Looking for people to weigh in on this business thought

Joined Apr 2005
713 Posts | 0+
CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA!!!!
Hey Folks,
My wife and I are thinking about expanding our business ventures and opening a large cigar/social club in the DC Metro area. My thoughts stem from a past smoke shop I used to frequent in Pittsburgh. My thoughts would include a very large walk in humidor carrying High end sticks, but with the a variety for all smokers, as well as your resonably priced daily smokers as well as quality pipe tobaccos both available in bulk and pouch. I see a large counter with higher end lighters,cutters,pipe tools, and pipes as well as maybe some ashtrays and so fourth. The ambiance would be old school mens club. Large burgandy leather couches and chairs, at least one wide screen TV as well as a very nice pool table, dart board, chess table, and of course a bar. My thoughts for this club would be just that, make it a membership club/store where those folks who would want to partake in all the activities for free ( IE - billiards,darts,chess) as well as get membership discounts on sticks and products could pay a membership fee. This would open them to sponsored events as well, have vendor reps come in, social events, that kind of thing. Lots of hardwood and lots of class. First, would people enjoy an environmnet like this? Would people enjoy this like a social club, since there are so little cigar/pipe friendly environments? Any thoughts would be appreciated, my wife and I are seriously in the beginning stages of writiing business plans and statements as well as gathering investors, so, I am very interested in your thoughts.

Thanks,
Paul
 
Sounds like you have the groundings of an excellent business venture. From my experience, I think a cigar lounge such as your proposed one would play host to a fairly decent size market. I know in the UK that there are very few social clubs that cater for us cigar smokers, and if your business takes off and succeeds I would be very interested in your thoughts for a similar venture in the UK.
 
I will definately keep everyone posted on my progress. The only thing I am unsure of right now is the cost of inventory. That I will have to look into.
 
funny this should come up right now. My local shop (where i live pretty much) has just opened their "havana room". It is a large room blocked off from the rest of the store, and it is members only. They charge $250 a year to join, or $375 a year to join and have a Humidor locker (must be stocked with their product). The lockers are incredible and look like they will hold about 6 boxes. You also get a discount of 15% on anything in the store. Inside the room they have 2 flat panel tvs hanging on the walls with leather chairs and sofas to seat about 25-30 people. They also have a bar with 4 stools where you can store your own beverages. They are talking about stocking the bar and selling drinks but have done the research and found out they would have to make the room a seperate entity from the store so that they could get their liqour/wine license. As far as the entire store and the room it has that men's club feel. I personally think it is an awesome idea. I will be joining the club here, which opens May 1st. I went to a tasting at this shop the other day and met a bunch of people who also said they were joining. It is going to be a lot of fun because they are going to do special social events for members only. Use of this room is free until may so i have been going in to check it out. It is really neat to be able to go in and meet new people and sit and relax with a smoke and some conversation.
I say do it! :D

suggestion: let people use the club area free for a month like this place did. after a month of using it i want to keep using it so im going to get my membership. starting may 1st you can't go in without the membership. They also had a big tasting which brought a bunch of long time customers in.

If you want me to ask them any direct questions i would be happy to, i go there at least 3 times a week so i can get a quick response.
 
Bildo,
Thanks for the info!!! that's great information. I would defiantely let folks use the members area for free for a month, and I was thinking of different membership levels as well, so that everyone could enjoy at many levels. Anyone have any idea what the going cost is for spanish cedar?
 
do some research to figure out what cigar companies will sell to you. it's not that simple to become a padron or a fuente reseller. this may be true of other companies as well.

you'd be screwed from the get-go if you couldn't secure a decent supplier of smokes at a price you could mark up enough to make a profit.
 
Agreed. I was thinking about this, but I'm unsure for certain how to get through to some of the companies. All in do time though! :D Thanks for your thoughts.
 
Well I have a meeting lined up for this week with my local Newman Fuentes salesman as well as General cigar, Padron, and CAO. It's a start! I know allot of these guys will be looking for licensing and so fourth that I won't have, but at least it's a start!! I'll keep you guys up to date. Any thoughts, ideas, or info is always welcome. I have really appreciated all your suggestions up to this point!
 
and make sure there is a stipulation in the lease that if they ban smoking in your city you can get out without penalty. A lot of places have not considered that and have suffered dearly.
 
Macallan Brings up a thought that I wanted to research. If it's a private club, IE, no one but members can smoke in the building, then would I need to obey the no smoking laws. the no smoking laws cover people and establishments that are open to the public so as to not expose non smokers to second hand smoke, but, if the only persons having access to the smoking area are members, then these are people who want to smoke and enjoy cigars and pipes, thus making it a private club like a gun and rod club wouldn't it? The reason I bring this up is even if we are not talking the smoking ban, I would be required to have a seperate members area from my store front. Public can walk in off the street and buy sticks and what not, but if I want my members to be able to enjoy a 12 year old single malt while puffing on their c10, then I need to seperate that from the store front. The reason for this is I do not want to register as a bar, that's not the intention of the establishment, so, if I was a bar, build a humidor, be like everyone else, but for us, I'd like to allow everyone access to purchase retail stuff, but give my members an oasis of their own with no hassles and give them the ability to enjoy adult beverages whilest conversing on the days happenings. Anyone have any deeper info on how smoking laws may affect this type of business?

Really enjoying all the thoughts and comments!! :)
 
you could always have a "private hunting club" in the back room
 
I agree Jihiggs, but I'm still not certain on if a smoke ban was passed how that may affect me, so, still need to research some more. Maryland loves to tax the crap out of tobacco, so, being a retailer will set me back for 13% on purchases for the quarter every quarter plus 1500.00 or so give or take in licenses a year.

Weeeeeeeeee :lol:
 
ahh yes taxes and all the other state and local bs. owning your business means lots of bs. At least you won't be collecting large sums of money like i do. I have heard ALLLLL the excuses.
I have also heard that in some states where smoking in public places is banned you can smoke in "clubs". I am by no means an authority on that but i bet someone in your state or local govt. could tell you the answer to that.
 
I have some feelers out to the local gov folks to see the story, just haven't heard back yet. I actually collect money every month as I own a few rental properties as well, so, I know exactly what you mean about all the crap. I am just burnt out on my computer track that I'm on now, and if I could spend my days investing in real estate and enjoying conversations with like minded folks in a nice "club" and make a few dollars doing it, then I think life would be fantastic! Of course I may just pull up stakes and move to the bahamas and sell smokes from a grass hut!!!!

:p
 
I think the wife would be a little un-enthused if you will with the grass hut thing....though you never know!
 
i think that today with the internet and the diminished popularity of cigars, running a cigar shop is more of somthing you just want to do and not a money making endeavor. theres just not enough business in one area. now that i think about it, i never see any one in my area smoking at all really. bunch of rich stuck up health nuts around here lol.
 
IN this area I think it's much different. In the DC MEtro area you have many socialites and government people who like to go out and have a drink, and many of them smoke cigars and pipes. I think if he place was on the level that it needs to be, and placed properly, it could harness allot of the DC governmental folks to keep a healthy business running. In a club environment, individual stick/box sales are not what keeps the doors open, 275+ a year in membership fees X 2000+ people is a better number. But point very well noted!