March/April 2008

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To be a player in cigar retail, you’ve also got to be a player in selling and prepping home humidors.

Customers want to house their cigars at their homes, offices, or while traveling as carefully as you do in your store. So it’s not enough for the tobacco retailer to know how to properly maintain a store humidor—selling and prepping customer humidors, as well as the accessories that go with them, is a must in the cigar business.

Accessory knowledge and expansion is “a very important aspect” of the Nashville, Tennessee-based UPtown’s Smoke Shop business, according to Scott Partridge, general manager. “We pride ourselves on the fact that customers can get virtually any cigar accessory at this shop.”

Partridge estimates that “we easily use a quarter of our store space for all cigar accessories,” and of UPtown’s total cigar-related sales, “roughly 15 percent come from accessories.”

And it’s about to grow larger. The store has just taken over a new lease that will double its size; “with that move, we’ll be expanding cigar accessories and gift lines—including humidors,” says Partridge.

Being a “sister business” to industry wholesaler Music City Marketing is part of UPtown’s Smoke Shop’s accessory fire, but it’s certainly not all of it.

Here are some tips and observations from Partridge, particularly affecting its humidor success:

Humidors have come a long way.

“There was a time when you couldn’t buy a good humidor without investing several hundred dollars,” Partridge maintains. “Now, they’re putting out quality humidors in a more reasonable price range, and as a result, we sell many more of them.”

Keep the supply open.

“It’s helpful that our parent company is a wholesaler—there are absolute synergies there and there’s a good amount of product we’re able to get directly from them,” explains Partridge. “But we don’t limit ourselves—we work with several suppliers and wholesalers in order to provide a good selection and diversity.”

Employee knowledge, knowledge, knowledge.

“I can’t emphasize enough the importance of your employee knowledge,” says Partridge. “We sell humidors that have a price range of $80 up to several thousand dollars. It is important to be able to tell a customer why one humidor is $100 and another one is $1,000.”

A cigar lounge is a plus.

Having a cigar lounge helps to sell more accessories, according to Partridge, because it relaxes customers to the point where they realize how much they enjoy it. What’s more, it also affords them the time to look around and shop. “In addition to having people take advantage of our lounge just to watch TV, we also have business people who come in to take advantage of our wireless service,” Partridge maintains. “They sit down with their laptops and enjoy a cigar while working.” Partridge has found that eventually, both types of “loungers” will become accessory customers. So he has rearranged the smoking lounge with a smattering of gift items, including humidors. “We noticed a spike in sales just from people who come in regularly to work or watch a game and something catches their eye.”

Display prominently.

“We have a very large selection of humidors, and we make sure our customers can’t miss them,” says Partridge. Humidors are displayed in several locations, but especially near the cigar lounge, and especially at holiday time.

Take the step to prep.

“Your customers can spend $1,000 on a humidor, but if it’s not maintained properly, then it’s not worth anything,” says Partridge. “Whatever price customers pay, they need to be maintained properly—and we take the extra steps to prep them so that when they get them home, they’re ready to use. The whole key to a new humidor is getting the humidity level correct before you put the cigars in.” UPtown’s talks to customers to find out exactly how they like their cigars—some like them “softer”—and then explains how to maintain the appropriate humidity level. “We even go as far as printing up ‘Relative Humidity’ sheets (see box) that our customers use as a guide.”

Consider style and fashion.

“Good wood grain humidors are still the most popular, but there’s a market and supply now for a wider variety of styles that we keep abreast of,” notes Partridge. He mentions that some higher-end customers have become very fond of special commemorative manufacturer humidors that he prices to include that brand of cigars inside. It is also important to note that many customers will often buy two—or more—humidors for rooms of different décor (such as an office or living room or bedroom) and may want to consider “matching” those rooms.

Humidors are for the holidays.

Humidor sales definitely pick up over the holidays for UPtown’s Smoke Shop, according to Partridge. “They really do well year-round for us, but we definitely show sales peaks around Father’s Day and Christmas,” he says. “In fact, our December is typically three times the humidor business of an average month.” For the Christmas season, Partridge will start ramping up humidor displays in mid-November. And in the beginning of June and the end of May he highlights “the great gift items,” which, of course, includes humidors. “The idea is for customers to get the idea that it’s a holiday, where they can see the gifts, the moment they walk in,” he says. “We don’t want them to have to hunt for them.”

Add the latest gadgets.

“Once you start making a business of selling humidors, it’s also very important that you stock the things that people need to maintain those humidors,” Partridge emphasizes. In his business he’s noticed that “a lot of people have gone to using Boveda packs—humidity-controlled packs that come in various percentage levels so you can maintain the humidity level you desire. They typically last three to four months, so customers keep coming back for them—I can barely keep them in stock.” The point is to keep up with all the “latest gadgets,” says Partridge. “We like to let our customers know all the various options and have those readily available for them.” •

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Consider the Source

Tobacco outlets that are not well-versed in humidor sales should not shy away from the category entirely. Experts agree that it takes time to build up the clientele and employee expertise—and the accessory source should understand and work with that.

Craftsman’s Bench International, a division of J.C. Newman Cigar Company, is one that offers a wide range of humidors and an understanding of the tobacco outlet retailer’s particular needs.

“Most will concentrate on humidors in the dollar range of mid-40s to the high-70s, but then there are some that want to add in one or two in the middle range of $129, $139, $149—just to give customers a little taste of it,” says Harry Preston, national accounts manager.

The company will sell humidors to tobacco outlets by the case or individually, but “there is a charge by the each, and promotions typically apply only to case goods,” Preston maintains. “Then again, a lot of these upper-end humidors are just packed two or three to a case, so it’s not hard for retailers to buy a case if they want to.”

Another cost issue for tobacco outlets to consider when buying humidors for resale is that many humidor companies charge shipping costs—Craftsman’s Bench does not. “As you might imagine, humidors are bulky and require a lot of insulation to protect them in shipping,” says Preston. “Few retailers take those shipping costs into account when shopping by price.” •

UPtown’s Humidor Humidity Guide

Don’t let that sturdy box of wood fool you—the house of cigars is a delicate one. Humidors need the right mix of temperature and humidity, as UPtown’s Smoke Shop has highlighted in their Determining Relative Humidity: A Guide for Use in Desk Top and Travel Cigar Humidors, which it makes available to all cigar customers:

Relative Humidity (RH is a function of temperature and water vapor trapped in air. The standard for cigar storage is 70 percent humidity (RH) but only at 70 degrees F. Note: At 60 degrees F, it is impossible to attain an equivalent 70 degrees F—the air cannot hold that much moisture. •

Locking in on Lockers

Many consider making individual, humidified in-store lockers available for cigar customers a hallmark upscale cigar retail. How do you know if this would be a lucrative addition to your business?

“If you have a cigar lounge and a solid cigar customer base, then there’s a good chance lockers will be a home run,” says Larry Haggerty, owner of Best Humidor. “If the ‘guy down the road’ has lockers, that’s another indication that you should consider it—and I can build them better, so you can become the ‘best locker guy’ in your area.”

Haggerty is noticing a trend that more tobacco shops and tobacco outlet retailers are moving towards putting cigar lockers in their stores. “They’re looking for new ways to make money and help solidify the cigar customer base,” he says. “And in reality, if you look at a cigar locker, it’s like a little apartment building where you’re the landlord collecting rent.”

A typical tobacco retailer who decides to go with lockers usually buys a bank of 30 or so from Best Humidors, and depending on what the store charges per month, as well as the style and finish of the lockers and the particular humidification system chosen, the cost of the lockers is usually recovered within six to eight months. “After that, it’s all gravy,” says Haggerty. “This is a new source of income for tobacco stores.”

UPtown’s Smoke Shop is considering lockers with its move to a larger space later this year. “We’re in the process of getting a ‘feel’ from our regular customers about it,” says Scott Partridge, general manager. “We’re considering it because we have so many regular customers in several times a week. We’re also considering that it might be easier for some of our customers to buy a full box at a time and put that in their locker, rather than buy individual cigars.”

For those seriously considering humidor lockers, Haggerty notes that design trends have picked up in the past few months. “I did more ‘fancy trim’ packages in 2007 than I did in the last 10 years,” he says. Best Humidor has also had an increased interest in rope lighting. “It’s a really inexpensive way to show off cigars and humidors,” Haggerty adds. •