Should I Hit This Guy?

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aquilas

Starting to Get Obsessed
Dec 3, 2013
212
1
Man. If a guy that dense can run a shop, I must be overqualified to run my own business then!

 

aquilas

Starting to Get Obsessed
Dec 3, 2013
212
1
Man. If a guy that dense can run a shop, I must be overqualified to run my own business then!

 

aquilas

Starting to Get Obsessed
Dec 3, 2013
212
1
Man. If a guy that dense can run a shop, I must be overqualified to run my own business then!

 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,211
59,146
I don't think I'd hit a guy who's already drowning. I think the going-out-of-business sale might be soon.

 

darwin

Part of the Furniture Now
Apr 9, 2014
820
6
Haven't been in this town very long and it's not really very big but at least there is one tobacconist. It's very cigar oriented of course but nevertheless the shop has a couple of hundred pipes on display with a nice broad range of styles and prices. Oddly though it has virtually no tinned tobacco available but does have a couple of shelves full of jars of blends done in the store. Annoying in the extreme but I suppose that's how local demand, such as it might be, has evolved. The owner seems fairly knowledgeable so it's not ignorance in this case but rather cold economic calculation in an age where pipes are the tip end of the tail of the tobacco dog. At least he's not goofy enough to throw out tinned tobacco because it has "expired".

 

conlejm

Lifer
Mar 22, 2014
1,433
8
Likewise here in NH. Cigars rule the roost. There is a good three-store chain of tobacconists called "Twin's Smoke Shop" that do carry a small assortment of pipes as well as a few tinned and bulk tobacco, but still the vast majority of real estate is devoted to cigars. There are also a few Cigar Bars around, that obviously cater to the cigar lovers.

 

ithelouniverse

Part of the Furniture Now
Dec 30, 2013
513
0
West Texas
Actually a surprising amount of pipers in this area... I enjoy it. Good sized pipe club... At least compared to other groups I interact with!

 
Mar 1, 2014
3,714
5,031
I agree with cigrmaster. If he doesn't know anything about the industry, his business will go tits-up faster than a reliant robin in a corner.
Just curious, Anglesly, is the Reliant Robin actually part of the normal vocabulary where you live or is that just coming from a Top Gear fan? (I guess it could also be that there's no distinction between the two)

That thing has got to be one of the most unique cultural references in history.
They also need to be somewhat competitive with online stores. I had been buying Orlik Golden Slice from P&C for $11.90 a 3.5 oz tin. I asked the local B&M if he could get it for me since I'd like to do business locally. So he got me 2 tins and the price was $22.50 each. I went ahead and bought them since he ordered for me. I will go in and have a talk with him about this. I don't expect for him to sell for $11.90 since if I ordered 2 from P&C there would be shipping cost. But $10 a tin more is ridiculous. These kinds of businesses are very competitive so if you want to survive you have to be competitive also. He's one of the ones that want tobacco sales outlawed online. Maybe I should just not do business with him but he's the only game in town.
Every experience I have had with brick and mortar stores (that don't already have an online presence) has been utterly hopeless. They are either doing well and won't give you an inch if you mention the Internet, or are out of business. I say don't feed the miserable dying thing and just let it pass naturally.
We have a better way of doing business now. Consumers are more informed than ever and the internet lets us connect with and employ specialists for everything rather than relying on a series of peddlers just to shake hands with the people we should actually be dealing with.

The modern world needs only a fraction of the infrastructure to manage the same amount of retail traffic as the old system. Basically an entire industry has become obsolete overnight, and everyone is better off this way, it's just a fact of life that a significant number of people are now in jobs that have no future.

 
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