Boy, this can be a tough topic. A lounge seems to be a place where the interests of a number of parties meet. The meeting can be pleasant and mutually beneficial. The meeting can also unpleasant and detrimental to all concerned.
About a year ago, I had the same question that hitman posed. What is the etiquette for making use of smoking lounges? I can only speak to two very, very different lounges. In my city there are only two tobacco shops worthy of the name. And the discussion below [which seems to have somehow grown to book length] is very much my own opinion...which certainly may not be shared by others.
One shop is very cigar oriented. I would say that it is so cigar oriented that, although pipes and pipe tobacco are carried, pipe merchandise is limited and de-emphasized. The staff I dealt with were not very knowledgeable about pipes. For a beginner, in fact, they were a detriment to the pastime. Ah, but their lounge. It is a private club on three levels with a kitchen, a locker room, desks, televisions, a bathroom, deep leather chairs and couches, nooks, crannies, and little rooms off to the side. And it only costs $600 a year to be a member -- or $10 a visit -- and lockers are more. It also has no effective ventilation -- so it stinks of old cigar smoke which is layered on every surface I saw. It clearly wasn't cleaned regularly. Finally, the few patrons I saw using it struck me as egotists of the first order.
I asked one of the owners what percentage of the club members were pipe smokers. He replied that perhaps 10% were. I am guessing that a better figure would be 5%. Or less. Although the lounge was superficially impressive, on second and third examination and with more knowledge, it was not appealing. So, the issue of the etiquette of purchasing merchandise when using the lounge did not apply there -- a membership covers all obligations.
That was the first shop. The second is an entirely different proposition.
It is a small space in a small strip mall. It sells all kinds of tobacco and gentleman's pursuits stuff -- chess sets, grooming and shaving items, and so on -- a bit cluttered but not unpleasantly so. It has a small humidor in the back, but apparently, for cigar smokers, it offers an ample selection of cigars and accessories. However, I have overheard several times, when a customer is looking for a specific cigar, that they are sold out. In the year I have been going to this shop, its variety and presentation of pipes has doubled, even tripled, with choices from estate and low end pipes through the mid-ranges and up into the lower end of the upper range of pipes. The pipe tobacco selection is moderate, but wide in choice -- with a good range of house blends and a reasonable range of tins. Pipe accessories are pretty complete in their offering, if not all options are available. The staff are very knowledgeable about pipe smoking...from the owner down to the regular employees. Pipe repair and reconditioning are available at the shop for reasonable prices.
The lounge at this shop is small. It consists of four very nice, deep, leather chairs in the far corner of the shop. The chairs face a large TV. There is a huge ottoman in front of the chairs; it is covered with the latest pipe and cigar magazines. There are small tables between the chairs for ashtrays with room or one's smoking paraphernalia, and even a book or a can of soda. There are more stacked chairs, auditorium style, available for overflow. It is a very pleasant place to smoke when the weather is inclement -- I don't smoke in my house or garage due to orders from CinC Home.
When I first began observing the lounge, it was glaringly evident that it was the haunt of the cigar smokers. There were regulars there nearly every day. They were clearly enjoying themselves, were frequently loud, and seemed to have decided that only golf, reruns of old TV shows, and shows about surviving in the Arctic while building cabins and driving semis were allowable for viewing. There was no discussion or asking for opinions; that was it. I concluded that the lounge was not a place for pipe smokers and did not initially use it.
After more time passed, I observed that the cigar smokers usually showed up around noon and stayed the afternoon. That made the lounge quiet and available for about the first two hours after the shop opened. For those few hours, the TV was playing music that I enjoyed -- no roller derby or quiz shows. And no energetically voiced political or religions opinions, sometimes in language not usually used for religious opinions. I also observed that there were afternoons when no cigar smokers showed up. So, from time to time, I'd gather pipes and tobacco and head to the shop. If the cigar smokers were there, I'd leave. If not, I'd stay. And if one or more appeared while I was smoking, I'd finish the bowl and move on. I began to have some very pleasant hours or twos in the lounge. The cigar smokers are not bad guys; they are just different guys.
The employee who really knew pipes had established a Pipe Night once a week. In theory, only pipe smokers could use the lounge. But is was not unknown for cigar smokers to ignore Pipe Night and just keep on keeping on. How did I learn about Pipe Night? I learned because I was explicitly invited -- multiple times. I attended often and as many as 10-12 other pipe smokers appeared. Everyone brought in tobacco for others to sample and the shop always had between one to six sample tins. We talked about pipes and tobaccos and the industry and current events in the pipe world. We sometimes just sat an smoked with little conversation. I also learned that there was a local pipe club and was again invited to attend its monthly meeting at a local fraternal organization. The local options for the hobby began to open up and my enjoyment of it increased.
Now, back to the title of the thread. When I first started pipe smoking and was buying my first pipes and tobacco, I bought exclusively at the shop. I discovered a bit later that eBay offered interesting pipes at decent prices. And, as more time went by, I learned that eBay pipes weren't always worth their bargain prices, and the shop got to repair or clean my new eBay acquisition. I was learning about pipe tobaccos. My first purchases were exclusively at the shop, but I began to explore beyond the their offerings. Now, a year later, I know I can go to the shop and get expert advice on both pipes an tobacco -- information I cannot get online -- and more than once I've walked out one pipe or one tin or one lighter heavier than I walked in. But I no longer buy exclusively at the shop. And my acquisition of new pipes and new tobaccos and new accessories has dropped significantly. So, from time to time, I'll pick up some new tobacco or replenish a tin I've used -- or get an accessory I forgot to bring to the lounge. Although I know it is only a token, I always buy a soda when I use the lounge.
I continued to observe the lounge. A couple of times another pipe smoker was there. We'd nod or say hello and, as pipe smokers do, go back to our book or phone. I observed that some cigar regulars had "their" chair and were clearly not pleased when somebody else occupied it. I observed that some cigar regulars seemed to come for the TV and the wiFi and, maybe, even the heat when it was cold or the A/C when it was hot. Some were working at their job via their computer -- using the lounge as an auxiliary office. Some, on some days, did not smoke at all -- they just used the space. Some guys would drop by to kill time before or after work or school. And some simply came in, bought a cigar, and smoked it in the lounge.
I had become aware that the tobacco B&Ms were cigar dependent for their income and realized that having a lounge to smoke in was a real privilege for a pipe smokers. I don't know if some of the cigar regulars quite understood that. I had a couple of talks with the owner and her employees and learned that there was a debate between keeping the lounge open or closing it and using it for more merchandise space. There was a desire to keep it open for many reasons, but there was a realization that its users just weren't generating revenue.
Then, a couple of months ago, change came. The shop posted a sign asking that lounge patrons only smoke items purchased in the shop. I think that is quite reasonable, but am sometimes personally puzzled trying to remember which Mason jarred tobacco was purchased there. Another sign was posted stating that Pipe Night was for pipe smokers only ... cigar smokers were no longer permitted to occupy their chair and smoke their cigars in the middle of Pipe Night. There have been verbal reminders to clean up after oneself, especially in the bathroom. And the staff of the shop have taken over the TV remote. Of the changes, the cigar regulars had the most unhappy reaction to losing control of the TV. One commented when arriving and noting that jazz was coming out of the TV, "Do we have to listen to this crap when a game is coming on?" The answer was something like, "When the game is actually on, we can watch it. But, until then, its music."
So, what I hope I have done is to educate myself on the privilege of a smoking lounge...and the responsibility we have to reciprocate that with the shop owner. I have swept floors, emptied ashtrays, emptied trashcans, even cleaned up after someone else in the bathroom -- all to indicate I appreciate the lounge. If alone and someone comes in and asks to watch something on TV, I refer them to the staff and indicate that I have no problem with it -- I might leave shortly thereafter. And, if I find an interesting new tobacco and it costs 50% more from the shop than from an online seller, I'll buy it at the shop. I buy my accessories from the shop. I look at the pipes in the cabinets and have buy one once in a long while. And I buy a soda every time I use the lounge -- it is not much, but it is something. My typical stay is 1-2 hours, but I've stayed longer.
And, when I have the opportunity and a newbie is in the shop and buys a pipe and tobacco, I invite him to Pipe Night and the pipe club. Sometimes, I think that just visibly sitting there, filling or smoking or cleaning a pipe provides an image that might lead others to buy at the shop. In a small way, I try to push the hobby and the shop.
I would not join the private club at the first shop.
I doubt that I am buying enough or will buy enough in the shop to "pay" for my use of the lounge. At first, when I was buying pipes and tobacco right and left, I may have been. But no longer. If the lounge closed, I'd continue to drop by the shop, but wouldn't have the experience of getting up and roaming around the shop and looking at the pipes and tobaccos to the depth that I do when visiting the lounge. I appreciate the recent changes which have made it more accessible to pipe smokers. I'm grateful for the lounge and try to be a good guest when using it.
