Germain’s Chat With a Tobacconist

[sablebrush52]

They started destroying the vintage market a few years ago where you could get some good deals on Cuban Davidoff and the like, now normal people can’t touch those cigars and eve worst part is the Chinese buy them as an investment and status symbol (this from Ajay) they don’t even smoke them

That's excellent news! This is the stage in a bubble cycle that always proceeds a collapse. Give it a few years and watch it pop like a boil.

 

[mingc]

That's excellent news! This is the stage in a bubble cycle that always proceeds a collapse. Give it a few years and watch it pop like a boil.

Funny, but also almost certainly accurate.

 

[kola]

The Tobacco Mafia is hard at work. Oh yeah. It's been like that for awhile.

 

[jpmcwjr]

That's excellent news! This is the stage in a bubble cycle that always proceeds a collapse. Give it a few years and watch it pop like a boil.

Yeppers! Any one here old enough to remember the Tulip disaster?
At least cigars last longer than tulips. Though they can't produce little bulbs of cigars.

 

[Franco Pipenbeans]

I don't think any one here knows the details of whatever distributorships Germain's are party to.

And you can bet that someone is profiting!

Someone must be making some money otherwise there wouldn’t be any Germain’s at all.

 

[Franco Pipenbeans]

My preferred local tobacconist usually gets a dozen or so assorted tins of esoterica and maybe 5 or 6 random Germains tins at least twice a year.
The other tobacconist in town that orders from Arango typically gets the same stuff but he gouges the piss out of them - so screw his goofy ass.

Crotchety bastard maintains he sells pipes all the time but he's had the same case of WAY overpriced Savinelli Autographs as long as I've been looking.

Cutting off his nose to spite his face. It’s like empty shops; surely the landlord would prefer to have someone renting the shop for less money, build up their business and raise rents over time? Rather than have a shop standing empty, with no one in it, presumably costing the landlord something to have an empty shop all because they are charging too much money?
I’m not a landlord so I don’t know how it works but it seems odd to me.

 

[Franco Pipenbeans]

Yeppers! Any one here old enough to remember the Tulip disaster?
At least cigars last longer than tulips. Though they can't produce little bulbs of cigars.

I’m nearly old enough to recall the South Sea Bubble bursting. ?

 

[PipeIT]

Hmm a website coming... ?

JF Germain & Son Ltd

Coming soon

www.jfgermain.co.je

 

[mso489]

Chairman Mao, who is still greatly revered in China, was an active cigar and cigarette smoker, by the historical accounts I've read, even having a supply provided on the Long March to evade Nationalist troops before the Communists took over the government. But I've never associated pipe smoking much with the Chinese people themselves. It has European and English associations that don't resonate with the Chinese, like the Opium Wars, when the English were pressing the opium trade on China when China didn't want it.

Maybe there is an actual Chinese appetite for pipe tobacco, and not just an interest in the tobacco trade. I'd be interested to know who among the Chinese smokes pipes, and how it is social enough to generate a wide demand.

 

[mingc]

Chairman Mao, who is still greatly revered in China, was an active cigar and cigarette smoker, by the historical accounts I've read, even having a supply provided on the Long March to evade Nationalist troops before the Communists took over the government. But I've never associated pipe smoking much with the Chinese people themselves. It has European and English associations that don't resonate with the Chinese, like the Opium Wars, when the English were pressing the opium trade on China when China didn't want it.

Maybe there is an actual Chinese appetite for pipe tobacco, and not just an interest in the tobacco trade. I'd be interested to know who among the Chinese smokes pipes, and how it is social enough to generate a wide demand.

It's easy enough to find out. Just learn the language and get on Chinese social media.

 

[sablebrush52]

Someone must be making some money otherwise there wouldn’t be any Germain’s at all.

Of course they are. They're a business, not a charity.

 

[sablebrush52]

Hmm a website coming... ?

JF Germain & Son Ltd

Coming soon

www.jfgermain.co.je

At first I thought the country tag was .jp

 

[Franco Pipenbeans]

Hmm a website coming... ?

JF Germain & Son Ltd

Coming soon

www.jfgermain.co.je

My prediction is it will be inundated with “Why can’t I find your tobacco?” type questions within, ooh, I’d say 5 minutes? ??

 

[smudgersmissingleg]

I noticed that a few weeks back English online tobacconist Turmeaus raised their prices of a 50g tin of Germain's from £19.99 to £29.99. A 50% price increase overnight?.

I'm guessing they're just matching the price they can sell it for in China. I love the Germain's blends like Brown Flake and Medium Flake but that is BLOODY EXPENSIVE!

 

[smudgersmissingleg]

I don't blame them as they're a business. If they can get that sort of price from China then they'd be mad to sell it for less in the UK. Even at that price the popular stuff like Brown Flake and Medium Flake sells out quickly.
Some of the other UK tobacconists are selling it for a more reasonable £22 a tin but the stuff is rarely in stock and when it is it sells out in double quick time.

Luckily, some of the tobacconists have an alert system you can sign up for to be notified when a particular blend comes into stock. That's how I got my hands on 3 tins each of Germain's Brown Flake and Medium Flake. You just have to keep an eye on your email for the alerts.
Germain's is expensive and a bit of a pain in the arse to find but in my opinion it's worth it.

Luckily there are no such problems with Samuel Gawith/Gawith Hoggarth. Their stuff is normally in stock at most places.

 

[Franco Pipenbeans]

It’s sheer opportunism on Turmeaus’ part - not sure why it added my “chiselling buggers!” Comment to the middle of your post Smudger? ?‍

 

[Franco Pipenbeans]

I don't blame them as they're a business. If they can get that sort of price from China then they'd be mad to sell it for less in the UK. Even at that price the popular stuff like Brown Flake and Medium Flake sells out quickly.
Some of the other UK tobacconists are selling it for a more reasonable £22 a tin but the stuff is rarely in stock and when it is it sells out in double quick time.

Luckily, some of the tobacconists have an alert system you can sign up for to be notified when a particular blend comes into stock. That's how I got my hands on 3 tins each of Germain's Brown Flake and Medium Flake. You just have to keep an eye on your email for the alerts.
Germain's is expensive and a bit of a pain in the arse to find but in my opinion it's worth it.

Luckily there are no such problems with Samuel Gawith/Gawith Hoggarth. Their stuff is normally in stock at most places.

Of the two Germain’s blends I’ve tried, neither were “blow your boots off brilliant” if I’m honest. Each to their own though.

 

[jpberg]

Of the two Germain’s blends I’ve tried, neither were “blow your boots off brilliant” if I’m honest. Each to their own though.

Which two were they? Cause there’s definitely enough blow your boots off blends coming from that joint.
Think for a minute - the volume that China buys, you’d think any good blend would be completely gone there, right?
So why can we still buy anything easily except Germains?
Maybe because Germaine’s is no easier or harder to get than it was 15 years ago?
Think about it.

 

[smudgersmissingleg]

Of the two Germain’s blends I’ve tried, neither were “blow your boots off brilliant” if I’m honest. Each to their own though.

If you don't mind me asking, which 2 blends did you try?

 

[smudgersmissingleg]

It’s sheer opportunism on Turmeaus’ part - not sure why it added my “chiselling buggers!” Comment to the middle of your post Smudger? ?‍

Must be a glitch in the matrix??. No worries?