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| RESPECTING CIGAR RETAILERS |
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Page 1 of 2  Plus: Smoking ban may have backfired in Hong KongLos Angeles, January 17 – Compared with the drumbeat of negative reporting about cigarettes, there’s increasing coverage – generally positive – about cigar retailers and their positive impact on their communities. We found these three stories just this week: "There are a few upscale restaurants in the area but after you have dinner, where do you go?" asked Leslie during an interview with reporter Alejandra Diaz. "Fort Myers needed a place like this . . . with a little touch of class and elegance." This is no hole-in-the-wall space. It's 6,000 square feet with a dedicated cigar shop and a separate liquor store inside, not to mention a private clubroom that’s for members only. It has a private bar, a variety of seating areas and, of course, a series of flat-screen televisions. Each member get a private locker and the room is accessed not by a key, but by a thumb scanner. Now that’s private! The humidor is the largest in Lee County and has more than 100 brands. More than 110 varieties of wines are in stock, in addition to spirits and it takes a staff of 20 to handle the entire operation. Search and his wife, Dotty, didn’t have a background in retailing or in cigars. "The only thing I knew," he told reporter Jodie Tillman, "was that I liked cigars." No matter. Twenty years after he bought in, the Searches are still operating the small Tobacco Hut shop in a strip mall in New Port Richey, Florida. Dotty, who is 74, works the morning shift and Lou, now 80, works the afternoons. They're the whole staff and have no plans to retire. Lou kept his regular business – a pressure cleaning company – going for ten years before joining his wife in the shop. Today, he estimates they have a customer base of more than 1,000 and they sell pipes, dozens of different brands, shapes or sizes of cigars and "specially blended tobacco." Tobacco Hut customers also enjoy "a Friday night tradition: Lou pulls out some extra folding chairs and puts on a pot of coffee and in come the cops and lawyers and business types for a smoke and gab session. "'Of course,' said Lou, 'we solve the world’s problems.'" |
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Did you know?
“Avo Uvezian, creator of the Avo line, helped write the 1960s smash "Strangers in the Night".
