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Tobacco retailers that actually sell booze in-store
have a natural edge in switching gears with events. Bill
Grantz, owner and partner at Cox’s Smokers Outlet
& Spirit Shoppes based in Louisville, Kentucky, previ-
ously saw a decline in attendance in cigar event turn-
outs, “so we have moved in the other direction,” he
tells
TB,
meaning with the spirits and craft beer side of
the business as the focus, and the cigars as ancillary
.
“We
have been more involved in ‘Buy Local’-type events,”
which, he reports, are drawing crowds and increasing
overall business, including cigars, even without pairings
or event alignments.
Focusing in-store with cigars, Grantz has been partner-
ing with “some of our premium cigar reps to run more
in-store promotions such as ‘buy three, get one free’ to
drive a higher ring per sale and move more sticks,” he
says. Several years ago, the chain also rolled out a VIP
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I think the
festival has
helped our
manufacturer
relationships
and brand-
building for
both them and
our Smoker
Friendly stores
in the Color-
ado market.
Customer Rewards program, allowing customers to accu-
mulate points that eventually earn them Reward Dollars
to use toward future purchases. The company initiated the
concept for premium cigars, but its success with stogies
inspired it to roll it out for all of its current categories.
GOING BIGGER
Not all tobacco retailers are streamlining events—the
biggest tobacco outlet chain of all, Smoker Friendly In-
ternational, puts on a number of “cool cigar events,” ac-
cording to Gallagher, Jr., spreading them out among dif-
ferent stores. SFI is also part of a very large (and growing
larger) cigar event: The Rocky Mountain Cigar Festival,
held in August every year.
“I think the festival has helped our manufacturer re-
lationships and brand-building for both them and our
Smoker Friendly stores in the Colorado market,” Gal-