Recent Posts

Avatar photo A Day in the Life of a Retail Assistant #27

Hi everyone, another busy and joyous week here in Norfolk! Some of our regulars have come in numerous times enjoying the lovely weather with their cigars. Sharon was off on her holiday all week, so everyone has had the privilege of being served by myself.

Monday was a challenging day as I came in to a mountain of online orders to be picked! I didn’t think I would get it done but with the help of our amazing team, they helped me get them all picked with time to spare which was amazing and I certainly appreciated it. I also had a group of gentlemen who were relatively new to cigars and wanted to try something new, I suggested the Regius Serie Limitada as they tend to be sweeter than your average cigar. Whilst looking around the humidor they spotted the Alec Bradley Filthy Hooligan 2023 – being new to cigars they had never seen a barber pole cigar before so I explained about how the wrappers intertwine creating some incredible flavours that you don’t find in your typical cigar! They were interested but alas they tried the Regius this time but who knows – when they come back they may give it a go!

Tuesday was much calmer for me with online orders (thankfully). Still plenty of orders to pick but I was able to manage it. Also one of our regulars, Tony came in to treat himself to an after work cigar! He gave me his budget and said choose anything for him (always a favourite request of mine). I treated him to a Charter Oak Lonsdale as we have been doing a lot of training on the Foundation Cigars brand and it’s only fair that he gets to try them too! I can’t wait to see what he thinks as they are incredible cigars. I also created an article which was sent to me from Raluca who is the manager of out Liverpool store, you can read that here.

Thursday was another busy day with online orders, in the middle of my pickings Tony came in again! He has recently been trying the Rocky Patel portfolio and really enjoying all of them, he has said his favourite so far is the beautiful Sixty Robusto but this time he just purchased a Mitchellero Peru Robusto Extra as well as a Boveda pack which is something I had suggested to him to begin with. Boveda packs are so easy to use and are much better than using a humidification solution, I would really suggest it to anyone who has a humidor. I also started creating the leaflets for the August cigar subscription, this one is an incredible box filled with the perfect cigars for summer. Make sure you get yours here!

Friday began with a massive amount of online orders to be picked! I have noticed with the weather being nicer our customers are treating themselves to larger cigars and one of the most popular is the Charatan Churchill. A lovely light to medium cigar with notes of rich earthiness and subtle spice – great for a summer’s day. At around midday I had another set of my newly regular customers come in, both are discovering the world of cigars and can’t get enough! One of the gentlemen enjoyed the Alec Bradley Orchant seleccion so much that he keeps coming back for more! But he also wanted something a bit different so he went for the Regius Connecticut Corona which is a nice smooth cigar but with enough complexity to make it enjoyable. The other gentleman with him also treated himself to a Cigarism Jet Flame Lighter with a Punch cut. As you all know I can’t get enough of Cigarism products and our customers are getting there too.

On Saturday I had Courtney in the shop with me and Evie. Courtney is getting a lot better with our customers and getting to the point where I can trust her alone in the shop. Evie is still in training so I spent some time with her teaching her about New World cigars and the different flavour notes you get from different countries and regions. Evie has been tasked to create content for the C.Gars TikTok page so get over there when you can to see what she has created. 

I hope you enjoyed this weeks goings on and I hope to see you all again soon.

So long for now

Oliver

Avatar photo A Day in the Life of a Retail Assistant #26

Hi everyone, I hope you’ve all had a lovely week! The sun is shining and it’s hot outside but rest assured it’s lovely and cool in our air conditioned shop so it is always a comfortable visit. 

Monday was very busy for us online and in store, it took me most of the day to do my online pickings! I also served a lovely elderly couple who were visiting the Norfolk Broads on their holiday, I was warned by the lady that her husband might take a while to choose a pipe from our massive pipe room. Whilst he was looking around the room, the lady was telling me about Great Yarmouth back when she was younger and how beautiful it is here (which is another reason to visit us). In the end he couldn’t decide between four… so he bought all four! I have never sold so many pipes in one transaction! They also bought a lovely pipe stand to store all of his pipes and some Kendal KBC to enjoy in his new pipes. They were in our store for around an hour and I really enjoyed talking to them both! Hopefully I will see them again. Another one of my regulars came in, who is usually a Cuban cigar smoker however he enjoyed our Mitchellero Peru range with his friends that much, that he popped in to purchase another box of Mitchellero Peru Novellini. I also finished writing my latest article about Glenmorangie whisky which you can read here.

I had two days of annual leave to enjoy a little rest and be refreshed for Thursday.

On Thursday I had a great gentleman who treated himself to some Cuban cigars for his holiday in Spain, a couple of Hoyo de Monterrey Epicure no. 2 as well as a H.Upmann Connoisseur A. As I was putting his cigars through the till he spotted a bottle of Hennessey VSOP Cognac and couldn’t resist treating himself! Later on that afternoon we had cigar training from the supplier of Foundation Cigars. They had so much knowledge about the product, you could really feel their passion for cigars and even the history! There was no question that they couldn’t answer. We learned a lot from that session and really appreciate them coming to see us! 

On Friday after the usual pickings, I started organising the August New World Subscription and it is another incredible box chosen by myself, these cigars are perfect to enjoy in the sun! I also finished off all of the shop newsletters which get sent once a month and it seems like July is an exciting month in all shops so make sure you visit as soon as you can!

On Saturday, we were joined by Evie as she continues to learn her new role here. As many of you know, learning cigars and pipes can be a lot to take in but she is doing very well. We also had one of our regulars, Tony, come into the shop and he couldn’t decide between something new or something he knew he liked… I swiftly suggested something new so he chose the Rocky Patel Number 6 Corona which was in the top 10 cigars of Cigar Aficionado in 2020.

I hope you enjoy reading about my week and if you ever feel like you need to contact me just email me at [email protected]

So long for now

Oliver

Avatar photo A Day in the Life of a Retail Assistant #25

Hello everyone! The sun is shining bright which means one thing… Sitting outside in the sun enjoying our favourite cigars, I decided to treat myself to the Gurkha Ghost Gold Shadow Robusto! I had never tried a Gurkha before as the brand seems to have its haters as well as their lovers, so I thought I’d give it a try…. A brilliant cigar with plenty of chocolatey notes as well as spices, you should try it.

On Saturday last week I had our new weekend worker with us, her name is Evie and you will see her every Saturday in our Norfolk store. I was teaching her how to pick our online orders as well as the retail side of things. I think I blew her away with my knowledge of cigars as she certainly seemed tired by the afternoon but I’d like to think she took it all in.

Monday began with the usual heaping amounts of pickings and I was certainly worn out afterwards, but I soldiered on and completed writing an article all about Falcon pipes and how unique they are! You can read that here. We also had plenty of customers purchasing their smokes for the week, it seems that with the sun coming out, everyone has time to smoke a Toro sized cigar, including one gentleman who treated himself to a box of Plasencia Orchant Seleccion Toro. I also had another gentleman who loves his Cuban cigars, however he wanted to try something new, so he went away with a Mitchellero Peru sampler. The same gentleman came back 2 hours later to purchase a box of the Novellini – he loved them that much!

Tuesday was a bit different for myself, after the usual pickings I started to learn how to make newsletters and I am now in charge of each store’s newsletter going out to our customers! It’s just a way to let you all know what’s going on in store, what cigars/spirit/accessories we recommend for the month and more! I’m very happy to be able to do more for this company and expand my own knowledge too! I also helped out Sharon with photography and editing, it’s always difficult doing something outside of your comfort zone but if you push yourself and are willing to do it then the only way is up!

Wednesday was a very busy day online and in store! I had a lovely couple come in who were on their holiday. The lady wanted to treat her husband to a new humidor for their wedding anniversary present, so they decided on the Adorini Torino Black Deluxe Cigar Humidor as the slick design and matte black colour was particularly eye-catching. After deciding on a humidor they went into our walk-in humidor to fill it up with. The gentleman treated himself to some beautiful Cohibas and Hoyo de Monterrey, as they had not been to our shop before I recommended a Mitchellero for him to try as they are exclusive to us so he would never have tried it before, he purchased two and were on their way. Later on in the day another gentleman came in and treated himself to a vast array of Cuban cigars as well as a box of 10 Partagas Serie D No. 4. He was very happy to say the least! Towards the end of the day we had a customer contact our customer care team to see if we had a box of Regius Media Coronas. This is a clever thing to do as a lot of the time in store we have singles available but not a whole box so I would definitely suggest calling ahead of time to avoid disappointment! As well as his box of cigars he tried our Beginners Pipe Tobacco and Accessories Lucky Dip Sampler.

Thursday was a busy day with online customers getting their last minute Fathers day gifts, so myself and Sharon were extra busy! However once we completed those pickings, I continued with my shop newsletters and taking some pictures for them to help out. I served a lovely couple of ladies who wanted to get a nice cigar for their father as he doesn’t smoke them often but they know he loves them, they decided on the Mitchellero Peru Robusto Extra, as the price was incredible and taste notes sounded “yummy” as they put it. As it was their first visit to the shop they were amazed with the options we had and said they’ll definitely be back! 

On Friday once the picking had been completed, I took some more pictures for our marketing team, and then in the afternoon it was the usual Cuban stock take. 

I hope you have enjoyed this weeks going’s on and as always if you need anything or just fancy a chat feel free to email me – [email protected]

So long for now

Oliver

Avatar photo A Day in the Life of a Retail Assistant #24

Hi everyone, I hope you enjoyed your bank holiday weekend! We were still open 12-5 to help you with your cigar needs and it was great to see some familiar faces as well as some holiday makers.

On bank holiday Monday I get the privilege of printing the orders and having to pick them all myself instead of having the usual team in. It is a tough task but someone has to do it, so I spend all day picking as many orders as I can. Meanwhile I had lovely customers come into the shop too – one gentleman brought his family to buy pretty much everything! They were on holiday here so it was their first visit to the shop but are regulars on the website. After purchasing some pipe tobacco and some Mitchellero Perus, they spent some time looking around our pipe room and were completely mesmerised by the amount we had! We also had one of our favourite customers come in the day before his birthday to treat himself to a birthday treat. I got to have the privilege of choosing him a gift on behalf of his partner and I treated him to the unbelievable Oliva Orchant Seleccion Skinny! A very popular cigar and I knew he hadn’t tried it so I hope he enjoyed it and Happy Birthday! I spent the rest of the day running around picking as many orders as I could ready for our packing team to go full throttle on Tuesday to get your orders out to you!

Tuesday was a great day in store with many customers coming to see us. It seemed like everyone wanted to try the Mitchellero Peru cigars and we were more than happy to oblige. We had one gentleman purchase himself a box of 10 Montecristo no. 4 as purchasing 10 worked out cheaper than buying singles. He also treated himself to some Mitchelleros and a bottle of our own Stalla Dhu Islay, A beautiful whisky and one of my favourites too.

I also helped out our packing team with packaging up the online orders. When I first started working at Turmeaus I started in the packing team and at one point set the record for the most packed in one day! So going back there was like a blast from the past, I’d like to think I helped them keep up with the orders.

On Wednesday our regular came in to spend his birthday money, he treated himself to many brilliant cigars including the tasty selection sampler – a great selection at a low price. He also mentioned that he liked the Oliva cigar that I suggested which gave me a sigh of relief. I also finished this week’s article about the new range of Zino cigars which you can read here

Thursday we had plenty of online orders to keep us busy as well as customers in the shop. It felt like me and Sharon didn’t stop! We had many customers wanting to try out the new Mitchellero Perus! So much so that we’ve had to order some more in just to keep up with demand! I was also working on our Cigar Library to make it more mobile friendly so hopefully you all will be seeing the effects of this now.

On Friday there was plenty more online orders to be picked, it seems like now the sun is out more and more people are enjoying their smokes. I also finalised the leaflets for July’s cigar subscription and this month I was a little cheeky and used a cigar which is currently unavailable to purchase as a single, this means my subscribers will get to try something they haven’t had before which is the beauty of cigar subscriptions. In the afternoon Me and Sharon did the traditional Cuban stock take.

Hope you have enjoyed reading this week’s blog. Come and see me in the store soon!

So long for now

Oliver

Avatar photo A Day in the Life of a Retail Assistant #23

Hi Everyone, I hope you are ready for our third bank holiday weekend in a month! We have seen many familiar faces in store this week all getting their cigars ready for a great, hopefully sunny, three day weekend!

Monday as always was busy with online order pickings, with many people taking advantage of our 20% off all whisky offer that we had on Saturday, it’s safe to say our whisky cellar was looking a bit more empty by Tuesday! I also had a familiar face in the shop – This gentleman used to come in every Friday as he was doing work in the area and would purchase Ramon Allones Gigantes. However as time went on, and his project finished, we would see him less and less so it’s always great to see him! Recently he has ventured into New World cigars and has fallen in love with the Oliva brand, in particular the Serie V range. However he is still trying different brands so I recommended the Plasencia Orchant Seleccion Toro as it is an exceptional cigar for a great price and was rated 92/100 by Cigar Journal in 2022!

On Tuesday we found out that one of my favourite cigars, the Plasencia Reserva 1898, would be discontinued by Davidoff! So we purchased as many as we could to keep them in stock for as long as possible, be warned these cigars are extremely popular so you need to get them while you still can! I know I’ll be purchasing a few before they all go! After my pickings I started to write my article, I noticed while I was writing last weeks article on Oliva cigars that they also created Nub cigars and it had an interesting backstory, so after a bit more research I created an article all about Nub cigars which you can read here, I also spent some time taking the pictures for that article and I think they came out well if I do say so myself.

On Thursday I noticed that we had a new cigar in our humidor. Zino Nicaragua by Davidoff, these cigars are meant to symbolise Zino Davidoff’s life, he was an adventurer and these cigars send you on an adventure – Instantly I took a couple of pictures and a video for our marketing team as these cigars are really that good! It will definitely be my article for next week! I also started to organise the July New World Cigar Subscription. You really do get a great bargain with subscriptions as the box is worth more than what you pay and you get to try cigars that you wouldn’t have even thought about trying, and some of them may not even be available to purchase yet! 

On Friday I had many of my regular customers come in, all trying out our new Mitchellero Peru cigars. One of my regulars also came in for a specific cigar that I had recommended to him before, the Alec Bradley Filthy Hooligan 2023. It always gives me a sense of joy when a customer comes back to get more of the cigars you suggest. Another customer treated himself to a Colibri Rebel Jet Lighter, he said the two year warranty that Colibri have with all of their products is the reason he buys their items and I couldn’t agree more, if you have any issues with Colibri products at least you know you are in safe hands with their warranty. Later on Sharon and I completed the Cuban stock take as is tradition.

Saturday I spent most of my time re-arranging the New World humidor, I like to do this most Saturdays as it gives our apprentice Sarah a chance to serve the customers in the shop whilst I’m knee deep in cigar boxes. Towards the end of the day I took some pictures of our cigar subscriptions and sent them to our marketing team to advertise on Facebook.

As you can see I’m a very busy bee but I will always have time to serve all of our customers like yourselves, make sure when you pop in next to say hello!

So long for now

Oliver 🙂

Avatar photo A Day in the Life of a Retail Assistant #22

Hi everyone, I hope you didn’t miss me too much last week, I enjoyed a lovely week off but now it’s back to business! 

Monday morning brought online order pickings, but I had to take a break through picking to see the new Mitchellero Peru range! Created by our managing director Mitchell Orchant, these cigars are a great addition to the Nicaraguan Mitchellero range, however the Peru range uses a blend of Nicaragua and Peru filler which adds a little bit of sweetness. True to the Mitchellero name they are high quality hand-rolled cigars and at a low price! Get yours while you can. Once I finished my pickings, I took some pictures of the Mitchellero Peru cigars and created a new monitor image for our humidor. 

On Tuesday I started brainstorm on what my new article on the C.Gars cigar library should be, it took me a while to think and it was only when I was speaking to a customer that it hit me! This gentleman loves his Oliva cigars and we were talking about the different series and it occurred to me that I have not written an article about Oliva! So I started researching and learned so much about the history! Later on, Sharon and I had decided to have a little change of displays in the shop, we now have a couple of humidors out on display as we often get customers wanting to see some, so now they are out for everyone to see – Why not come and have a look!

On Wednesday, once I finished my pickings I started writing my article, in between I had one of my favourite customers come in. Alongside his usual purchase of pipe tobacco he wanted me to find a pipe similar in shape to one he had which was a Mr Brog Chochla 48 but better quality.

On Thursday, I had a chance to reminisce about my hometown (Birmingham) with some customers that came in who were from Wolverhampton. They were very impressed with the size of our shop and the selection of cigars available, they mentioned a shop closer to home that doesn’t compare, in the end they treated themselves to the Regius Serie Limitada sampler and a new Mitchellero Peru – To stock up until they come back again. We also had one of our regulars come in, who we are always happy to see, collecting his order of Mitchellero Peru cigars too – They are showing to be really popular, once you have tried one you’ll see why! In between customers I took all of the pictures for the Oliva article which you can read here.

Friday I spent some time in the morning filming more youtube shorts for our marketing team, you should check them out! In the afternoon it is the regular Cuban stocktake where Sharon and myself count the entire Cuban stock but we have done it so often that it’s no trouble at all.

I hope you enjoyed this weeks goings on and I can’t wait to see you all next week!

So long for now

Oliver 🙂

Avatar photo A Day in the Life of a Retail Assistant #21

Hi everyone, I hope you all had a lovely bank holiday weekend! Online sales went through the roof over the weekend, I think you all knew we were going to have good weather this week!

The shop was open on the bank holiday Monday and we had a few familiar faces come in, but my main mission was to pick all of the weekends orders and alas I failed, I gave it very good go but there was so many I didn’t have a chance and by the end I was worn out. 

On Tuesday we had the leftover pickings which took a few hours to get through, and then it was on to my article for next week which was all about Ardbeg, you can read that here. After writing the article I made the leaflets for June Subscriptions, I had to get them ordered early as I am away next week which is when I would usually order them ready for the boxes to be put together.

Wednesday came along so quick, I think all the picking orders made the days go quicker. Once I had finished my morning pickings I went off to take some pictures for my Ardbeg article, you may also see them on our cgars whisky instagram page! Later that day I served a gentleman who treated himself to many different ‘chubby’ cigars, and afterwards he realised he had forgotten his lighter and cutter! I recommended the Cigarism Jet Flame Cigar Lighter & Punch Cutter and it had everything he needed for a low cost. He was over the moon and it’s safe to say we will see him again. Later in the day I also had a man and woman come in, the man was looking for a cigar just as a celebration treat – I suggested a Regius Serie Limitada Robusto (you may notice I recommend them a lot but they are just that good!) and he said they sounded nice and decided to have two and his wife decided they sounded so nice that she wanted to try one just in a smaller vitola which is where the Petit Royales is perfect! As well as the Regius they wanted some flavoured cigars so I introduced them to the infused cigars that Drew Estate have created, they decided to try the Acid Blondie which as many of you will know are delicious and a Larutan JL which I have never tried buy maybe I should? It’s safe to say they were happy with their purchase. 

Thursday, once I had completed my pickings, I served a lovely gentleman who was just getting three cigars for the weekend…. Well he “accidentally” purchased six! Including an Aging Room Quattro Nicaragua Maestro, an amazing cigar and they’re end of line so get them while you still can! He then decided to treat himself to a beautiful bottle of Diplomatico rum – A great weekend if you ask me! Later in the day I showed Sharon how to place orders with our Senior Buyer Chris, usually I’m the one placing the orders with him however as I am on annual leave for the week she needed to know exactly how to do it and she nailed it! In the afternoon I had two lovely gentlemen come in, one wanted pipe tobacco as he was new to pipes and one wanting cigars, we started with the cigars and he was mentioning different Cuban cigars he had tried like Romeo y Julieta and Montecristo but he hadn’t heard of Partagas so I recommended one of those, I also mentioned about our own brand Mitchellero, he couldn’t believe that a robusto sized cigar could be priced so well! So he bought 3. He also needed a new cutter and lighter so treated himself to a Cigarism Jet Flame Lighter & Cutter Gift Set. His friend, who loved whisky, decided to try the American Blends Spirit of Scotland as it is topped with Scotch Whisky. I ended the day by doing a quick Youtube short video for the marketing team and they seemed to really enjoy it.

On Friday after the usual pickings, myself and Sharon again counted the Cuban humidor, however, this time it was different. During the week our stores in Chester and Liverpool have been sending us a lot of their Cuban overstock, this is due to us sending a lot of orders from the Norfolk store whereas Liverpool and Chester don’t have the same facilities. Don’t worry though if you do go to the Chester or Liverpool stores, they have still kept plenty of Cuban cigars for themselves including some rare LCDH cigars, so make sure you give them a visit! So due to them giving us a lot of stock it took us a lot longer to get it all done! In the meantime we asked Courtney to take care of the shop so we don’t get interrupted.

I hope you enjoyed this weeks going’s on and I’ll see you all in two weeks time, but Sharon will have you all covered in store for your tobacco needs.

So long for now

Oliver 🙂

Avatar photo A Day in the Life of a Retail Assistant #20

Hi Everyone I hope you’re all excited for your Bank Holiday weekend part 1! After all there are three this month to enjoy! It has been a busy week in store and with online orders too. 

Monday was the usual crazy amounts of pickings but I had them completed by the afternoon, so I researched and wrote my article which is all about La Aurora cigars and I didn’t know they were the oldest cigar makers in the Dominican Republic! You can read all about it here. After I finished writing I took the pictures for it and sent them off to the marketing team to be used on social media. 

Tuesday began with a lovely mother and son who knew exactly what they wanted, A Sweet Smoking Experience Gift Box Sampler as well as The Brisk Bunch sampler and a Brick House sampler! While I was putting all those together the young man saw our Cigarism displays and liked the look of the Cigarism V-Cut Cigar Cutter in a glossy red colour so he treated himself to that too! Later that day I served a friendly man who was getting married on Saturday, he wanted a nice cigar for himself and his groomsmen, when serving someone who wants a cigar for a wedding you really have to think as you don’t want the cigar to ruin their day so the taste needs to be perfect but it needs to look good in the pictures too! So a little Petit Corona is out of the question, I tend to try to push people towards the Coronas or Robustos as they won’t take the whole day to smoke and look good in pictures – In this case we went for five Regius Serie Limitada Robustos as we decided the gold band would look great in the pictures and they aren’t too expensive either so if someone doesn’t like them it isn’t the end of the world. Alongside this he bought a nice Cigarism Windproof Single Jet Flame Cigar Lighter in black and an empty Regius Serie Limitada box to present the cigars in on the big day! I hope he has an amazing day. 

As well as serving customers I started taking pictures of whisky to help out with our cgars whisky Instagram page, you should check it out! I don’t often take pictures of whisky as it’s a slightly different technique needed that I haven’t perfected yet but I will keep working on it and soon enough my pictures will be on there.

On Thursday Me and Humidor Supervisor Billy started stock counting the New World cigars which by now you know it is a hard process and takes all day to do, however this time we enlisted Sharon, who impressed during other stock takes to help us too. So to do this we asked Sarah who is an apprentice to serve customers whilst we all concentrated on stock take. As a team we did really well and actually finished it all in one day which rarely happens! However news broke through that this stock take will now be done every two weeks instead of monthly just to ensure we all know what stock we do have. 

On Friday I started writing a new article which you will see next week all about a new brand of cigars that we have never had before called Foundation Cigars! In the afternoon I did the Cuban stock take by myself as Sharon had Courtney (who you may have seen on Saturdays) come into the shop to learn the role as she will need to do it a lot more soon.

On Saturday once me and the team finished picking orders, I decided to leave the shop in the capable hands of Sarah and Courtney as I have full trust in Sarah to be able to serve customers and do general shop duties and as Courtney was learning I thought it would be great again for her to be with Sarah so they could learn off each other and Courtney could start serving customers without having me breathing down her neck. In the meantime I went to our beautiful conference room to take more cigar pictures mainly of Foundation cigars as well as made some more youtube short videos which hopefully Lewis our content creator will upload asap!

I hope you have enjoyed reading my blog and if you have any questions feel free to email me at [email protected]

So long for now

Oliver

Avatar photo A Day in the Life of a Retail Assistant #19

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 🙂

Avatar photo A Day in the Life of a Retail Assistant #18

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