Hi everyone, I hope you enjoyed my debut blog on C.Gars! I hope you have all gone onto the Turmeaus blog to see my many adventures too. It’s been another brilliant week here in Turmeaus Norfolk, with many customers coming through the door and our preparation for a full stock count!

On Monday, it was the usual team of Josh and I, we worked together through the online order pickings and then later in the afternoon, I went to help in the packing department, when I was amazed to see Will had beaten me to it! Is there anything this young man can’t do! Since starting with us just over a month ago now, he has learnt so much and really excelled! 

So I went away and started working on finishing all of the shop’s newsletters. Meanwhile I served a couple of gentlemen who were interested in our pipes. The older gentleman wanted a new bowl for his Falcon pipe (I can’t believe how many people are purchasing Falcon products). The other gentleman needed a new pipe that looked slightly different, this was because his wife complains about his pipe collection. But who doesn’t need a new pipe right? Afterwards, I served another gentleman who began by saying he was looking for a few cigars and a robust humidor. So we started looking at all of the cigars, we spoke about all the different brands and what suited his palate and what didn’t. He got a vast array of cigars including, La Unica, Casa Turrent, Liga Privada, Tabernacle and more! In the end he finished with 11 cigars! For someone who only wanted a few, he went away with a lot more. Moving onto humidors, the customer liked a nice wooden box and so we had a few for him to choose from. In the end he liked the pattern of the Budget Dark Burl Humidor – 25 Cigar Capacity. He certainly left happy!

On Tuesday, I was in the shop! I started to get everything ready for our big stock count! When we do our big stock count, every employee who works at Norfolk joins together and counts each product we have, sometimes we find some hidden gems of which, I’m sure you will see on our website over the next few days. So in preparation, I checked over the shop to make sure all products had a tag on, making it easier for the people counting. I served a gentleman who wanted a bottle of Irish Whiskey. Unfortunately we didn’t have the bottle he wanted so started to ask about the Scotch whisky instead. He wanted something fruity, to which I recommended the Tomatin 12 Year Old, as I had tried it personally and found it very fruity! You can really taste the Sherry cask coming through. In the afternoon, I continued working on the August cigar subscriptions and I tell you what, they are a good one! Make sure you subscribe to take advantage of the amazing deal you get!

On Wednesday, I was picking orders with Will and Ben, we quickly got through all of the online orders and then we got to work on tidying and organising stock rooms ready for the stock count. Ben and Will organised our accessory room and cigarette, whilst I organised our Dunhill cupboard. By doing this it helps everyone out ready for the big count! I was also given some feedback by our content manager Billie. She looked at my newsletters and gave me some great feedback as well as parts to improve. So I got to work improving and hopefully I have made her proud!

On Thursday, I was back in the shop. I started by helping pick online orders, as we were all getting prepared for the big stock count. Afterwards, Will, Josh and myself started de-pluming cigars. De-pluming cigars is a very long and delicate task, and even though a cigar growing plume is a good thing, it doesn’t look particularly nice, and especially for novice smokers who may not know what plume is! If you want to learn more about cigar plume you can read this article which I wrote a long time ago by clicking here. We also had some lovely celebrations too as today was Sharon’s last day at work before her wedding! She had returned at the start of the year from a year’s long maternity leave and now she’s having another big day getting married! She also wanted to let everyone know what cigars the groomsmen will be having at the wedding – The Oliva Aliados Robusto! She started by looking at the band and decided she liked the colours and then looked into the flavour notes and decided it sounded lovely for them all to enjoy!

I also served one of my favourite customers! He loves a strong cigar and always goes with my recommendations as I have never let him down. This time however he didn’t have long so chose to have an Aladino sampler as I think they are now his favourite brand! However his overall favourite is the Davidoff Yamasa Piramides! Which I persuaded him to try.

On Friday, it was the big day for us in Norfolk! Stock count day! Everyone had their assignments, mine was the New World stock count with Josh. As previous readers of my blog will know, I count the New World cigars bi-weekly and so this will be nothing new for me. Josh has also counted it a few times, so together we had no problems! Afterwards we had to pick almost the whole days worth of online pickings! To get an accurate stock count, we don’t pick online orders other than those who have qualified/paid for express and next day deliveries (This is another reason why you should consider paying for priority shipping). The whole team picked as much as we could and got almost all of them packed and booked on the Royal Mail system.

I hope you have enjoyed this weeks goings on and I hope to see you in Norfolk very soon

So long for now

Oliver

Hello C.Gars! I’m Oliver and I have been working for C.Gars for 6 years! Those who read the C.Gars cigar library would have already seen my work. I also work in the Turmeaus shop in Norfolk, a beautiful shop a stone’s throw away from the beach! I have been writing a blog on the Turmeaus website for a long time now and plenty of customers have enjoyed reading it but now… I have hit the big time! Being able to write my blog on the C.Gars website is a true privilege and I hope you all enjoy it. You can read my previous blog posts on the Turmeaus website by clicking here.

So what happened in the Norfolk store last week?

On Monday, It was Josh and myself in the shop. We had a mountain of online pickings to complete! But we were up for the challenge! Meanwhile I had one of my regular customers come in and enquire about what Springbank spirits we received in our latest allocation. Luckily we had one he wanted – The Springbank 12 Year Old Cask Strength. Always check with your local C.Gars or Turmeaus store as each store can have different sets of spirits. I also served a gentleman from where I originally came from (Birmingham). He was after a new Falcon pipe, it turns out he forgot to bring his pipe on holiday so decided to buy a new one. Falcon pipes have been making reliable pipes since 1936, their unique system where you can take the bowl off and change it is revolutionary and saves you having to purchase a pipe every year or so. The customer left incredibly happy after looking at all of our offerings. 

Tuesday was my promotions day. I started by creating the shop newsletters for our stores. Each individual store will have their own special promotions, so if you get to visit a store, ask what promotions they are doing, you might bag yourself a bargain! Afterwards I started writing an article for the C.Gars cigar library. I was previously asked by Lewis, whom many of you will know from a lot of our Youtube videos, to create a “how to store your cigars article”. So, ask and he will receive, I created one which you can read here. I also spent some time taking the pictures and I even took advantage of the beautiful sunshine here in Norfolk. Meanwhile, I had tasked Will to create a new centre display, away went Fathers day decorations and say hello to summer! He created a lovely display inside our display humidor and chose some rums he felt went well in the summer weather. He is also particularly proud of his little Seagull display in an empty Davidoff Orchant Seleccion cigar box. What do you think?

I enjoyed Wednesday off and came back in on Thursday, I was on order picking duty with Josh and Robyn. Josh concentrated on picking pipe tobacco and accessories, whilst Robyn and I focused on the cigars. Picking cigars is certainly my speciality, as a lot of my colleagues tend to come to me if they can’t see what they need. However we have come a long way since when I first started and now have multiple staff who can pick everything that we offer, which is brilliant! I noticed whilst I was picking that the Las Villas brand has become incredibly popular, they started off poorly but we did a small promotion and they started flying off the shelves! In between picking orders I started to create the cigar subscriptions. Since taking on all three it has become a big and slightly more difficult task, but I’m always up for a challenge! 

On Friday, I was picking online orders and serving customers in the shop. Once I finished picking orders I completed another article for the C.Gars cigar library. It was a brilliant guide for those who are new to Cuban cigars. I edited the pictures of the samplers we offer so they show as many as possible and then I created a kind of collage for the title banner. You can read that article by clicking here. In the afternoon, Will and I completed the Cuban cigar stock count. To say Will has mastered counting thousands of cigars would be an understatement, for someone who started with no knowledge, he is certainly coming along well!

On Saturday, Will and I was joined by Porscha! It’s the first time we have worked together as a trio and we had a brilliant day! We started by picking the online orders and then I set Will a task of creating a new Cigarism display. I like to ask newer members of staff to create displays as they have fresh eyes compared to myself and so they pick some interesting items to display. Will chose the Cigarism Round G10 to heavily display, they are a very unique design and are very eye-catching. We also had plenty of customers including two gentlemen who had travelled from Cambridge. One was interested in having two cigars, he mentioned that he enjoyed a Davidoff mini cigarillos and a Drew Estate Factory Smokes Shade, he also mentioned wanting a sweeter cigar. So I suggested the reliable Regius Serie Limitada Robusto. It is always an impeccable smoke for a great price, I also suggested he should try a Cuban cigar as he had never tried one before, and so he decided to have the Montecristo Media Corona. Afterwards the other gentleman he was with was looking at our whisky and mentioned his wife liking peated whisky. I instantly mentioned our Stalla Dhu Islay as a brilliant peated whisky to enjoy. He had a little taster and fell in love! He bought a bottle and made sure to take our business card so he could order more online if he can’t make it back. I also got to see a familiar face, who I used to serve when I first started working in the shop. He is in the Army so often travels around but whenever he is back he always comes in for a lovely cigar. This time I suggested the Foundation Wise Man Maduro Corona, this particular customer always trusts my judgement as he has enjoyed every cigar I have suggested so far!

I hope you have all enjoyed my first C.Gars blog and I hope you will come and visit me in Norfolk very soon.

So long for now.

Oliver.