Allow me to apologize in advance for this rant.
This evening my wife had to run some errands so I tagged along being the doting husband that I am (brownie points...). So at one of her stops I drop into a B&M which shall remain nameless (PM me offline if you want to know) to check out their inventory.
The shop itself was ok, it had a really nice smoking area with TV's, oversized chairs, and a poker table. The ventilation was really kinda bad, not something that changing the filters could not fix. Their inventory and the condition of the sticks were very good. Thy featured your normal smattering of offerings including some recent releases from Camacho, CAO, LFD and Padron and their prices (for California) were not bad at all.
Now here's the rant:
So after perusing and picking up a couple of sticks that I wanted to try, I made my purchase and was about to walk out. Then a guy walks in (college kid) and tells the guy that he is new to the hobby and he is looking for cigars. The guy walks through, picks up a couple of sticks and then turns to the clerk and asks "What can you tell me about this cigar?" To wit the clerk picks up this laminated profile sheet and starts to read from it word for word! He told the kid that the cigar "should taste like this" based on the wrapper. When the kid prodded for more information the clerk said "I dunno".
Not wanting to see this kid get turned off by this experience, I asked him a few questions to gauge his nicotine tolerance and to see what he was looking for. After telling me that he had never smoked a cigarette and that his friends told him to look for something with a Connecticut wrapper, I gave him a crash course so as to not overwhelm him and directed him to pick up a My Father Connecticut and a San Lotano Connecticut and to try them. I shared with him that he has to determine what he likes and not to let any magazine, blog or even what we say here on botl.org (I told him to check us out), sway him. Instead, smoke a number of sticks by different manufacturers and find what you like and remember if you decide to stick around, to share the share.
I plan on calling the owner of the shop tomorrow and letting him know that he needs to hire better or spend more time in the shop otherwise, what began as a worthwhile establishment, will turn into an afterthought.
This evening my wife had to run some errands so I tagged along being the doting husband that I am (brownie points...). So at one of her stops I drop into a B&M which shall remain nameless (PM me offline if you want to know) to check out their inventory.
The shop itself was ok, it had a really nice smoking area with TV's, oversized chairs, and a poker table. The ventilation was really kinda bad, not something that changing the filters could not fix. Their inventory and the condition of the sticks were very good. Thy featured your normal smattering of offerings including some recent releases from Camacho, CAO, LFD and Padron and their prices (for California) were not bad at all.
Now here's the rant:
So after perusing and picking up a couple of sticks that I wanted to try, I made my purchase and was about to walk out. Then a guy walks in (college kid) and tells the guy that he is new to the hobby and he is looking for cigars. The guy walks through, picks up a couple of sticks and then turns to the clerk and asks "What can you tell me about this cigar?" To wit the clerk picks up this laminated profile sheet and starts to read from it word for word! He told the kid that the cigar "should taste like this" based on the wrapper. When the kid prodded for more information the clerk said "I dunno".
Not wanting to see this kid get turned off by this experience, I asked him a few questions to gauge his nicotine tolerance and to see what he was looking for. After telling me that he had never smoked a cigarette and that his friends told him to look for something with a Connecticut wrapper, I gave him a crash course so as to not overwhelm him and directed him to pick up a My Father Connecticut and a San Lotano Connecticut and to try them. I shared with him that he has to determine what he likes and not to let any magazine, blog or even what we say here on botl.org (I told him to check us out), sway him. Instead, smoke a number of sticks by different manufacturers and find what you like and remember if you decide to stick around, to share the share.
I plan on calling the owner of the shop tomorrow and letting him know that he needs to hire better or spend more time in the shop otherwise, what began as a worthwhile establishment, will turn into an afterthought.
I got problems. Haha. So now when asked about a cigar I'm smoking, I just say if it's good or not. That's it.
to this post. I'm kidding, if it wasn't apparent.
