72
TOBACCO BUSINESS
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2013
in a nondescript strip mall back in 1998. “I was successful
there, but it was barely 1,000 square feet, and I quickly
outgrew it. Then about three years ago I moved into our
current location, which is 1,850 square feet,” he explains.
“It’s a standalone building in Greensboro, and it’s pretty
unique. It was an arts-and-crafts-style house built in 1925
that had been zoned commercially. It had [an] industrial
commercial feel with ugly carpet[ing] and acoustic tiles, but
when I bought the building and tore all of that stuff out, the
original beauty of the structure was revealed.” Today, The
Pipe and Pint boasts burnished hard pine floors and vintage
tin ceilings that work well to complement the tastemaker
approach for which the store has become widely known.
A Thousand Facings, None Machine-made
“We carry premium cigars, but nothing that’s machine-
made,” says Christopher. “Everything is hand-rolled. We
specialize in what we call ‘boutique’ cigars. I don’t even
bother to carry the larger brands like Macanudo or Punch.”
Instead, he carries smaller production products such as
Fuente Fuente Opus X, Lost City, Arturo Fuente, Don Carlos,
God of Fire, La Flor Dominicana, Paul Gamarian, Fuente,
Padron and Ortega. “We were one of the first five My Father
lounges in the U.S.,” he says, “so people still know to come
here to find their Nat Shermans, Sealys, San Latonos, Viajes,
Casa Fernandezes and La Polinas. We have 1,000 facings.”
But The Pipe and Pint, as its name implies, offers more than
just cigars. “We carry pipes, pipe tobacco and accessories,
as well as another hobby of mine that worked its way into
the product mix: specialty beer,” says Christopher. “The
majority of my sales are the tobacco side, but the beer and
wine are a healthy corollary.”
Picking the Low Hanging Fruit
The idea for introducing beer and wine came indirectly
from Christopher’s wife, who is a wine aficionado.
Christopher would order cases of wine for her that
would end up sitting in the middle of his store’s floor
for days before he’d remember to take them home, and
after enough customers asked whether the wine was
for sale, he started thinking about combining the two
product categories.
“The demographics for the person who’s interested
in high-end craft beers and tobacco is almost identical,”
he says, “but I only figured it out when people started
asking for it, and it’s worked well ever since. Cigars
and wines and pipes and craft beers are all affordable
luxury products, so the people who want a $10 cigar
are the same people who’ll want a $12 beer. These are
people who have disposable income and want to enjoy
affordable luxuries—mostly folks who are probably 45-
50 years old,” he says. “What makes it work is that it’s
all sold for off-premises consumption, meaning it’s all
taken home.”
Surprisingly, none of The Pipe and Pint’s success can
be attributed to clever advertising because Christopher
doesn’t do any, at least not in the traditional sense.
Rather than spending money on print or broadcast
media advertising, he focuses his energy on creative
promotional events and social media initiatives to
spread the gospel about his eclectic product mix.
“During my first couple of years in business I ran ads
in the local newspaper. I paid them $100 a week for a
little ad and I’ll bet I didn’t have more than five people
over the course of the year that came in as a result.
Instead, a lot of people would come in and say their
buddy told them they should come check out the shop,
so I learned quickly that word-of-mouth is a lot more
important than a newspaper ad,” he says. “You have
to earn that everyday. You can’t give away the farm,
but you can be nice to people, and that’s really all it
takes.”
trench marketing
“Everything is hand-rolled.
We specialize in what we call ‘boutique’ cigars.
I don’t even bother to carry the larger brands
like Macanudo or Punch.”
