would say, I can’t wait to show you all around. We had a late customer however he is one of my favourites who I rarely get to see, he usually has Cuban cigars but he has started to try New worlds so I suggested the delicious Alec Bradley Orchant Seleccion Shorty… next day I see he’s purchased a box! And he said they are a magnificent cigar (which I already knew). Customers who enjoy cigars I recommend really give me a great feeling.

Thursday was a store maintenance day if you will. I was joined by Sarah who helped de-plume the humidor and clean out the humidifiers. She is trying her best to learn about the cigars and their flavour profiles and I think in a few months she will be very confident. While Sarah was doing that, myself and Sharon started labelling up the New World humidor to make it easier for our customers to see exactly what stock we have. 

Have you seen my new article in the C.Gars cigar library? Christmas Gifts for Cigar Lovers. I decided to write this to help out everyone who is struggling to think of a gift that isn’t just cigars as I know I prefer to receive accessories from loved ones over cigars.

Fridays mean one thing… Cuban stock take, I think I know the Cuban humidor more than I know my own house by now. I have also been organising the January subscription box with some great cigars including a Limited edition cigar but to find out which one you’ll need to buy the box ;). Meanwhile the December subscriptions are packed up and ready to go out, I have put in a couple of treats too as it is the season of giving.

I do love working Saturdays and today I have Sarah with me who will start serving some of you when she can. She has been learning all about cigars, taste notes and burn times, I believe you will all love being served by her. One of my favourite customers came in and was served by Sarah and he is the perfect person to be your first customer, he treated himself to his usual Plasencia Reserva 1898 Toro and then we discussed whisky. He has tried many different ones but not a Japanese whisky so I let him try a bit of an open bottle of Nikka Days and he loved it, so much so that he bought a bottle!

In store currently we are doing a raffle where you purchase 25g of Gawith Hoggarth Summer Reserve and you are entered into a draw to win a Rattrays Bulls and Dogs 40 Sandblast 9mm Pipe which is worth £129.99! This has proved to be very popular and we have many entrants so come in store to enter, you have to be in it to win it 😉

So long for now

Oliver 🙂

Hi all, I have a bit of a shorter blog this week due to me going on holiday from Thursday, but don’t you all worry the Norfolk shop will be covered by Sharon who you may have seen in the shop on Saturdays, It won’t be long until she’s in the shop full time! Ready to share her knowledge with you all. 

Monday is filled with online orders to be picked. It is always a busy day on a Monday but we still keep our high standards in the shop. By the time I finished my pickings it was the afternoon so I wrote an article for next week as I’m off all week! (don’t miss me too much) So the Cigar Library will still be updated while i’m gone, I also had time to take the pictures too and hopefully you’ll see them on our social media if they are deemed good enough by our Marketing team who have extremely high standards! As only the best make it to our social media.

Tuesday I was booking parcels for our Royal Mail team as they were down a member. They are also having changes due to Sharon shifting into the shop so they are having new people to train, one of those people is Shanel who is an apprentice, she’s usually in the packing room but is now learning the other side of it all. She was also given the task of writing an article by our manager (which she smashed), so I showed her how to add it onto our Cigar Library. We were both happy with the outcome.

We also have started doing a Davidoff raffle with samplers, you purchase a sampler and you are automatically put into a draw to win a beautiful Davidoff accessory, click here to view the samplers.

Wednesday started with the traditional pickings and showing our new staff member Courtney around and doing a few pickings herself. She is currently learning the Booking on system but is doing a bit of picking in between. In the afternoon I was a part of the marketing meeting, seeing where we can improve our offers for all of you and what new offers or samplers we can provide for you. We have some very exciting deals and even a raffle coming soon so keep an eye out for that!

See you all in a week!

Oliver 🙂

Hope you all have had a great week, Halloween is now over so we are getting close to CHRISTMASSSSS!!! Monday was a very busy day, there were lots of online orders which kept us all very busy. The marketing team and myself were included in a meeting with Roy and Anthony of Davidoff, discussing our future marketing plans, we’ve got some great deals coming your way, watch this space! We also had a costume competition with all the staff, we took a great photo of some of the staff and our winner was Lisa (the person on the left) who got to take home a bottle of Dead Man’s Fingers. 

On Tuesday the Halloween decorations went away and in came Christmas! I spent my day booking on parcels and editing the leaflet that will eventually go in your December subs. The leaflets are a very delicate thing to edit as it has a lot of elements to it. We had a disaster in the afternoon when the Royal Mail software broke down and didn’t start working until the next morning so we decided to send out all the next day orders with a courier who we know can still deliver next day, it costs the company more money but customer service is the most important thing to us and we didn’t want anything to stop you from getting your cigars. 

On Wednesday I had to help out with booking on again as we had to catch up from the break down, today is a sad day as Georgina is leaving us. She was our humidor manager and had brilliant cigar knowledge. She taught me lots about the way cigars are made and the blends, we did get to have a lovely takeaway as a goodbye treat. I have also been challenged to sell as many Nikka Days and Diplomatico Reserva Exclusiva possible, I haven’t tried the Diplomatico yet but the Nikka Days is very nice indeed, no burn and some nice floral notes, I’m not a fan of Japanese whisky however this one may start to turn me towards them a little bit. In the afternoon I took a few pictures of the cigar subscriptions so look out on the C.Gars Facebook page for those and don’t forget to subscribe!

Thursday began with showing Sarah how to clean the humidifiers in the humidors, these have to be cleaned every week so having our apprentice know how to do them helps me out so I can concentrate on other tasks. After the humidifiers I wrote next week’s article so It’s ready to go as I go on holiday from Thursday next week! The article is on Glengoyne as we have a special promotion on the 12 year old and I must say it is an incredible whisky, I had never tried a Glengoyne but there was little burn and very soothing when drinking, definitely a must have in the collection. Whilst I was writing that Sarah started stocking up the shop, we have Mitchell Orchant visiting on Monday so we need the shop looking as perfect as usual, he is very proud of our shops as am I. We have recently received stock of a lot of Plasencia, Davidoff, Avo and Camacho cigars so we are working on putting some great deals together for our customers to take advantage of. 

Friday consisted of picking many orders and then moving the Davidoff stock into the Cuban humidor and making a nice Davidoff wall so now if you want your Davidoff cigars we will take you to the Cuban room and you could have a cheeky purchase Cuban cigar at the same time 😉

I hope you enjoyed my blog and if you have any questions or need any advice please email me at [email protected]

So long for now

Oliver

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

Hi all, I hope you enjoyed my first blog, I received some great feedback and I do appreciate it. The traditional Monday again of picking online orders all day has arrived, such a mixture of different cigars really keeps me on my toes but I think I know our two humidors like the back of my hand now. The accessories however are a different story, without the help of my colleagues I would be struggling a lot more and vice versa as they ask for my help when it comes to cigars, you know what they say “Teamwork makes the dreamwork”. I managed to squeeze in writing my next article about considerations when purchasing a cigar, I’ve always seen ourselves as a company who likes to help out our customers with our friendly faces but also our advice, If you have been served by me in our Norfolk shop you will know that I never force a cigar upon anyone but I will steer you away from ones that I don’t think are right for you and I like to carry that on to my articles.

I had two amazing customers who had visited from Canada! They had been to our store in Mayfair and then made a visit to us in Norfolk. They really enjoyed themselves and found our pipe room incredible, they also mentioned that there aren’t really any shops like ours over there. They spent around 45 minutes looking at all of our pipes and in the end settled on two Peterson pipes as well as some tasty tobacco of which they can’t find in Canada. I also found out that pipe tobacco is in fact more expensive over there too! I really enjoyed talking to them about different pipes and I felt overjoyed when they took my recommendations too.

Interesting start to my Tuesday as I had a lovely lady who came in with a picture of Jethro (Many youngsters may not know who that is) holding a pipe and wanted one just like that for her husband, again this took a lot of my pipe knowledge to find one similar and in the end she went home happy which always makes me overjoyed. Nikki, our marketing planner came to me today to ask for two Adorini articles to be published over the next couple of months so by the afternoon I finished writing them and started taking pictures, I must say Adorini accessories look incredibly cool and beautiful, they might be my next purchase. 

Wednesday was a scheduled day off so moving on to Thursday and I spent the whole day stock taking our New World humidor with our new Humidor Supervisor Billy and we didn’t even complete it. Luckily I had my colleague Sharon working double duty covering the shop for me as well as booking on parcels for online customers! You will all see her soon enough full time in the shop from the 16th of November as we’re all having a little shuffle around (don’t worry I’m going nowhere). We had quite a few customers purchasing our vast range of pipe tobacco, when I first started I didn’t picture pipe tobacco being this popular! But honestly it flies off the shelf quicker than I can put it on the shelves!

Friday started with me picking orders and once I had finished picking it was back to counting the cigars in the New World humidor with Billy. It was a long and gruelling process but we got there in the end and now he is planning some new exciting samplers for you all to try, coming to the website soon!

Saturday I completed the Cuban humidor stock take so now we know exactly what cigars we have.  If you haven’t been in our shop yet then you won’t have seen our Halloween decorations! It’s a very spooky place muahahaha! The Halloween theme is also on the C.Gars website and we have special section for gifts to enjoy over this fun time of year which you can see here. I particularly like the new Peterson Halloween pipes, the orange stem is such a unique colour it really makes you stand out from the crowd.

Hope you enjoyed my blog

So long for now 🙂

Oliver