A Day in the Life of a Retail Assistant #109

Hello C.Gars! I’m Oliver and I have been working for C.Gars for 6 years! Those who read the C.Gars cigar library would have already seen my work. I also work in the Turmeaus shop in Norfolk, a beautiful shop a stone’s throw away from the beach! I have been writing a blog on the Turmeaus website for a long time now and plenty of customers have enjoyed reading it but now… I have hit the big time! Being able to write my blog on the C.Gars website is a true privilege and I hope you all enjoy it. You can read my previous blog posts on the Turmeaus website by clicking here.

So what happened in the Norfolk store last week?

On Monday, It was Josh and myself in the shop. We had a mountain of online pickings to complete! But we were up for the challenge! Meanwhile I had one of my regular customers come in and enquire about what Springbank spirits we received in our latest allocation. Luckily we had one he wanted – The Springbank 12 Year Old Cask Strength. Always check with your local C.Gars or Turmeaus store as each store can have different sets of spirits. I also served a gentleman from where I originally came from (Birmingham). He was after a new Falcon pipe, it turns out he forgot to bring his pipe on holiday so decided to buy a new one. Falcon pipes have been making reliable pipes since 1936, their unique system where you can take the bowl off and change it is revolutionary and saves you having to purchase a pipe every year or so. The customer left incredibly happy after looking at all of our offerings. 

Tuesday was my promotions day. I started by creating the shop newsletters for our stores. Each individual store will have their own special promotions, so if you get to visit a store, ask what promotions they are doing, you might bag yourself a bargain! Afterwards I started writing an article for the C.Gars cigar library. I was previously asked by Lewis, whom many of you will know from a lot of our Youtube videos, to create a “how to store your cigars article”. So, ask and he will receive, I created one which you can read here. I also spent some time taking the pictures and I even took advantage of the beautiful sunshine here in Norfolk. Meanwhile, I had tasked Will to create a new centre display, away went Fathers day decorations and say hello to summer! He created a lovely display inside our display humidor and chose some rums he felt went well in the summer weather. He is also particularly proud of his little Seagull display in an empty Davidoff Orchant Seleccion cigar box. What do you think?

I enjoyed Wednesday off and came back in on Thursday, I was on order picking duty with Josh and Robyn. Josh concentrated on picking pipe tobacco and accessories, whilst Robyn and I focused on the cigars. Picking cigars is certainly my speciality, as a lot of my colleagues tend to come to me if they can’t see what they need. However we have come a long way since when I first started and now have multiple staff who can pick everything that we offer, which is brilliant! I noticed whilst I was picking that the Las Villas brand has become incredibly popular, they started off poorly but we did a small promotion and they started flying off the shelves! In between picking orders I started to create the cigar subscriptions. Since taking on all three it has become a big and slightly more difficult task, but I’m always up for a challenge! 

On Friday, I was picking online orders and serving customers in the shop. Once I finished picking orders I completed another article for the C.Gars cigar library. It was a brilliant guide for those who are new to Cuban cigars. I edited the pictures of the samplers we offer so they show as many as possible and then I created a kind of collage for the title banner. You can read that article by clicking here. In the afternoon, Will and I completed the Cuban cigar stock count. To say Will has mastered counting thousands of cigars would be an understatement, for someone who started with no knowledge, he is certainly coming along well!

On Saturday, Will and I was joined by Porscha! It’s the first time we have worked together as a trio and we had a brilliant day! We started by picking the online orders and then I set Will a task of creating a new Cigarism display. I like to ask newer members of staff to create displays as they have fresh eyes compared to myself and so they pick some interesting items to display. Will chose the Cigarism Round G10 to heavily display, they are a very unique design and are very eye-catching. We also had plenty of customers including two gentlemen who had travelled from Cambridge. One was interested in having two cigars, he mentioned that he enjoyed a Davidoff mini cigarillos and a Drew Estate Factory Smokes Shade, he also mentioned wanting a sweeter cigar. So I suggested the reliable Regius Serie Limitada Robusto. It is always an impeccable smoke for a great price, I also suggested he should try a Cuban cigar as he had never tried one before, and so he decided to have the Montecristo Media Corona. Afterwards the other gentleman he was with was looking at our whisky and mentioned his wife liking peated whisky. I instantly mentioned our Stalla Dhu Islay as a brilliant peated whisky to enjoy. He had a little taster and fell in love! He bought a bottle and made sure to take our business card so he could order more online if he can’t make it back. I also got to see a familiar face, who I used to serve when I first started working in the shop. He is in the Army so often travels around but whenever he is back he always comes in for a lovely cigar. This time I suggested the Foundation Wise Man Maduro Corona, this particular customer always trusts my judgement as he has enjoyed every cigar I have suggested so far!

I hope you have all enjoyed my first C.Gars blog and I hope you will come and visit me in Norfolk very soon.

So long for now.

Oliver.

The post A Day in the Life of a Retail Assistant #109 first appeared on C.GARS Ltd Cigar Blog.

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