Stan Pottinger, founder of www.CigarsStarsAndStripes.com, was inspired to launch his cigar retail site during a phone conversation with his son, a Marine serving in Iraq. “I said, “What do you need?’ “ recounts Pottinger, “and he said, ‘I could use a few cigars.’ When I asked him why—he wasn’t a big smoker—he said they were a good way to relax, good barter with civilian contractors for things they couldn’t get, and a diplomatic ice-breaker with sheiks, local officials, and Iraqi soldiers.’ “
Pottinger has since spoken with servicemen and women who share his son’s view. “Everyone considers cigars a unique moment of enjoyment in the midst of war,” notes Pottinger, who is based in South Salem, New York. “One guy said the smell of a cigar took him home quicker than photographs. For me, that alone was a reason to launch this web site.”
The site offers 800 brands of cigars, as well as AT&T calling cards, lighters, cutters, cigar cases, and a limited edition humidor not available on the commercial market. Also available are bubblegum cigars and Tootsie Rolls—a candy known to stand up to the desert heat. (The site does not sell cigarettes, snuff, chewing tobacco, pipe tobacco, or any tobacco products other than cigars.)
While www.CigarsStarsAndStripes.com is not affiliated with the military, tobacco product distribution is by U.S. Postal Service Priority Mail and limited to military addresses. Both civilians and military personnel over age 18 (except in Alabama, Alaska, New Jersey, and Utah, where the age limit is 19) can purchase tobacco products from the site, but those products may only be shipped to valid military addresses. Nontobacco products may be shipped to military or civilian addresses.
Gift certificates are one of CigarsStarsAndStripes.Com top sellers. Customers buy them both for people they know and to donate for servicemen and women they don’t know. In both cases, it lets the troops choose the cigars and accessories they want.
“We’ve gotten the web site online just in time for the holidays,” Pottinger says. “We’re already getting terrific stories from Iraq about how much the troops appreciate a cigar. I assumed they’d be enjoyable, but I had no idea how much. As a tension-breaker, there’s nothing like them.”
Pottinger is donating a portion of the site’s revenues to support nonprofits that focus on the military, including Wounded Warriors Project and Fisher Houses. •