A Day in the Life of a Retail Assistant #113

Hi everyone, it has been another great week here in Turmeaus Norfolk! We had the honour of hosting, Andy Swain – The UK Manager for Dominique London as well as our lovely customers.

On Monday, it was the usual team of Josh and myself, picking many cigar orders that our loyal customers ordered over the weekend. I noticed a lot of customers purchasing from the Perla Del Mar range – mainly the Toro. I actually used it in my New World subscription, a month or two ago and since then it has become very popular – It seems to be once you have tried – You love it! After my order pickings, I helped the packing department. When there are lots of orders to pick, there are also lots to pack too! So I do try to help out when possible. In between orders I served a lovely gentleman who was going to a wedding and was in charge of getting the cigars. He wanted 10 nice cigars as well as around 10 cheaper ones for those who don’t smoke as often. So I suggested a few boxes of 10 for the nice ones, in the end the gentleman chose a box of E.P Carrillo Encore Noir Majestic No. 2 – He liked the look of the box and the cigars suited the theme of the wedding. For the cheaper smokes, of course I originally suggested the Mitchellero Robusto, but then I thought to myself, if a darker cigar like the Encore Noir went well with the theme, how about the Puffin cigars, they have a jet black box and the bands are dark too. The gentleman loved it and purchased a box of the Shorty. I don’t know why but this sale filled me with joy, maybe it was talking about cigars that would fit in with the theme of the wedding.

On Tuesday, I was picking orders with Lisa and Ben. We also received a rather large delivery from our Cuban cigar supplier – Hunters and Frankau. There were many rare cigars like the Trinidad Robusto Extra which had recently returned to the UK market as well as a new release – Partagas Cedros Year of the Snake – This is a limited edition from Habanos S.A to celebrate the Chinese New Year. I thoroughly enjoyed looking through all of the cigars as you get to smell the aroma of a freshly opened box of Cuban cigars. Afterwards I started to organise my September subscriptions, I always try to find some unique cigars for our loyal subscribers to try and even get some new releases that either haven’t been out for long or aren’t regularly available. I also served a regular customer who loves Twist tobacco, he purchased some of the Kendal Black Irish XXX and then asked for a large ring gauge cigar cutter as he uses that to cut it. I thought that was genius! Instead of using a knife or scissors, use a tool that is designed to cut through tobacco!

On Thursday, we were having a Norfolk management meeting with Andy Swain. Many members of staff were in attendance, myself included. We discussed many things which I can’t talk about, but it was very positive and all I can say is watch this space! Before working at C.Gars, I had always been nervous about meeting senior members of staff, but what I can say is all senior members of staff here are incredibly nice and accommodating. From Mitchell shaking my hand every time he visits and asking about my family, to Andy shaking my hand and making sure we have everything we need to succeed in our goals – It is such a nice feeling knowing I work for such a lovely company. When I came back from the meeting, I wrote an article for the C.Gars Cigar Library, about which gas to use for your ST Dupont lighter – It had always confused me that there were many different gases for ST Dupont products but each lighter has its speciality. You can read it here. I also spent some time taking pictures. Afterwards towards the end of the day, I started to create a poster to advertise our pipe tobacco samplers. I used to depend on others for posters for the shop, but now I will be doing them all myself. What do you think?

On Friday, I was back in the shop. I started by writing an article to help promote the return of the Trinidad Robusto Extra, which you can read here, and then I concentrated on making the shop newsletters. Since I have started doing them, I would say the staff in the other stores have massively improved the content they provide – So if any of them are reading this… Thank you all! I served a lovely American gentleman who wanted to look at our pipe tobacco range. He likes a big range of tobacco but settled for two tins of Peterson Dark Flake, Solani Virginia Flake With Perique Blend 633 and a tin of Germains Royal Jersey Perique Mixture. The Germains is currently out of stock on our website but you should always ask your sales assistant as you never know what they might be able to find. In the afternoon, Josh and I completed the Cuban stock count, I must say I have never seen us have so many different Cuban cigars in stock!

On Saturday, Josh and I was joined by Porscha! We worked through the online orders and then all got on with our tasks. Porscha has been adding every barcode onto our till system to make it easier for everyone to use. Josh has been reviewing cigars for the Cigar Library and me? Well I have to find some time to write this blog. Afterwards, Porscha packed the online orders and Josh and I worked through our humidors, stocking up where we can.

I hope you have enjoyed this week’s blog and I hope to see you all in Norfolk very soon.

So long for now.

Oliver.

The post A Day in the Life of a Retail Assistant #113 first appeared on C.GARS Ltd Cigar Blog.

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