TOB Magazine

TOBACCO BUSINESS INTERNATIONAL

MARCH/APRIL 2016

Tobacco retailers can learn a thing or two about selling stogies from a successful

small-town operator in southern Oregon.

o good cigars come in small-town (retail) packages?The Cigar

Cave in Grants Pass, Oregon is proof that they do, but not in

any static way.

In operation since 2013 in a town with a population of only about

35,000, The Cigar Cave is “not just a retail store where people come

in to buy cigars,” according to Jesse Bingaman, partner in the business

and store operator. No, instead, the shop has been “very proactive in

reaching out to other communities and doing a lot of remote events,”he

tells

Tobacco Business International

(

TBI

), adding that the store attracts

a “huge base of cigar smokers” even from the nearest large town (with

a population of about 100,000), 30 miles away. “We go to other cities

and create a mobile presence; we do a lot of networking. So there is a

great group of customers,manufacturers and pairing partners that come

to our events.”

For The Cigar Cave, its good news is the same as its bad news: it

is in a small town, so there is little competition, but also, there is the

inclination for low volume. And that’s where the creativity comes in for

Bingaman and his partners,Gerrin Beck andMarv Ransom, along with

Small-Town

Cigar Wisdom

By Renée Covino

Drew Estate Rep Alex Cesa (left) and Roy Lichtenstein, silent partner at

The Cigar Cave, enjoy stogies and fresh air at one of the store’s regular

outdoor “smoke-out” events.