Brick & Mortar Philosophy

[FireRunner]

Operating a cigar store is expensive and very difficult. I am a Landlord, business owner and a property manager. I'm very experienced in all areas of business operations to real estate. Two major factors are location and rental rate. Location is key because if you're in a state that high tobacco tax it is near impossible to compete with online businesses. The second key to location is their proximity to customers who will visit store. Within Washington DC there are only a few cigar stores, however they do well because of location to customers who prefer not to maintain cigars. Rather, they want to purchase and smoke when the time comes.

Rental rate is extremely key since it is usually the highest expense for a business. So, it's a serious balancing act to select a location where a store will have enough customers to be profitable.

I'm lucky enough to have a great relationship with one of my local stores. However, most are not as fortunate. At the end of the day I still, for any industry of business, try to support location stores even if could get better prices online.

[Sticky B]

There's a small spot in South Philly that has an "RP Lounge", I suppose it's the same thing. Not a huge RP fan, but I think it's cool that they have a nice little hangout at the B&M with card table, nice chairs, a TV, etc.

And it's possible that it could not have been afforded without that type of sponsorship (I don't know the specifics), even if it does come with the RP logo scrawled all over everything down there