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Three Must-Haves
for Building a Successful
Humidor Program
When developing a humidor program, remember
that first impressions are everything. The goal of any
successful humidor program is to create returning
clientele. Take these three factors into consideration
before launching your humidor.
Space allocation.
Start by calculating how much
space you want to dedicate to the humidor. This
could range from a 15-by-11-by-23-inch countertop
humidor, which can hold up to 180 cigars, to a 6-foot
single- or double-wide humidor that can hold 1,000
to 3,000 sticks. If you’re going to carry more than
50 boxes or facings, your business should invest in
building a walk-in humidor.
Price point.
What you charge for a cigar depends on
the customers who typically come into your store. You
should have three different price points: inexpensive,
mid-range, and high. Keep it simple—for your custom-
ers, and for you and your staff to become familiar with
and maintain them all.
Flavor profiles.
Your humidor should contain cigars
that are mild-, medium- and full-flavored. Again,
keeping it simple will smooth the transition into cigar
sales—for you, your employees and your customers.
Let's change this to Las Vegas' Casa Fuente
humidor has an elegant feel.
PHOTO COURTESY OF CASA FUENTE/501 STUDIOS
PAIRINGS ARE POPULAR
As another part of offering your customers an ex-
perience to push the sales of your cigars, consider
pairing cigars with another popular product cate-
gory in your retail store, like spirits. At The Party
Source, Douglas says his store has worked hard to
develop pairings between different spirit categories
and cigars. When his store underwent a redesign, the
humidor got a better placement near the main en-
trance—also near the bourbon selection, the store’s
most popular product category. Knowing that many
customers are coming to the store to buy bourbon,
the company placed the humidor along the path to
the bourbon section to help drive traffic into the hu-
midor. Moreover, the business used visual pairing to
help customers pair cigars with the store’s beer and
whisky offerings. Cross-promoting cigars with your
establishment’s most popular non-tobacco products
is an easy way to boost your overall sales.
Although regulations are currently curtailing in-
novation, there are plenty of cigars on the market
to choose from. “While we can’t come out with new
brands, you’ll probably see a lot of re-releases that have
been discontinued or sold in the market previously,”
commented Charles.
Furthermore, in a challenging market, manufac-
turers are more interested than ever in partnering
with retailers and getting their products into retail
humidors. “The FDA is not going to take us out,”
said Holliway. “We want them to be our friend, we
want to work with them, but you’re still going to see
manufacturers [being] aggressive and [doing] every-
thing that they can to support the retailers because
the goal of manufacturers and retailers is [to sell]
more cigars.”
TB
[ T O B A C C O B U S I N E S S . C O M ]
TOBACCO BUSINESS
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