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come to me with their personal issues; they
consider this business their family.”
And as much as employees respect Hoyt, he
respects and puts a lot of faith in them. “We’re
big on [being a] team here. It’s very much a
family, and we let each of our store managers
have control,” he says. “If a hurricane comes,
it’s ‘Do what you have to do.’ If they don’t feel
safe, they can close the store—they are in con-
trol. We trust them. It’s like we have a supervi-
sor at every one of our stores.”
Even on product matters, Hoyt admits a
manager may make a better call than he. “They
know our business. I go in and tell them that I
think we’re overstocked; and they’ll tell me that
that’s not the case. I’ve been here 15 years, but
some of them have been here longer—the lon-
gest is 35 years, and we have a handful that have
been here 20 years. [So] I listen to them.”
THE “C” WORD
But there is one area where employees and
Hoyt clash: the idea of bringing this business
over to the “C” word—cannabis. The state of
Louisiana recently legalized the sale of medi-
cal marijuana and, as an ever-evolving entre-
preneur, Hoyt can’t not look at the business
potential in cannabis accessories and more. But
he also can’t ignore the culture clash that it rep-
resents—something employees have been more
than candid about.
“Part of the issue is that we run a company
where we drug test—we built a team around
being drug-free, so we find ourselves in a di-
lemma,” Hoyt tells
TB
. “We didn’t do anything
around synthetic [marijuana] a couple of waves
back when the state [legalized] it. As a fami-
ly-run Christian business and with my dad in
politics, that was an easy call. But now that it
passed in medical and seems to be where the
industry seems to be evolving, we don’t want to
miss out. We’re evaluating it week by week.”
He emphasizes that, naturally, none of the
products he’s evaluating for sale in his potential
non-medical marijuana stores contain THC.
Instead, they are glassware and CBD (
cannabi-
diol
) items.
Nevertheless, because a few veteran man-
agers and employees told Hoyt that he has to
choose between “these products or me,” he’s
taking a cautious approach. Where managers
are willing, he has put in some alternative items
to see how well they do with present Smoke ’N
Go customers.
So far, they’re not really moving. “Maybe
we’ve already abandoned that customer,” says
Hoyt. “It’s like going into McDonald’s and ask-
ing for a hot dog. It doesn’t work.”
Hoyt already had an inkling of that when he
tested vape products a few years ago. “We didn’t
want to get into vapor, but when the nail salon
on the side of one of our stores put out a sign
saying ‘We carry electronic cigarettes,’ we got
into it by default.”
Quickly, Hoyt learned that the drive-thru
was a handicap to vape, just as it seems to be
for alternative items. “All we have is one face
behind the window. We don’t have time to ed-
ucate, nor the time to show them product be-
cause the queue is four to five cars deep—but
that’s what’s working for us in the combustible
tobacco business.”
And when something is working with the
business, “My dad has always told me to leave it
alone,” says Hoyt.
So now the question becomes “Does Smoke
’N Go stay intact and open a sister store across
the street?” as Hoyt puts it. A store that has a
“touchy-feely” aspect for vape items and alter-
natives? One that does not have a dress code,
but rather, lets employees “walk the talk and
look the part?” This is Hoyt’s present thinking.
“We’ve built our business model around com-
bustibles and now that’s changing, so let’s keep
these 21 [products] up and running. There’s no
reason to stop that,” he comments. “However, as
products expand, so must our retail concepts.”
LOYALTY PROGRAMS AND MORE
That doesn’t mean the Smoke ’N Go loca-
tions will stop evolving as well, notes Hoyt,
who is currently gathering knowledge on loy-
alty programs.
“My theory is that no new smokers are enter-
ing the market,” he says. “They’re already shop-
ping my local c-store competitors. My plan is to
have a loyalty program to go to war against my
competition and have those customers shop my
stores.” Hoyt hasn’t worked out the loyalty pro-
gram details yet, but he recognizes that it needs
to be “drum tight.”
Last year, the chain invested in a FasTrax
POS system and began scanning items at the
register. “What drove that improvement is the
new Philip Morris contract, where if you send
them scan data they’ll offset the cost of it,” says
Hoyt. “That has been huge for small mom-and-
pops like us. It funded us to get into the 21
st
cen-
tury, system-wise.”
Hoyt and his father also recently took a road
trip to visit other tobacco stores to network and
explore ancillary ideas such as growler beers,
fountain drinks and local business partnerships.
Since he climbed aboard his father’s retail
tobacco legacy, “Go” might as well be Hoyt’s
middle name, as he has kept the business mov-
ing in an evolutionary direction. And he doesn’t
plan on stopping now.
TB
Smoke ’N Go
Timeline
1991:
Fred Hoyt opens Cheap-O-Depot
tobacco outlet; it is the second
tobacco store in the state
of Louisiana.
1993:
Four more Cheap-O-Depot stores
open, officially classifying the
company as a tobacco
outlet chain.
2000:
Two acquisitions bring the total
Cheap-O-Depot locations
up to seven.
2002:
Richard Hoyt, Fred’s son,
joins the family business.
2003:
Father and son open up the first
Smoke ’N Go concept, for
a total of eight stores.
The drive-thru era is born.
2004-2010:
The chain’s growth goes into its
highest gear. New stores are
opened and competitor stores
are bought out at the rate
of two stores a year.
2011-2014:
Cheap-O-Depot locations are
morphed into the new Smoke ’N
Go concept, by either updating
or moving locations to
accommodate a drive-thru.
2015:
The 21st Smoke ’N Go location is
acquired. From the chain’s main
office in Abbeville, Louisiana, stores
“are about two hours [away] in
every direction,” says Richard Hoyt,
vice president. “Within our radius,
the market is saturated. That is our
reason for slower growth.”
2017:
The chain is currently looking to buy
out a current competitor or two.
It is also “sitting on ‘Go’ for new
opportunities,” says Hoyt. These
include a possible separate business
model for alternative items.
[ T O B A C C O B U S I N E S S . C O M ]
TOBACCO BUSINESS
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