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36
TOBACCO OUTLET BUSINESS
MAY/JUNE 2012
that we sell a premium handmade
product that is a symbol of celebration
and not one enjoyed out of habit,” he
relays to
Tobacco Outlet Business
. “I
felt like we had a good conversation
about the products that are covered
under H.R. 1639—I showed her the
artisan appeal and explained that
there are over six billion cigars sold in
this country, but only 300 million are
premium, so a very small percentage
is the segment we’re fighting for.”
Cass
then
invited
the
Congresswoman to sit with him in
the store’s lounge where her first
comment was “I understand now,”
according to him.
“She understood from our talking
that the original legislative intent
was to keep tobacco—originally
cigarettes and smokeless—away
from youth, and that the products
we’re selling and our environment do
not cater to children buying tobacco
products,” he maintains. “Youths are
not buying $8 cigars; premium cigars
are collateral damage of the initial
legislation.”
A visit worth
a thousand words
Cass says the opportunity to
have a face-to-face conversation
with Myrick was “the whole point”
of contacting her. He explains, “You
always hear that a picture is worth
a thousand words, well this was all
visual to her, plus she could hear me
talk with passion and knowledge;
and any one of us in this business
can do that. Any of us retailers take a
chance to get in this business and we
all pour our blood, sweat and tears
into it. We all have a passion to tell,
any one of us can do it, but we all
should do it—and it works.”
Myrick visited with Cass and the
Tinder Box for about 30 minutes
and within 30 days “we added her
as a co-sponsor to H.R. 1639,” Cass
says proudly. “Now I have an open
dialogue with her, she knows my
name.”
She also knows his golf handicap.
Six weeks after Myrick’s visit with
Tinder Box she invited Cass to be a
guest at a golf tournament she was
hosting. He participated in the event
and even handed out cigars. The two
were also photographed together. “I