Episode 52 Road Trip and Anniversary Show
Episode Summary
Episode 52 is the one-year anniversary show of A Cigar Hustler's Podcast, and hosts Mike Palmer and FCC Mike spend it debriefing a two-day, ten-shop sales road trip across Florida's west coast. Rather than reviewing cigars, this is an inside look at how a brand rep and a retailer size up a tobacconist the moment they walk in the door — starting with a straight walk into the humidor to read the shelf. If it's nothing but Arturo Fuente, Padrón and My Father with no boutiques, the hosts explain, your odds are low; if the boutique section is a scattershot of dozens of brands, that shop will give you a first order but never a second.
The pair get candid about retailer problems without naming the offenders: a shop frozen in the 1960s with bad lighting and never-vacuumed carpet, a locked front door requiring customers to be buzzed in while the owner watches TV in the back, boxes left looking like "a grenade went off," and owners who blame online retailers while never investing in their own store. They also dig into net-30 terms — why a rep should be wary of a shop that demands terms before even trying the cigar, and how "net 30" plus a credit card at the end can quietly become net 60. Running through it all is the "hobbyist" retailer concept: the roughly 80% of shop owners who run a cigar store as a pastime rather than a business.
On the positive side, the hosts hand out real praise: Havana Tranquility and owner Ron for the lounge and the stories; Cutters and owner Alex, named best-run shop of the trip for his immaculate humidor, doubled lounge, beer program and "99 bottles in 99 days" promotion, plus the cigar-box matching game and his by-the-inch approach to allocating humidor space; Fusion in Clearwater, an all-lights-up nightclub-style lounge run by D Jr.; Cigar Life in Lakeland with Patty and Mario, whose two-year anniversary multi-vendor event on the 19th gets a plug; and Shabazz's shop in North Port, a big freshly redone lounge with strong potential where Terry, a retired shop owner, is helping fix inventory issues.
Along the way: the show is sponsored by Florinata Cigars (Habano and Maduro in Corona, Robusto and Toro), download numbers from the Danny Vasquez two-parter, the still-open jingle contest, talk of adding video in 2019, Pete Hernandez of Tatuaje and his Pensacola event, Halfwheel's podcast, big-box competition from Cigars International and Casa de Montecristo, and a tease for episode 54 with Hector Alfonso and new Espinosa national sales manager Jack Taranio. The anniversary contest requires listeners to stay to the very end for the hashtag instructions.
In This Episode
- 01One-Year Anniversary HousekeepingThe hosts mark 52 episodes with a new weekly poster, an updated Podbean page, and a reminder that the show's jingle contest still has only one submission.
- 02Reading a Cigar Shop from the HumidorMike and Mike explain why they walk straight into the humidor and how the mainstream-to-boutique mix tells you instantly whether a shop is worth your time.
- 03Retailer Red FlagsLocked doors with buzzers, 1960s decor and lighting, messy boxes, and owners blaming online retailers instead of investing in their own stores.
- 04The 'Hobbyist' Retailer and the 80/20 RuleA new-to-them term for shop owners who treat a cigar store as a hobby rather than tracking numbers and growing year over year.
- 05Net 30 Terms and Why Reps Say NoWhy demanding terms before even smoking the cigar is a bad sign, and how net 30 plus a card at the end quietly becomes net 60.
- 06The Shops That Got It RightPraise for Havana Tranquility and Ron, Cutters and Alex, Fusion in Clearwater with D Jr., Cigar Life in Lakeland with Patty and Mario, and Shabazz in North Port.
- 07Traveling Two-Up: Lessons from the RoadHow having a second person on sales calls keeps the tempo up, helps break down what worked, and lets one host work the owner while the other reads the room.
- 08Industry Chatter and What's NextBig-box expansion speculation, Pete Hernandez's Tatuaje event in Pensacola, plans for video in 2019, and a tease for Hector Alfonso and Jack Taranio of Espinosa.
Brands & Cigars Discussed
Linked items are in our shop. Mentions without a link aren’t currently stocked or couldn’t be matched with confidence.
Transcript
Every day I'm hustling, hustling, hustling, hustling, hustling, hustling, hustling, hustling, hustling, hustling, hustling, hustling. Every day I'm hustling, every day I'm hustling, every day I'm hustling, every day I'm hustling, every day I'm hustling, every day I'm hustling, every day I'm hustling, every day I'm hustling, every day I'm hustling. Welcome to a Cigar Hustlers Podcast, where we take a closer look at the people of the cigar industry. With your host, Mike and Mike.
Happy anniversary. Happy anniversary. Happy anniversary. Happy anniversary.
Happy anniversary. I wish to you happy, happy anniversary. Happy anniversary. Welcome everybody on, this is episode 52, the long-awaited anniversary show of The Cigar Hustlers Podcast.
And you've got to be half-way into that bang drink at this point. Ah, a quarter. Drinking slow. You're all fired up.
All fired up, ready to go. Fired up. I just had to watch the shop again, it got very exciting out there. I actually had to ring up a ginger ale.
Very nice. And Mike the mailman left, so I had to yell at him. Oh, did he? Did he?
He's lost his wallet again, the poor man. I think he's losing his mind. Oh. All right, do we need a new thing for 2019, or are we going to still do the old thing?
I think we go with what we have until something better is... Okay, because here's things that have changed for 2019 already. We have the new poster for the weekly episodes. Okay.
I have changed the look of the actual Podbean Cigar Hustler page has changed also. Okay. That's been upgraded. And that's it.
So, you know, we still have the contest going for the jingle, gentlemen. And for the jingle, gentlemen, and ladies, we still need jingles, we have one. One submission. Is that Adam's?
Yeah, so you refuse to let me listen to. You listen to it, it's... I heard a second of a half of it. It's really funny.
But maybe I could set it to music and we could use it. Oh, man. Okay. How do you have the file?
How was the file sent to you? Yeah, I think he just texted it to me. Just texted it to you? I think it was him just kind of shouting in his phone.
Oh, yeah, I could do that. I could work with that. Okay. I'll set it to music, and then we'll see what happens to it.
Okay, you ready? One, two, three, go! Hi, I'm Mike. And I'm Mike also.
And this is Cigar Hustlers Podcast 2019. Wow, you are in rare form today. We haven't done this in a while, it feels like. Oh, because we had the Danny two-parter.
You stole the lighter. Are you gonna shut the computer off? No, no, I need the lighter. Oh, good.
I don't have the lighter yet. Because my Florinata Habano went out. Ah. com.
No, no, no, no, no. Okay, go ahead. No. So, you've been smoking those a lot lately though.
You know, it kind of saddens me a great deal that you didn't bring enough of them on the road. You know, it's the first time I've run out. By the way, yeah, we just had a two-day run. We had a romantic two days together.
And a two-day vacation on the west coast of sunny Florida. You know, for one, I had a lot of fun. I enjoyed doing it with you. I had a good time, too.
But my wife is saying that I wasn't working. Oh, okay. She gave me that. " We hit ten shops in two days.
We didn't stop at night till ten. And I was up at seven. Well, that's kind of, so, I mean, I'm a big believer in that tempo, right? Oh, no, it's fine.
I got a lot more done with you than I normally do without because after that fourth shop and, you know, you've heard a couple of no's, you're like, I'm just going to eat and watch TV in hotel. Oh, yeah, no, that doesn't work for me. You keep going. No, no, it's fine.
That's why I like to have you. We kept going. And it's more fun when there's two people because, you know, if you said no, the guy said no, still, you ain't, you know, somebody talked to him in the car, you're like, okay, this is what worked, this is what didn't work, you know. Yeah, we kind of break it down because, you know, this is kind of a new experience for you.
I mean, I'm not like a seasoned veteran at it or anything like that, but I mean, I have a different mentality towards these things because I answer to nobody, you know, it's my own kind of thing. Right, exactly. You can do and say whatever you want. Not that I have somebody calling me every day to see what I'm doing, but still, there is a difference.
Right. There's still a hierarchy there or whatever the fuck you want to call it. Yeah, I still have people I have to answer to, for lack of better words. Right.
Okay, so I think that honestly, I think that we should discuss the trip, and I think that we should maybe we should start with the bullshit, right? Go kind of talk about um... It's hot in here. Is it hot in here?
Why some of these retailers are lost, are completely fucking lost as, you know... Um, okay. Like I said, we're not going to mention any shop without naming names. We will praise We will praise the good ones.
We're not going to call out the bad ones. It's not what we do. It's not our thing. Right.
Because at the end of the day, we're not here to slander somebody. Correct. Personally, you know, I mean, it's their shop. They do whatever they want.
Right. We're not going to ignite anyone. If they were looking for some suggestions as far as what I think they could do to kind of improve their business, then, you know, I mean... I mean, I'd be happy to help, but I don't think that anybody really respects me to that degree.
Nah, probably not. Well, maybe one or two of the shops, but they weren't the bad ones. Yeah, well, the good ones, you know, I mean, you kind of feed off of them, right? Right.
Well, that's another thing you have a different view of, because you're also a shop owner. Yeah, so let me back up a step. You just ashed on yourself. I don't want you to burn a hole in your nice shirt there.
I have like three of these. Thank you. So the first thing I do when I walk into a shop is you obviously say hi to whoever's there, and I instantly walk into the humidor, especially if it's a place that I've never been to, because you can tell by the humidor where you stand off the rip, right? Right.
If it's just a mainstream… Right, just Fuenteway, Fuenteway, Fuenteways, Fuentes and the Padrones and the My Fathers and, you know, very little to no boutiques. So you probably don't have a good shot. Right. So that's the first thing.
The second thing is that I'm kind of particular as to what boutiques they've picked. So if you look and you see that their boutiques are kind of wide open, that means that, you know... Wide open as in like a spattering of them, several different ones? I'm just saying that there's too many of them, like too many different brands as a whole.
Then that kind of shows you that, I mean, anybody will buy anything. Which we were actually in one of those. Yeah, so that's not necessarily a really good thing either. No, no, no, you will make the sale, but you won't make the second sale.
Right, because, you know, a cigar, a consumer walks into a cigar store and, you know, they need some guidance, right? So, I think that that's one of the major things that a lot of the retailers miss as a whole. It's just the whole education of a guy comes in, you know, they want to, sometimes they need some guidance. They sometimes don't want to hear some stuff.
They don't want to be belittled. Right. Don't want to talk down to them at all. Right.
They don't want, you know, whatever cigar they pick, they don't want you to, pfft, you pick that one? Yeah, I can't believe that's the one you chose. It's like, hey, asshole, you bought this, too. It's in your fucking store.
All those choices in there, and that's what you picked? Right. You know, so that's kind of a, you know. See, the only way we differ on that, I talk to them for a minute first, and then I ask if it's okay if I go look in their humidor.
Oh. Yeah, well, I'll do that, too. But that actually worked for us, because when I was talking, you were looking in the humidor. Yeah, I mean, you know, I didn't want to like step on you, right?
Right, right, give me time to give my thing. Sure. My spiel. You know, the Fuentes come in a Maduro and a Habano and a Corona Robusto and a Toro.
But it's also like, it gives you an opportunity to give your spiel because that's kind of like your obligation as an employee to the company. Right. But it also gives me time to kind of assess the situation and be like, okay, I don't need to talk to this guy. Well, this guy could be a really good fit.
Right. So, um, so yeah, yeah. So which one, what do you want to, what do you want to address? Because, I mean, there's just one that really sticks out in my head, and it just doesn't.
Um, that was probably the worst one. I'm trying to think what else was extremely bad other than that one. Yeah. Um.
Okay, wait, um, that was day two. Anything in day one? Let's go, let's just do it by that. Well, just the old.
No, let's not even do that, because then they might be able to figure out what it was. You can't break it down like that. I don't think there was anything really bad in day one. No.
Well, you keep saying it. I know, I understand, I understand. Okay, so yeah, just the one, and it was an older shop, and it was in a, you know... So, like, you know, for one, you know, lighting is super important.
Right. Right. Um, if your shop looks like it's from 1980... That's being generous, too.
It's probably... It's probably... More like 1967. Yeah.
And he might have been there since then. It's probably not too appealing to a customer coming in the store, you know? I don't think he gets many, not walk-ins, but many people that have not been there before, many new customers. So that's kind of a problem in business, is if you're not growing, you're dying.
Exactly. You know? Year over year, your numbers need to grow. Right.
And if they don't, you've got a problem. You got a problem. Right. Having the front door locked.
I mean, let's just dive right in. I mean, that's pretty comical to me. Unfortunately, because of the design, that's almost the only way he can run that place. Absolutely not.
You do not give him a pass. That is absolutely unacceptable. No? No.
I guess it could just be a bell. Oh. It's really no different than here when the guys are back in the shipping department. You mean the guy's working?
Right, that's what I mean. Okay. Was the guy in the back working? The guy in the back was not working.
No, no. The guy in the back was catching up on news. Right. Well, Donald Trump was on TV.
Yeah. Very important. Needs money for the wall. So, here's the thing.
So, you know, you walk into the shop, well, you get way to be buzzed into the shop, so the guy has an opportunity to come out of the back. You can't really tell that either because of the way the windows are. So how is that appealing to a consumer? As a customer, I don't want to stand there and wait.
I'm not buying a diamond. I'm coming to grab a couple of sticks. I'm in and out, man. And now I got to wait?
I mean, we have customers here that are like lightning speed. Oh, that's outside. Yeah. I thought I was coming through from the computer.
I mean, they come in, they fly into here. Oh, sure. They run in. They fly out.
They got to go. They got to go. They're in a hurry. I'm out.
They know what they want. Yep. Can I help you, sir? Nope, nope.
I know right what I want. I'll be right there. If I had to buzz them in, they're never coming back. Yeah, that's true.
That customer never comes back. So, like, how is that a comfortable experience for a customer? I gotta get buzzed in. I'm already an inconvenience to you.
Your shop is straight out of the sixties. Right? I'm surprised the carpet wasn't shaggy, right? Was there carpet?
Yeah. In the lounge. Oh, no. Oh, it was in the shop.
Oh yeah, there was carpet. Never been vacuumed. I mean, the guy seemed really nice. He's a very nice man.
He seemed like a really good guy, but like, and, you know, that's kind of the conflicting part, is like, how do you help that guy if he wants to be helped, you know? Right, yeah. It would have been a lot easier if he was an asshole. We did learn the terminology, I've never heard this terminology, but I'm definitely going to use it, the hobbyist terminology.
Have you ever heard of it before? No. That a cigar person is called a hobbyist? The owner of a retail shop is a hobbyist.
Oh, yeah, I've heard of it before. " Did he say it there? No. Oh, you heard it somewhere else.
A more educated... See, that falls into your 80/20 thing. The 80% of them are hobbyists. Yeah, well, that guy definitely falls into that category.
So, kind of baffling, man. His rent's probably very, very low in that particular area. Or if he even has rent anymore, he's been here so long, they just, I just stay. Because we'll never get anybody else in this battle.
How do you not operate with some level of urgency, right? I mean, you can't, I mean, he probably doesn't even look at his numbers. Yeah, you're probably right. Well, because he told us he was down for Christmas.
He's probably just basing that on the number of people that came in. I mean, I don't know. I don't know. Only Chuck came in this week, Bob and Phil didn't show, so I must be down because Bob and Phil didn't come in.
Yeah, I don't, you know, I wouldn't go to that, I'm not getting a gift certificate from that store. You know? Oh, you're going to take out your shirt? I'm going to take my hoodie off, so you got to Phil for a moment.
I don't really want to Phil, though. This is great. Okay, it's very hot in here today. It really isn't.
It's the fucking bangs is what it is. Not the bangs, it's the hoodie. You're sitting there in a short-sleeved shirt, probably with no undershirt on. And jeans.
Well, I'm not taking my pants off. It's not that kind of show. Yeah, that was during the trip. Hey, the trip was fine, except when I woke up and found you in bed with me in the morning, nibbling on my ear.
That was a little weird. I'm a cuddler. Evidently. I thought my snoring would keep you away.
That's why I didn't take the sleeping pill, afraid to take advantage of me. No, you only snored once, really bad. And I woke myself up too, so. So at least you know it was bad.
I thought it was bad. I thought it was that bad. Well, if I lay on my chest, I don't snore as bad, so I tried to make sure I was always on my chest. It's awesome that you broke that down for our listeners.
You know, I'm a very considerate travel partner. Speaking of which, we had some pretty good downloads as of late. Last week was like 113. You got a lighter.
Yeah, you just gave it to me. And the week before was 103, so our numbers are up. 3 for the last two weeks? That's awesome.
Yes, but those were the two, I hate to give him credit, but those were the two Danny Vasquez episodes, which are... You know, those are great, those are two great episodes. They are number one and two right now for the last three months. I mean, he's a funny dude.
He is. He really is. Well, you know, of course you can do well, the whole show was his idea. It was.
It was. He did a great job. He did a great job. Thanks, Danny.
Thanks, Danny, we appreciate it. We love you. We love you very much. If you give us some ideas for 2019, we'd appreciate it, Danny, thank you very much.
Now that we kind of addressed... The one down. Right, the problem, so like, you know, I don't know, whatever, I give up. Okay.
So, you know, so, you go into these shops and you kind of see all these things, right, and you go in, you analyze, you look at their humidor, you think, okay, they got some boutiques, they got some mainstream Coraline stuff. And you go and sit down and you have a conversation, when that happens, then you kind of know where you stand. Even if you don't open up box purchases with them, oh, you still have your tuberculosis, great. It's a tumor, not tuberculosis.
So, at least you kind of open that whole thing up, and then you can sit down, but still, this will kind of circle back to one of our first advice of the cigar hustlers, So the cigar hustlers is you got to know when to call it, right? Can't be that time suck, right? Because it is super easy when you're hanging out and you're getting along with a guy to sit there for the times of day we were there where they were slower, right? So you can sit there for hours, three or four hours on end, no problem, right?
Easy. Okay, so the other thing that I thought that I find comical with some of these retailers is that They only want to do terms. Oh, so talking about the difficult people. Well, it just kind of brought to my, like it pinged on my head.
Gotcha. So that's always been kind of baffling to me. Like, so just so if anybody doesn't know, terms is like a net 30, so what they're trying to do is give them 30 days before you charge their card for the product that you sent them. Right, charging for the product.
That gives them an opportunity to sell your product before they pay for it. Right, that's the argument. Right, right. However, that's what a credit card is for.
Right. Yeah. So probably, I would imagine, because he did mention a credit card also, that after the 30 days, he might give you a credit card then, so he's actually getting 60. So he's net 60?
He's net 60. Not only that, what happens if his credit card comes up declined? Now I gotta chase my money for a product that I've laid all that out there for? That he might not even have, so it's not like you can even go get it.
I get it. Sorry, bud. Not fucking happening. You know, I'm not putting my, I'm not doing that.
And he threw that out before he even tried this cigar. So he doesn't even know if he's going to buy it yet. Right. Yeah.
Well, he's not going to buy it at all because he's not getting terms. Well, I understand that, but it's not like he tried and go, "Oh, this is good. Okay, let me throw the terms out there. It was no, no, let me throw the terms out.
" Right. So is a guy like that really concerned about the cigars that he's carrying? Nah, I don't think so. Not at all.
So, that was the entertaining part of it. Some of the other shops that we went into, you know, that kind of stuck out for me were, you know, as far as on the negative side is just lack of organization when it comes to their cigars. Well, is it lack of organization by your standards? Maybe to them it makes sense.
I'm not talking about where the boxes are, I'm just talking about the fact that if somebody shoves their fucking hand in this box of cigars, and it looks like a goddamn grenade went off. Oh, okay, so that's more how neat or tidy the... Straighten that shit out. Right, right.
You know? Is that the same place? I didn't even notice that there. No, it's a different place.
It's a different place. So, you know, that's not hard. These things aren't difficult. Like...
You're going to have to tell me off air where that was, because I didn't touch that. It's kind of amazing how, you know... Take pride in your shop. " You know, it's everybody else's fault as to why their business sucks.
In the meantime, they haven't done anything to invest in themselves. Right. Baffling. Baffling.
Just confusing. Hobbyists. Hobbyists. It's true.
I mean, if you look for a cigar by the band or the box, you know, you look and you find it, okay, here's my... I'll just use your... Here's my postañas. I want a Habano.
Let me pull this out. Oh, wait. It's a broadleaf? Right.
Because, I mean, on yours, the only difference is that one word on, you know. Right. So. So, if they don't straighten it.
And they might not even catch that if you don't look close. True. I'm gonna go check yours as soon as we get done here. Okay.
Go ahead. Just curious. I'm sure it's very nice. Go ahead and put me to the test, pal.
Greg keeps up with that well. It isn't Greg. I mean, you know, our employees here, we all have the same kind of mindset. But, you know, presentation is key, and it's a representation of you.
Right. Are you going to make any changes based on things you saw during the week at other places? Absolutely. Right.
Of course. From the good ones. Well, no, you're not putting a lock on the door? No.
So you and Greg don't have to get up. Then you and Greg don't have to get up, you just have people buzzed in. I don't have to get up now. Well, that's true.
" He's going to click. It's like, wait, that one just lit up. Nope, you hit that button, it turns it off. So, three shops for me stuck out.
Only three? Yeah. Okay, let's go. We're about three.
So, what was your number one? Number one I enjoyed the most, or number one that I thought did the best as presentation? Oh, we can do that. Okay, let's break it on that one.
No, the question just stands the same for me. It's which one was your favorite shop? Which one was your number one? Well, I really like Havana Tranquility, but it's more because of the lounge and of the proprietor.
Ron is a good guy. Ron is a good guy. And he's got some stories. He's got stories.
Oh shit, he's been in the business since they invented cigars. Yeah, but that is another thing that you just reminded me of that we need to discuss. That's somebody outside. Oh, because I hear music.
So, you have to be looking at my face sometimes when we're in some of these places. Like, I lose you. You are, you know, engaged with the owner of the company or the manager or whatever. Well, that's something I've really worked on is my, oh, what's the word, not being shy, being chatty and talking up with the owner.
Right, which is fine, but you still need to be aware of your surroundings. So, because if you had looked at me just a couple of times, You would have known where we were at as far as, you know, like, oh God. Well, the one that we both did not like, when you get up to go to the bathroom, I thought we were leaving. Yeah.
I thought that was it. I thought we, because I didn't even say to go to the bathroom. I honestly stuck around there because I thought they were an account for you. Oh, yeah.
No. Been working on it. So. I don't, I don't think I'll make another visit.
So we. I think he's off the list. Well, realistically, that guy would eventually take you on. It's going to take you five more visits.
Probably. So seven times of you visiting that guy, you will get one order. And will that guy help grow your brand? No, not at all.
So if you want just a check, and you're not playing the long game, then go ahead and do it. I gotta play the long game. I mean, one order isn't gonna do nothing. It's not like he's gonna buy 18 boxes.
Right, so you gotta shave off the bullshit. You gotta be as lean as you possibly can, hit the accounts that are good, the guys that have the most potential. They have a better opportunity in that town from the other one that's, uh, it's not that far. I don't think so.
I think Florinata would do well there. Yeah, well I think Florinata would do well anywhere with a retailer that gives a shit. Well true, but with the, oh okay, that, but with the clientele that that place seems to have, I think more. I don't think so.
I do. That's good. It's a very, uh, um, club, uh, type place in that area. Yeah, I understand.
So the guys know, know the brands I'm associated with. Ah. And the girls. Okay, that makes sense.
So you said Havana Tranquility was your number one? Yeah, I really liked the lounge there. I'm gonna tell you, my number one was our last visit. I know it was.
Was Alex at Cutter's. I know, Alex. Let's see, if you were gonna, that's why I wanted to break it down. If we're gonna go with where I enjoyed it the most, or where the best shop I think is, Alex is probably the best one at Cutter's.
And no offense to anybody else, but Alex knows his shit. He does. The guy, well, you know, he's a smart retailer. Yes.
Right? He's constantly looking to develop and grow his business. Yes. Right?
He pays attention to what's going on in the industry. Yes, he does. He's got a really good beer selection, too, so he's got a bar as well. Yeah.
And he does those little contests with the beer thing, too. 99 bottles. 99 bottles in 99 days. That was pretty brilliant.
He used to, I don't know if he does, did you see the cigar boxes all around the shop? He changes it up every once in a while, but there will be two boxes that are the same and you have to find out which two it is. It used to be, if you found it, you got that box of cigars for free, but I'm not sure if he does it anymore or not, so there's a disclaimer, I don't think that one, I don't know if he does it anymore. I mean, stuff like that is cool.
I can appreciate a guy that thinks out of the box and looks to grow his business. That's awesome. He used to be just that one side, where the humidor was and everything, he had stretched open the other side in like the last year, taking on the whole other side, which almost doubled his lounge, definitely doubled the size of his humidor. So you walk right in, you go into his humidor, it's immaculate.
It is. It's very nice. There's nothing laying on the floor, you can't see the overhead stock, it's not messy or anything. He's got even parts of mainstream and boutique.
And he mixes them. Right. And, you know, I'm sure that, you know, he shifts them around and stuff like that. He does, because that's why I had to ask him.
So last time, as soon as you walked in the back door, my stuff was right there on the right. Right. But because it just came in, it was new. So, yeah, so it was right there.
But this time I had a hard time finding it, but he's moved us on the opposite wall, over by the Rocky Patel, where he thought we might get a little more play. Right. So, I mean, that's pretty remarkable. You know, that's a guy that's thinking.
Right. You know? He doesn't have a team staff where there's five guys going, but that humidor looked perfect. When I first got in there, when we were still negotiating and talking, he wanted to know how big the boxes were.
He used to be in the construction business. So I brought in the boxes, he measured them, we figured out how many boxes it took to get the entire line in, you know, one to show, one to back up, that type of thing. He knew exactly how much space he had to give me by the inch inside his humidor. Right.
That doesn't surprise me. No, not at all. " Smart guy. And that's the way it works.
He's a real businessman. He is. He is. So when, you know, big box stores like CI or Famous, well not Famous, but CI or Casa de Monte Cristo, JR's, or any of those guys try and move in on him, good luck.
Who owns Tampa Humidor? Is that Monte Cristo? Yeah, Casa de Monte Cristo. Yeah, that's the closest thing to him until the new one goes up.
The name goes out. Right, the CI? CI, yeah. Yeah, so, you know, he'll be fine.
Is that like an announcement? Did we just let some information out? No, that's speculative. Speculative.
Speculative. Speculative. Speculative. Until it's confirmed.
But according to the Hillsborough County tax records. Allegedly. Allegedly, they might have purchased some property. Yeah.
With a holding company. Well, you know, it would be cool if Charlie from Half Wheel actually listened to us, he'd look that shit up and then post it. I tag him every week on our post. he doesn't care he doesn't care charlie doesn't care because they do their own podcast now oh well good for them and they video and i was watching part of the other because they just released all those different uh lists that they just did right so when they're doing the video the camera would be like where you're sitting facing me and charlie i don't know if i don't know who the other guy is that does it with him is it patrick or i don't know which guy it is i don't know it's an older guy i have to look because there's one guy that lives here so it's Obviously not him, not Brian.
But around the microphone is like, you know, like an NBC-type thing. Did he look like Steve Saka? Only thinner? No.
So then it's Patrick. Patrick. Oh. But they have the half-wheel, big cardboard square thing around the microphone.
Right. So every time the camera's shooting, you see a half-wheel. Oh, nice. We need Cigar Hustler.
Video? We do need video. That's something I would like to do as a '19s go video. Okay.
Okay. We can work on that. Okay. So, honorable mention, since you already hit kind of Havana Tranquility, fusion in clear water.
Well, there's going to be another honorable mention, too, but that's like a nightclub that sells cigars. It was awesome. You know, it would be cool at night if the light-up bar tops and the high tops and the coffee tables, I mean, every top, every surface in that place lights up. Everything lights up if it flashed to music.
We had Fusion over in Clearwater. ", you know, and then I walked right into the humidor, and you could tell, you could tell that that guy pays attention. Do you still don't know if there wasn't two of us? Yeah.
Really? Yeah. " Gotcha, gotcha. Okay.
Of course. Because then I gotta know exactly how much time I have. " Or, you know, 45 minutes or two hours or whatever. I'd like to go back over there on an evening and go to that place.
That'd be cool. I could do a club event there without any problem at all. I mean, I don't know how many guys will go out there. It's a very touristy-type area is the only problem, though.
But it's beautiful. It's beautiful. It's beautiful. Right by the beach.
Right by the beach, right on the strip there. Seven-story parking garage, just built behind them. Yeah. Really nice.
No Pellegrino, though. No Pellegrino, no. But I feel during the day, the foot traffic is mostly just lookers, just people on vacation. "Hey, you know what, honey?
I'm on vacation. " I don't know, I could see a lot of snowbirds sitting down there chilling. But they didn't, when we were there. It was midday.
That's what I'm saying, during the day, not at night, during the day. I think at night, though, too, you could, you know, you're on vacation and you're walking along with your wife, oh, honey, we just had this great dinner over at, I don't know, I didn't say anything, the Brown Boxer next door, let's go have a cigar and maybe a glass of wine or something. Right. Yeah, because there's not another place like that on the Strip, because it's all Tommy Bahama and Pop Top, what's that guy's name?
Hulk Hogan? Well, no, Hulk Hogan shop's right next door, but the singer does all the beach songs. Jimmy Buffett? Jimmy Buffett, yeah, it's all Jimmy Buffett, Tommy Bahama type places on there, you know, Toucan Sam's and umbrellas in your drink, and Waitress Wears Hawaiian shirt and khaki shorts.
Do I sound okay today? Yeah, you do. You close up the microphone. Right on top of the microphone.
Right on top of the microphone. So those were, yeah. I also liked, I always loved going to Cigar Life, seeing Patty and Mario. Oh, yeah.
You know, I didn't even think of it. Because for me, they didn't count. That was like we deviated off the trip. Well, Waze changed our direction midstream because of some accent or something.
I was like, oh, we're going to be like five minutes from Cigar Life. You want to go? They have a great shop. They do.
It's always so clean. Same scenario though, like you go in, you can tell that there's potential there, right, I mean, well, we know Paddy and Mario, you know them better than I do, but we've done an interview with them on the podcast, and you know, they're honest, hardworking people, right, so that makes it, they are in it to grow a business, right, and you can tell that as soon as you walk in the door, because their carpet isn't from 1960 fucking seven. All wood, all wood, hardwood flush. Right.
All the hardwood flush. They got a lounge. They got a beautiful humidor. They got a nice bar.
Just stall for a minute. I'm looking some up. Keep talking. You stall, you need me to stall a lot.
I feel like you are really unprepared. I'm really unprepared, unprepared. Well, I just want to give them a little plug. On the 19th, they have their two-year anniversary.
Okay. Multi-vendor event going on at their shop. So that's in like, next week. Next week?
Yeah. Next week and next Saturday on the 19th. Okay. I buy tickets, and it comes with like 11 cigars, a full meal, raffles every hour and hour.
Well, where are they located? They're in Lakeland on 98, I think it is, I don't know, Cigar Life Lakeland. So in Lakeland, Florida. Lakeland, Florida, right.
Cool. Yeah. You're such a good guy. Limited number of seats available.
You are putting your powers to good use. I like them, they're nice people, they're my friends. They've stayed at my house before, they're very nice. That doesn't surprise me with you, Michael.
Not that kind of stay at my house, Michael. Not that kind of stay in the house. And Zena Meele is going to be the other one, Conover and Morales. They're big friends of the show.
I like them, too. I like them, too. Yes. Now, you kind of fucked up by not being here yesterday.
Well... Because we could have had John Carnion from LFD. Yeah. Well, my wife doesn't listen to the show, so...
Ryan from Altidus was here, too. I'd love to get him on. He would. Will he do the show, though?
I don't know. Because he's not allowed to do social media. I'm sure there's some legal tape that we'd have to sign. Yeah, social media he's not allowed to do.
Because he's always going, how did I join your club? Well, you have to do Facebook. He goes, I'm not allowed to do Facebook. Crazy.
Isn't it? Big corporations. That doesn't even make sense. Well, they don't want to say the wrong thing.
How can we, yeah, I guess. So don't say anything at all? Well, let's say Ryan likes to sit in his underwear and play video games, which actually I think he does. But that's all the pictures that he put up on his, you know, Altidist slash Ryan Facebook page.
Right. So then when you Google his name, you see a picture of him playing. Call of Duty in his underwear. You would just need specific eye lines for what you could and couldn't say via social media and have somebody kind of keeping an eye on it.
A company that size, it's easy to do. Right. So, yeah. Oh, anyway, I was going to tell you, my wife was sick yesterday.
Yeah. She was sick, but when I was sick a few weeks back, she took off for the day, so I purposely made sure I stayed home and took care of her, just to prove a point. Well, it sucks because we had – you're a great guy, but it sucks because we had John Carney here twice now. Well, if you would have told me Carney was here yesterday, I might have been able to swing that.
I mean – and did you stay for Drew Carpenter's birthday last night? I did. Did you? There's a lot of people here.
I felt bad not coming to that, too. There's a decent amount. She actually gave me an out for that, but I didn't. I didn't want to go.
Wow. I'm going to stay home and take care of my sick wife. Good job. Sometimes you've got to prove a point.
She goes, you can go. Nope, that's not what a husband does. He stays home, takes care of his wife when she's asleep. " Nah, it's alright.
" Out the door. So is there anything else that you want to discuss? Do you have any other questions? About the show?
Let me look at the, uh, where else would we go? Dump, dump, dump, dump, dump, dump, dump, dump, dump, Alex Cutters. Easy, easy. Don't disclose too many of them.
I said Alex plus Cutters. We already talked about him. I know, but you were going down the list. Damn, see if there's anything else that stuck out.
Did you like the last stop on the first day? Well, let me check my notes, because I don't know who the hell you're talking about. They had, I can't even say that. All right, just give it, it doesn't matter.
Because I like the guy, but he needs he needs some help. But luckily, though, he's getting the help. Yeah, I mean, that's just that is a shop. I mean, you can definitely mention that shop because, you know, you don't have anything bad to really say about him, right?
No, no, no, no, there's nothing bad to say. Shabazz at Northport, right? Right. Are you referencing?
That's what I'm referencing. Yeah, I think his lounge has just been redone. So the lounge is beautiful. Yeah, so I think that he has a lot of potential there to grow.
He does. And he's a businessman. He's a businessman. He's got the other little shoppy thing in the front where he sells cigarettes and stuff.
I think that's his main business. Right. He does need a beer and wine license, I think, because he doesn't sell any alcohol. Actually, he sells no drinks at all, but he does have a fridge in the back where you can, like, bring in stuff from the public around the corner or something, stick it in there.
Right. So, yeah, but, yeah, Terry, who hangs out there, the gentleman you met in the front, He's retired from up north, he used to own a shop, so he is working with Shabazz to help him get some of his inventory issues taken care of. Yeah, so that's a cool shop. It is.
And it has potential for sure to grow. Yeah, it's actually become very popular with the club guys in that area. Because it's in that vicinity, you know, it looks like it's the most comfortable atmosphere that I saw. Right, exactly.
Exactly, right. And it's huge. I mean, the lounge was huge. And the guys there working, like, you could tell that he sits down and hangs out behind the register.
Right. He doesn't, he doesn't, he doesn't, he's not getting buzzed in. He's not in the back office watching fucking reruns of... He does need a little something in the front because, I mean, you almost walk by the door.
Yeah. I mean, but those are little things that you kind of pick up along the way. Right. That's what I mean.
Those are things that are easily fixed. Right. As long as the guy has the right mentality, which he does... He does.
He'll do well. He does. Yes, he does. That's all those places on my list.
That was the only other place I wanted to talk about. Okay. You almost didn't. So now, okay, so now, I mean, you've been on the road with Johan from Florinata, who, I love Johan.
He's not sales. No, no, that's what I'm saying. No, no, no. Balky from Perfect Strangers.
Balky Bartakobos. You know, should not. Caldery, Caldery. Don't be silly.
He's not feeling well right now. He's ill. Oh, no. And he left for the Dominican Republic today.
Is it the norvirus? Like the people on the cruise? No, I don't think so. No.
Some type of lung or throat issue or something. Oh, no, that's not good. No, no, I forgot, smoke cigars. Yeah, he's a good guy.
He is a good guy. Um, um, but that was more me just doing what I already do and it was somebody extra driving me around. So like, what was, yeah, but you don't like, you like to drive, you said. But it wasn't my car.
Ah, so that's something we should address, the fact that I didn't drive the entire fucking time. Right. And it was the best two days of non-driving in my entire life. I like driving.
I have control issues. I prefer not to. So it works out well. That's true.
You always said you wanted a driver. For two days you had a driver. Yeah, because I can do more stuff. You are.
You're over there just texting away. Texting phone calls, emails, the whole gamut. Windows going up and down between phone calls. And I wasn't in fear of my life because I wasn't doing all those things while driving.
It's hard to do while you're driving, isn't it? It is, but it can be done. Well, it's Gruber, eats his sandwiches, has a pad on his lap. But paints his toenails.
Paints his toenails and goes straight through the roundabout, doesn't even go around. So, that was awesome. Let me just give you kudos for that, because that couldn't have been easy, you know, constantly on the road, constantly going. You know, now that you think of it, I think Rosales drives almost a hundred percent of the time, too, which is awesome.
It's just a habit for him. He's always by himself. Yeah. So, what other experiences did you get from this trip that you're like, oh, I should be doing that, or, you know, is there anything else in particular that kind of stood out from the way that I kind of handle things and how you have in the past?
I really liked having the second person, even though we weren't working on the same lines. I don't know really if it would have worked if we were working on the same lines. It would have been overkill for the person, because it gives you somebody that you're already comfortable with To work off of. Yeah.
That's true. But the difference is that I have no urgency. Right. Well, we mentioned that earlier.
You know? Right. So, because of that, it works with two people. Right.
You know, like... So you're saying, let's say, for example, if me and Groover hit the road together. More difficult. It would be more difficult.
He would dominate the entire conversation. Right. Well, you guys would fight... You would fight for control of the room.
Right. Whereas that doesn't happen with us. Yes. You know, or like Pete Hernandez.
I mean, that would be a fucking trip. I would record that thing the entire time. I would just end up carrying Pete's bags. Palmer, give me a couple of more tatuages for this man over here.
Get those out of the bag. And an espresso, will you? Give me an espresso. Hold my phone and record me walking into the building.
It would be stellar. Yeah, we did talk to Pete during the trip. Yes. Evidently, he felt he had done something improper with the Cigar Club posting, and he was so worried that, I don't know what was going to happen to him, but he was very nice, very apologetic.
I don't think he really did anything wrong. And he had nothing to apologize for. He had nothing to apologize for, but somebody had told him he'd done something wrong, and poor Pete, he was so worried. Poor Pete.
So I plugged his event for him yesterday. He went up to Pensacola and was going to, what's the name of that place in Pensacola? Harbor? No, wait, Pensacola.
No, Pensacola. It's the one word place. Oh, man, I'm drawing a blank. Like, Marauders, or...
Marauders? No, that's not it. That's not it. Anyway, he was flying to Pensacola to do a Tatuaje event last night, and he checked in at the airport like every rep does, you know, flying.
Cordova? Cordova, there you go. Flying from Orlando to Pensacola. Yeah.
" So, I don't know if anybody went. We're very slim in the Panhandle as far as members. I think we have one in Pensacola. Yeah.
Yeah. We have four or five in Tallahassee now, and that's really where it stops. But it'll come. We used to have anybody in Miami.
Last night they had an event at some place. It looked like there was 20 guys there and their wives? Yeah. So, yeah, they're doing a good job in Miami.
They're rocking it down there. Kind of a big deal, Michael. I have my people. So, that was kind of what you got?
Is it better with two people? I did like it better with two people who said it gives you somebody to work off of. Okay. And you did jump in with my brands a couple of times and things that you felt that I didn't...
Of course. Well, I appreciate that, though. That was very nice of you. Yeah, I wouldn't leave you high and dry.
Well, I know you wouldn't, but I mean, you know, I did my little thing and sometimes you forget to say something or mention something and you were like, "Oh, you know what? That one's really good. " Right. That was very nice of you.
Oh, thank you. You're welcome. Nice. Nice.
We're at 42 minutes. That went really fast. Yeah. And now I'm getting cold.
Well, yeah. The bangs wearing off. I need to drink faster. Well, we can call it here.
I mean, I think... No, no, we should... Uh-oh, you got more tricks up your sleeve? I feel it should be something for the 2000, for the anniversary show.
Oh, there's the big contest! It's the big contest, but you gotta stay to the end. We're not gonna... I'm not gonna say what you have to do.
What's the big contest? Okay, I don't even know if you're aware of this, but for the last... Okay, I'm not. For the last five shows, maybe?
Yeah. After the entire show runs, even the credits, it's like a Marvel movie, you have to stick around at the end, and then I've been given a hashtag at the end. Yeah? And then they have to write down the hashtag.
Has anybody done it? Uh, I don't know, I haven't even asked anybody. But you've done the hashtag. Correct, but they had to write them down.
Now this is the anniversary show, so I was going to tell them what to do with the hashtags at the end of this show. Ah. What they have to do with all of them. So you'll have to, you know, think of something before you put it on there.
You have to listen to the end? Well, they've got to go all the way to the end, yeah, I'm not going to give it away now. What songs did you put on the beginning of the show? Well, the regular songs there.
Then there's Static. And then there's a Happy Anniversary song. What's a Happy Anniversary? I found one.
You'll have to listen to the show like everybody else. Well, if they're listening this far, they've already heard it. Is it Ryan Stone Cowboy? Oh, no, no, no, no.
It's somebody singing Happy Anniversary. Oh. Just like the birthday show, there's somebody singing Happy Birthday. Christmas show, we did a different song for the Christmas show.
I like to change it up every once in a while. Happy anniversary. Happy anniversary, Michael. Happy anniversary.
Actually, the anniversary was today. We're recording this on Friday. The anniversary was Wednesday, technically, two days ago. Alright, well, whatever.
Happy belated. Happy belated. Well, we talked about it in the car. By the way.
Next time, we need to record in the car. No. Yes. No.
Yes. What if we brought the laptop, the blue microphone that we hate, and did it in the hotel room at the end of the very night? What are we, Jerry Seinfelds? We don't...
Oh, that's it. Mike and Mike in cars with cigars. cars oh that would sell right there we do videos oh i can't wait it's never gonna happen yep because we're going out next week too no yes we are you already said i'm not recording you're gonna record me taking a nap in the passenger seat actually funny i took my dad to the doctor today he got in the car and he fell back and he goes what's wrong with your seat i don't know you can move he goes no this is wonderful i just said no i was gonna be sleeping while i'm on the way to the doctor. That's it.
Just relax. Yep. So. Alright.
We're at 45 minutes. Well, thank everybody for listening for the last 52 episodes. We appreciate all the listeners. A year, one year successfully down.
Tell your friends and neighbors and your smoking buddies to listen to Cigar Hustlers podcast. And we're just getting warmed up. Just getting warmed up. We appreciate the three or four guys that always plug us every week when it goes up.
They reshare. Yep. Southern Gunner, Jean Jurgolette, they do every week without And then there's a couple other guys that have been doing it, too. Adam Acri, you always named Adam Acri.
Adam Acri. Adam Acri. I don't think he's been doing it. I'd like to give away a Voitex sooner than later.
Well, we'll make that part of the prize for the anniversary show. Or unless you want to save it for something else. No, whatever. Okay, well, we'll see what they're going to get.
They're going to get a Voitex? Okay. How about the Hickory Stick or whatever it's called? No.
No? All out of Sycamores? No, I have them. Oh, okay.
That's a Christmas thing. Ah, gotcha. We just got a small run of magnets, the poster for the show we have in magnets, so you'll get one of those. I'll throw a couple of Florinata's in there, a couple of Caffey's in there.
Voightech doesn't go in there, then. Don't be like that. No, it's me or it's nothing. I can't put in...
I'm a stud. Whatever, so fool yourself. I'm just kidding. So fool yourself.
Oh, if anybody caught it this past week, I did another show, somebody else's show. It went terribly. It went terribly. It went terrible.
I have been, some people have reached out and told me that they saw me on it. And they didn't say it was bad or anything, but it was terrible. There was two other gentlemen on the show, and the questions that he asked were not anything I wouldn't have anything to do with. So, there you go.
So, I didn't do much talking at all, and then he does a little thing at the end which I didn't really like, so I left early. There you go. But, you know, like I said, there's no bad press, so, you know, I was seen. Did you get to mention the podcast?
Yes, matter of fact, I did mention the podcast. Okay. And there was only like 17 or 20 people watching live, but I heard it was close to 3,000 views by morning. Really?
So, yeah. Yeah. Well, that's cool. Yeah, so I guess he's got a nice little thing going for himself.
Yeah. So, you know. It was somebody else, actually. It wasn't him who told me how many views he had.
Somebody else told me the next morning. All right, cool. Yes. Okay, so we'll just wrap it up.
We'll end here. And then stick around for the announcement. Thanos is going to snap his fingers, and half the listeners are going to disappear. Right here?
Right at the end. Oh. Do it at the credits, and then you've got to watch this here, we're going to beep to bring in. Oh, I know what let's do, because this is a big deal, not to show after this one, because this is 52, next one will be 53, episode 54, the long-awaited return of Hector Alfonso, and in a double feature, Jack Taranio, the new national sales manager of Espinosa Cigars.
So we will have three quarters of the Espinosa team on the show at one time. We got to get that show recording early, because that's going to be a triathlon. That's going to be like a four-parter show. Maybe.
We'll see. They should start recording in the car on their way up here. No. What is wrong with you?
We're recording in the car. Jesus. Well, I'm going to fly down there and ride up with them and just sit in the back and record. No.
Oh, did you see today Mr. Rosales, because I grabbed the picture that Hector posted. Yeah. " Yeah, so that was funny.
All right, a little shot from Mr. Rosales. Okay, with the We need 12 minutes, I'm making an hour. Then we can do this two-parter, we don't have to do one next week.
You can't make this a two-parter. We're almost at an hour. An hour is your average show. No, our average show is like 38 minutes.
I think you should call it, we don't go for additional content. We did with Danny. Yeah, because he wanted to achieve something, and he did. Now the bar is set, oh that detector is going to go four hours.
Yeah, so the fucking gauntlet has been dropped. Oh, one other thing, I told the guys at Hot Ticket that we might be coming to Ohio. Oh, we are? Really?
Well, you had mentioned it. Oh, don't move your microphone. You static me like crazy. I'm sorry.
They're very excited. They want us to come like now. Okay, well. Because he was just in Fort Lauderdale.
I got to look at my schedule. Right. And figure out where they are and, you know. Okay, since this will play next week, Tuesday, do you know what day we're going out next week?
We'll say where we're going to be. Maybe somebody will show up. I have no idea. Oh, you just haven't done it all.
I have no idea. It might be Tuesday. Okay, it can't be Monday. Monday, I think I'm here.
Okay, yeah. Oh, wait, you just replaced her. So... She's not ready to go.
Oh. New employee isn't... Well, the one that was replaced is a backup person anyway. It's not like you'll run three in one night, is it?
No. But here's the thing. When you're running a person, when you're training a new person, that person is being trained by the other employee. So it's not like...
Oh, so that employee is basically dead, too. Yeah. All right, well, we can talk about that off there. Okay, everybody, thanks for listening.
We appreciate it. We love you all. Okay, say bye, Michael. Bye.
This is the Operator with a Collette Ball from Emory Kells. To accept the charges, press one, now. All right, folks, that's it. Show's over.
Thanks for listening. You can send in any of your questions or suggestions for guests to a Cigar Hustlers podcast Facebook page. You can follow the show on Instagram @acigarhustlerspodcast. You can follow Mikey @cigarhustler.
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This is it. Here are the instructions for the end of the show. That's all for the anniversary show contest. Okay, find the Instagram post for show 52.
Start out by doing hashtag show 52 and then list all the hashtags that were listed in the last several shows. We will pick a winner from all the entries and then in a couple of weeks we will announce the winner and we have a special prize we're putting together. Good luck, thanks for listening and we'll be talking to you soon.
Show Notes
The long awaited Episode 52! We have produced now 52 weeks of content for our listeners!
we hope everyone is enjoying the show! We are having a blast doing it for all of you! Its been one hell of a ride!
This week we explain where the show is going, what has changed for 2019 and recap our first road trip!
Sit down, light your cigar and come along for the ride! 2019 is going to be bigger and better!
As always we welcome your comment, suggestions and show ideas on our FB page "A Cigar Hustlers Podcast". You can follow the show on IG @cigarhustlerspodcast, Mikey @cigarhustler and Mike @fcc_mike.
Please remember to rate, review and subscribe on which ever of our providers you use!