Yesterday I decided to take a 30 minute drive from Jax Beach to the oldest B&M we have here. I would show you more pictures but it would make any pipe smoker sick to his stomach.
Apparently the manager was in a fatal car accident back at the beginning of the year and the other employees are trying to keep the place afloat. About half the store is trinkets and junk to pull the ritzy neighborhood folks in to the store. The back half of the store is the cigar and tobacco section. Now I have been there a few times and they used to sell every kind of cigaret and tobacco product you could think of. They now have about 20 boxes of cigars in the humidor and only 4 blends on hand 1Q, Golden Dansk, some cherry blend, and a very little butter rum blend. They had about 10 pipes sitting in the glass case a few Christiansons, one David off and some Randy Whileys. I was shocked to see what little they had.
Now the owners don't reside her in Jacksonville. They live in Texas and Indiana and rarely visit the store. The tobacco manager said that the owners said to cut orders in 1/3 of what they used to be. There are no basket pipes, no Edwards shapes, no tins. They did have some samples from Newminster that they are getting customers takes on for future orders but I am not sure how long they will be able to stay open when its the tobacco products that kept them open.
They need help in the worst way. So when the manager who was the primary stock holder in the store passed away it got caught up in probate and the other owners aren't very concerened about the customers wishes or themployees advise.