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TOBACCO BUSINESS INTERNATIONAL
MAY/JUNE 2015
The decorated bank building from the 1800s might be the pull that gets so many
passersby to walk into James and Sons Tobacconists, but it’s the investment in
excellent stogie sales practice that yields the high customer return.
I
t’s hard not to notice something
special is going on at James
and Sons Tobacconists in
Sarasota Springs, New York even
before you walk in the door. The
door itself is a magnificent work
of art—more than 6 inches thick
of solid wood with ornate carvings
and hand-carved antique brass
hinges—attached to an equally
magnificent façade belonging to an
old bank building dating back to
1866 that opens to antique wood
floors, 8-foot windows, marble
floors in the main showroom and
tin ceilings throughout.
“The building sells my business,”
owner Jim Kommer tells
Tobacco
Business International
(
TBI
), but
he’s being modest. For the nine
years that James and Sons has been
in operation, Kommer, along with
his wife and (as the banner implies)
two sons involved in the business,
continually strives for practices to
improve it.
Like his customers, Kommer
was drawn to the building when
he spotted it more than a decade
ago (at the time it was a ladies’
boutique) and felt it “reeked of a
cigar shop.” As luck would have
it, the store became available for
rent shortly thereafter so Kommer
signed the lease and ran with the
old-world theme.
“We added to it with antique
pedal cars on top of display areas,
carving out a lounge with an old
Cuban style and another one in
an old English style,” he says. “We
wanted people to catch on to the
nostalgia going back to the days
when cigar smoking was readily
acceptable. We get a lot of people
who want to just breathe it in;
Banking on Cigars
By Renée Covino