Skip, who owns the Briary doesn't smoke. The other pipe shops in my area also are owned by non-smokers or rare occasion cigar smokers. There are two cigar shops owned by non-smokers in my area also.
While they know how to sell a pipe or a stogie, they usually are just saying shit they've heard over the years. These pipe things are usually more of a magical anomaly to them than they are to us, so yep, they say stupid shit.
And cigar guys... why can they not shut the hell up? I really don't know nor care about what famous cigar rolling expert made those stupid stogies. I don't even know the different names of the brands. I just want the strongest damn sticks in the store, pay my money and get out of there, before they start showing off their dicks and pissing against the walls. I think it is standard procedure to hire the most obnoxious, ugly sons of bitches with face tattoos and beards to their belts to set in these cigar shops saying shit to expose shoppers for not knowing as much as they know about cigars. YOU WIN, I don't, and I don't care. Just let me pay for these and get the hell away from the Hells Angels serial killer you've hired to run your register. A face tattoo just expresses to the world how much you hate humanity. I think you have to be a complete moron to open a cigar shop and the choices of employees proves it.
These days, I just order cigars from smokingpipes, so that I don't have to deal with the complete assholes that work and hang out in these shops. I'd rather be stabbed in the eye than hang out in a cigar shop.