I work in a cigar lounge in the US and i have a Question

[Ford2112]

I would recommend offering up items that you actually sell. You are marketing your goods.

[Cigar Surgeon]

2 hours ago, Puros Y Vino said:

Full disclosure.  This is the same guy who said all Cuban marcas come from the same factories and that they only change the bands right?

It is, but I would put his cigar retail intelligence in the top 10 people in the entire US. Maybe even top 5. 

[Puros Y Vino]

2 minutes ago, Cigar Surgeon said:

It is, but I would put his cigar retail intelligence in the top 10 people in the entire US. Maybe even top 5. 

I've heard good things about him in that respect.  The videos he did of his Cuba trip were naive at best. 

[NSXCIGAR]

9 hours ago, BrightonCorgi said:

People break the law all the time with little consequence

Tell me about it. I keep killing these drifters and so far, so good. 

[BrightonCorgi]

There's only one thing you need to do if you want a busy successful cigar lounge; make sure hot girls are showing up.  Who cares about Cuban cigars?  Patrons want eye candy; plain and simple.

[mtapia3]

Just about every cigar store/lounge I've been to here in California sells CCs on the down-low. Heck, I've even walked into some shops that had 1 or 2 CC boxes for sale in clear view. No one cares, and honestly, if I owned a shop I would probably do the same without much fear of the consequences.

But to answer your question, this may be a hard sell to the boss/owner especially if he isnt already on board with distributing CCs at his store. Also, as previously mentioned, this may not go over too well with some of your Cuban customers. 

[NSXCIGAR]

21 hours ago, therealrsr said:

Her around Christmas video with the mammoth maduro

I watched that video and suddenly I too had a mammoth maduro. 

[La_Tigre]

On 1/19/2022 at 8:39 AM, dominattorney said:

I agree with the sentiment that you should not do it. There are many reasons. The best one is that the government doesn't like to be poked. They get wind of it and don't like it,  technicalities be damned. Your business becomes a target. 

Also customers wind up looking online for ccs rather than coming to the brick and mortar. 

Here's two free promotional ideas that you can take to your boss.

1 if you have a lounge. Raffle off a free years membership. 

2 regardless of whether you have a lounge, do a blind tasting ala FOH but for nc cigars. (For the uninitiated remove the bands from 3 sticks and mark them 1, 2, 3 and then sell the 3 pack sampler and have the participants try to guess what cigar they're smoking. Prize to the person who guesses the most correctly and discounts to anyone who guesses any correctly at the shop.  You can do 5 sticks if the spirit takes you, but it's more work.). It'd be impossible if it were truly blind because of how many NC brands there are, so maybe do 3 or 5 cigars and give a list of 10 to 15 brands that any of them could be with the sampler. I bet that gets folks talking about your shop in a good way that keeps them coming back through your doors. 

These are great ideas and agree that the CC angle is not a benefit for the shop owner in any reasonable way.

Perhaps in the blind you could put in a “free bonus cigar”…a quality CC bonus and tell the customers after the fact that it may or not have been a revered Cuban brand…just don’t tell them that brand was Guantanamera. 😂

The uninitiated get to smoke a CC and the shop owner gets more customers because “CC’s are crap.”

Win. Win. 🤣 

[SoCal Gunner]

Just about every cigar store/lounge I've been to here in California sells CCs on the down-low. Heck, I've even walked into some shops that had 1 or 2 CC boxes for sale in clear view. No one cares, and honestly, if I owned a shop I would probably do the same without much fear of the consequences.
But to answer your question, this may be a hard sell to the boss/owner especially if he isnt already on board with distributing CCs at his store. Also, as previously mentioned, this may not go over too well with some of your Cuban customers. 

Can confirm