76
TOBACCO BUSINESS
MARCH/APRIL 2014
trench marketing
BY MICHAEL GELFAND
M
any people attend church in hopes of seeing a
sign that will reveal the path that their lives will
take. The sign that shaped Jessica Curnett’s
future, however, came to her in a slightly different way. “It
was back in 2011, and I was on my way to church when
I saw a sign outside the local tobacco market that said,
‘Roll Your Own Headquarters,’ so I pulled off the road to
see for myself what was going on.” The store’s owner met
Curnett, who had rolled her own cigarettes for 17 years
prior, out in front of the store at the time, and they spoke
about his store and the business for 45 minutes. “We just
hit it off,” she says, “and he asked me to come back that
upcoming Wednesday. I came back dressed up to the
nines because I sensed he had it in mind to hire me as his
manager.” As she suspected, after a short conversation,
Curnett was hired.
Jessica Curnett came
to the business by chance,
but she deftly turned
J.C. Tobacco Mart into
a raging success
by keeping RYO on the
top of her
customers’ minds.
Reading the Signs
