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TOBACCO BUSINESS INTERNATIONAL
JULY/AUGUST 2015
trench marketing
BY MICHAEL GELFAND
P
rior to 2008, Victor Lindquist’s
building contractor business
was booming in lockstep with
the U.S. economy, and it seemed like
the good times would never end. But
as the financial markets teetered into
a near-death spiral and the housing
market began caving in on itself over the
course of 2008, Lindquist came to the
unwelcome conclusion that he had to
find something else to do.
As luck would have it, his brother-in-
law was doing just fine in the tobacco
retailing business, an industry that
seemed to be nearly impervious by
comparison to the economic troubles of
the day. So after some hands-on training
and a lot of research, Lindquist opened
the Maine Tobacco Shop in Bangor,
Maine in 2009, and a new career path
opened up in front of him.
“I had absolutely no knowledge of this
business,” recalls Lindquist. “I developed
an interest through my brother-in-
law, educated myself, did a lot of due
diligence and decided it was the right
move.” Soon after opening the Bangor
store, he launched a second store in
nearby Waterville. Both stores offer
customers a robust selection of premium
cigarettes, roll-your-own kits, loose
tobacco, premium cigars, filtered cigars
and smokeless tobacco.
What’s more, thanks to impeccable
timing and intensive self-education
back when he started in the business,
Lindquist developed an early interest in
vaping products.That, in turn, led him to
adopt the novel products into his stores’
product mix starting five years ago. As
a result, he’s enjoyed quite a healthy
run-up as vaping products transformed
Feet on Both Sides
of the Fence
Victor Lindquist’s product mix is a careful balancing act
of tobacco and vaping products—and his customers love it.