My pipe smoking days begin in 1959, when many communities had a local brick-and-mortar tobacconist. there was no Internet, there were no online sales, your local tobacconist was what you had, and while there were some top-flight shops in various locales, the odds favored your local tobacconist as being a skilled retailer who knew his product and could talk to you intelligently about it. The chances were he didn't sell cigars or cigarettes – he was strictly a pipe and tobacco man. Sometimes he blended his own tobaccos, and at other times he brought in bulk tobaccos from major blenders and put his own name on them. In any case it was usually a good shop and you could count on getting good products and good service and as everyone knew the price points, usually a reasonable price as well.
And then the world changed. Along came the antismoking Nazis, and with the advent of the Internet, online sales began. Brick-and-mortar tobacconists began a slow but steady decline, as indeed did mom-and-pop shops of all descriptions. Today the online sales merchants fill a void that was once occupied by numerous brick-and-mortar tobacconist all over the country. There are very few of the strictly pipe and tobacco related brick-and-mortar shops left. They are, for the most part, of top quality, but even there be prepared to be disappointed. I went into Leavitt and Peirce a few months ago and nobody in the shop was a pipe smoker, and very few of them actually knew anything about pipes and tobacco or could discuss them with you. Many so-called tobacco shops specialize in cigarettes, lighters, and cigars. They have a few pipes, and a few tobaccos, but they have no idea what they have in front of them.
In a situation like this, there are a few alternatives to the online retailer. The good news is that most of them provide excellent service and top quality products at generally reasonable prices. Smoking pipes.com is a shining star in that constellation, providing a paradigm for the rest to emulate. I regularly patronize the retailers who sponsor this forum, and have managed to receive excellent service from home. This is the world we now live: the brick and mortar shops are declining, it's sad but it's true, and online retailing is not the wave of the future --it is the future that has arrived--it is the now in which we live. The good news is that they are entirely responsive to the needs of their customers-- you can talk with them, and you can get excellent merchandise, at reasonable prices, with pretty fast service. No, you won't be able to handle things as you once did in a brick-and-mortar shop, but that's true of retailing in many other areas as well.
