Ep9 • The David Garofalo Interview

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A cigar shop can look busy and still be losing its future one customer at a time. We bring on our first-ever guest, Dave Garofalo, owner of Two Guys Cigars and host of The Cigar Authority, to break down what separates a “store with a humidor” from a true brick-and-mortar cigar business that lasts for decades.

Dave takes us back to 1985 and walks us through how cigar retail has changed, why he committed to going cigars-only, and how he learned to build loyalty with service and selection instead of constant discounting. We talk customer lifetime value, why an “event” is not the same thing as a deal, and how the right in-store experience turns casual buyers into long-term regulars. If you care about cigar customer service, humidor strategy, and building a cigar lounge community, this is packed with real-world lessons.

We also get into content marketing for cigars, including why Dave started podcasting in 2010 when most people had never heard the word “podcast,” and how education creates better customers who recognize quality and keep coming back. Then we go rapid-fire on what retailers should start doing tomorrow, the biggest product-mix mistake that fuels online cigar discounters, and what both retailers and consumers should demand from a great cigar shop, from cleanliness to professionalism.

Subscribe, share this with a retailer or cigar friend, and leave us a review so we can keep bringing you more maker-and-retail insights like this.

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Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Welcome to the world of Perdomo Cigars.
We deliver the most authenticin-depth cigar education to you,
the Cigar Enthusiast.
Recorded at the Perdomo Studioin Miami, Florida, brought to
you by third and fourthgeneration Master Cigar Makers.
This is the Perdomo Podcast.

(00:22):
Your hosts, Nick and NicholasPerdomo.

SPEAKER_01 (00:26):
Today we're bringing on someone that who's really
mastered cigar retail.
This is something I'm extremely,extremely proud of, and really
our first guest.
Um, we're bringing on the ownerof Two Guys Cigars, the host of
the Cigar Authority podcast, andreally our good friend and our

(00:47):
retail partner, Dave Garoffalo.
Mr.
Dave, we want to welcome you tothe Prodomo podcast, and we're
glad to have you as our firstguest.

SPEAKER_02 (00:55):
Thank you, and what an honor.
First guest, I become a triviaquestion now.
Anybody ask you is from now, thefirst guest ever on the Prodomo
podcast, it's me.
I am a trivia question and veryexcited to be part of it.

SPEAKER_01 (01:08):
It is you, it is you, and we're grateful to have
you on, Mr.
Dave.
And we have a bunch ofquestions.
This is gonna be pretty coolbecause it's usually me asking
my dad a bunch of questions ormy dad asking me questions and
so forth.
So we're excited, and so we'regonna fire off and we're gonna
ask you some questions.
And I and really we want ourviewers and our audience to get
to know you, right?
And we want to know, and myquestion to you, Mr.

(01:29):
Dave, is how did you get in thecigar business?
And back when you got into thecigar business, what did retail
look like back then and how hasit changed?

SPEAKER_02 (01:37):
Yeah, I got in the cigar business in 1985.
Terrible time to get into thecigar business.
Business was dropping, they tellme 6% per year in those days,
but I didn't know any better.
And I was a nightclub discjockey looking for a little hot
side hustle to do in the daytimebecause the nightclub DJs worked

(01:58):
nights.
So I didn't go in till abouteight o'clock at night, got out
at two o'clock in the morningand would go bother my friends
at work all the time.
What am I gonna do?
I tried golfing, tried hobbies,I could never get into anything.
I love work.
So I opened a little cigar storewith a buddy of mine.
He owned video stores of allthings, and after about a year

(02:19):
or so, he said, This isn't goinganywhere.
I'm opening more video stores,I'm out of this.
I bought him out, I took mybrother in as a partner, and we
went from there.
After about three and a halfyears or so, and I was hoping
the day would come that I couldmake enough money to survive in
the cigar shop business.
I made a lot of money in thenightclub business, but the

(02:41):
cigar shop was actually takingthe money, building the company
up as those years went on.
And the day came where I feltlike I could do it, giving a
hundred percent of my attentionto the cigar business at that
time, and able to, within twoyears, open two more stores and
have three stores.
This was in Boston at the time.

(03:02):
Again, this is still the ninethe eighties, and we were
growing because we were brandnew, and the industry was
dropping, though, is what thecigar reps would come in and
tell me.
Like you you missed the uh boomof the 70s, and here it was now
towards the end of the 80s.
But we were growing, things weregoing good, things were
different in those times.

(03:23):
Two guys was called two guyssmoke shop because there were no
cigar shops.
There was cigar and pipe shopsbecause there could be money to
be made on pipes, and you couldmaybe survive doing those two
things, but being a cigar shopby itself, the name didn't even
exist.
So uh we sold everything.
We sold cigarettes and pipetobacco and pipes and lottery

(03:45):
tickets and coffee and magazinesand all kinds of things like
that.
And until Philip Morris putpressure on me that they wanted
50% control of my shop, and Itold them no, they put an
all-out effort in to try to hurtmy business by running
promotions all around our store.

(04:05):
And one day they came in andsaid, You know, what do you say?
You're gonna sign on to thisafter they were uh running buy
two get one freeze around me.
And I put out the white flag andthey said, Okay, sign here.
And I said, No, putting the wthe white flag out because I'm
going cigars only.
And they said, No, you're not,because I was a big cigarette

(04:26):
store, probably the biggestaround the Boston area at the
time.
And again, being a smoke shopand carrying everything, I said,
I'm gonna go cigars only,because the margins actually
started changing within thecigar industry.
Little companies started gettingin there and offering better
margins than the terriblemargins we were getting in those

(04:47):
days.
By the way, they were 12, 2, and5.
Those were the numbers.
So it would be a 12% discount,is what you were selling cigars
at, a 12% from what you paid forthe cigar.
Unless you bought so many, yougot an additional two.
That's not two on top of it,it's two off the new lower
price.
And then the next one was anadditional five percent off the

(05:10):
new lower price.
So you weren't even getting 20%anyway on the cigars, and it
wasn't enough to be cigars only.
That started changing, and Icould see that, and I go, I
think I can become a cigar-onlyshop at these new type of
margins if I would take on thesenew brands that nobody knew.

(05:33):
Because the old brands werestill those margins, the new
guys coming in were the bettermargins.
But in order to do that, I wouldhave to push and promote those
brands because, like today,people come in and ask for the
ask brands.
So you had work to do to makethat happen, but I did it.
When it came to the musicbusiness I was in, I was
breaking music, and when it cameto the cigar business, I was

(05:55):
breaking the new cigars.
That actually set me apart fromthe big competitors that were
there.
In Boston at the time, we hadtwo major cigar shops, cigar and
pipe shops that were there, andthey were both over a hundred
years old.
And here I was a 25-year-old kidgetting in there, and I had to
differentiate myself from them,which is what I did.

(06:18):
And over a few a few years, Iwas able to become the biggest
shop in Boston, and I went fromthere.
Taxation ended up moving us intoNew Hampshire, and it it went
from there to starting all overagain.
This was in 1995.
But as as luck would have it andhard work would have it,
business continued to grow, andit's been 41 years.

(06:41):
It's hard to believe, but it's41 years in the same same
industry right now.

SPEAKER_03 (06:47):
Dave, it seems uh with all the all your hard work
and you and I are wired verysimilarly, everything you touch
turns to gold, but it's througha lot of hard work where a lot
of people don't realize theamount of effort you put in
everything you do, and it's allabout quality and and the
customer service you do.
You've written an incrediblebook that I actually gave my
whole sales team to read, Davidversus Goliath, and maybe a

(07:10):
little later you can talk aboutyour newest creation, and it's
just such a such an excellentread, and it really helps a lot
of young entrepreneurs whetherthey be in the cigar business or
not.
And you talk about you're you'rebuilding you build some of the
biggest cigar stores orbest-selling cigar stores in the
Boston area, I'd venture to sayI think you've built three of

(07:32):
the b best cigar stores andbiggest cigar stores in the
world today, and that's a bigattribute to all your hard work.
But you know, most cigar storesare very similar, and you're
you're really at the pinnacle ofdoing things a little bit
differently.
And I just want to ask you aquestion very simply.
At what point did you realizethat just having cigars on the
shelves wasn't enough?

(07:53):
Because you do things verydifferently.

SPEAKER_02 (07:57):
Well, uh what what I want to do is specialize in
something and say that we we'llbe the experts in this field and
we'll do it very good.
If you look at something likeFive Guys, for instance, Five
Guys says, we're gonna doburgers, fries, and shakes,
that's what we'll do, and we'llbe looked upon as with an expert
in it as opposed to havingchicken sandwiches and larger

(08:18):
menus things.
I'm I'm gonna hone in on justthis.
And you know, it was funny.
Uh back in the day, we were likethe top Garcia Vega El Producto
sales around.
And at the same time, we werethe number one Davidoff cigar
store in the nation.
And people would say, you know,why are you carrying the the

(08:39):
low-price cigars and the highprice cigars?
I said, Isn't it a niche that Ionly sell cigars to begin with?
And then it's just to say I'mgonna niche into a into a
certain thing.
I'm gonna have every cigaravailable, like a great casino
would have, that you have pennyslots and 25 cent slots, and
then you have the the room wherethe high rollers go too.

(09:01):
So they they're taking yourmoney in every every way.
If you're a cigar smoker, Ibuilt a place for cigar smokers
to go.
It doesn't matter, and youshouldn't be embarrassed what
your budget is.
We have a cigar for you, andwe're gonna figure out what the
right cigar for you is, and tryto hang on to you forever.
You know, I I don't call itgreedy, it it's a bit of
long-term greed that we try tohang on to a customer as long as

(09:25):
possible.
I was the second company ever tohave an online source.
Why did I put the online source?
I did it so if my customer movedaway, I put so much work into
them.
I wanted to keep that customereven if they went away.
So that's another thing, too.
Of it takes forever.
I've heard the words out of youfrom your dad, it takes forever

(09:46):
to get a customer and in twoseconds to lose them.
I hear that loud and clear, andthat's what that's what we try
to end up doing.
Some of that is give them anexperience.
You know, coming in and gettinga buy three, get one free to me
is not an event.
It's actually a catastrophe whenI end up seeing that.
You're losing, you know, 33% ofyour sales are gone out the

(10:09):
window, and you call that anevent.
It demoralizes the brand on topof it, devalues it.
And, you know, that wasn't partof it either.
But it's the easiest thing.
I get it.
It's the easiest thing.
That's not what I'm looking for.
I'm looking for what's the bestthing long term, not a short
term.
It's always been long term.
I even 41 years into it, I stilllook long term.

(10:30):
A new customer comes in and Igo, what is the lifetime value
of that customer?
Not do did I sell him in anextra$100 worth of cigars, oh
score.
No, I want that guy.
If I can hang on to him and heand he spends$5,000 a year and I
can keep him for 10 years, it'sa$50,000 customer.
When we lose one, I look at itthe same exact way.

(10:51):
That, you know, how many$50,000sales do we want to end up
losing?
The answer is zero.
Thing is, people move away,people unfortunately die, people
stop smoking, we have to bringthem in faster than we lose
them.
And the certainly the ones wehave, we have to hang on to
them.
Love the ones you're with, takecare of them.
And doing the same thing overand over, even when it's a

(11:14):
winner, you got to change it up.
You got to keep them interested.
That was the same in nightclubs.
Nike, the same owner of anightclub I had, I was there
eight years with a certainnightclub owner.
He changed the name of the clubthree different times, and it
was the same guy that owned it.
But it looked like the new Hutnightclub each time he ended up
doing it.
So that's what we want to dotoo, is change it up.

(11:34):
There's something alwayshappening at two guys.
Uh, we hear our I'm a brick andmortar guy.
We do do online, but my my forteis the customer that comes in
the store.
I happen to love it, and try toget into their minds and figure
out what keeps them coming backmore and more and hang on to it.
Sometimes we have a customerthat goes away on vacation.

(11:55):
I've heard it more than once,and they buy cigars before they
go away, and they come back andthey come to see me and almost
apologize that they ran out ofcigars while they were on
vacation.
And I said, So what'd you do?
And they said, I went into astore there and I got this, and
I said, How was a store?
And I'm asking them what theythought, but the reason why
they're telling me is tobasically apologize for cheating

(12:17):
on me.
And I go, no, no, don't feellike that at all.
But they do, they feel like partof the family.
And, you know, that goes for eeven manufacturers, great
partnership manufacturers I dealwith, that, you know, if if I
didn't buy your new product thatcame in, you'd feel like, you
know, what why did we let youdown?
What did what do we do?

(12:38):
And it wouldn't maybe it maybeit wasn't right for me or
whatever, but you would feelthat way, and I would feel that
way not to do it.
And that's how customers feelwith me too.
So, you know, I try to do it thesame way the customer feels with
me.
That's how I like to do it withthe manufacturers at the same
time.

SPEAKER_03 (12:56):
You know, it's a loyalty issue, and I think you
have such a loyal customer base.
And I wrote a book, it's comingout very short, took me a long
time to write because I waswaiting for my grandchildren to
be born while I continue tobook, and I was honored to have
Dave write the forward.
And one of the things that thatthat Dave writes is sometimes he

(13:16):
feels like he's cheating if hedoesn't if he doesn't buy
something from me.
It's this loyalty that we havetogether, and there's also a
loyalty between themanufacturer, a great
manufacturer, together with agreat retailer.
And I'm proud that that you'renot only my friend, but also a
phenomenal retailer.
And I hear it from the consumersall around.
There's there's nowhere I'm notaround where whether it be a

(13:38):
challenge coin in my pocket, doyou have the two guys challenge
coin or whatever, you you justgot a a a worldwide presence,
whether it be two guys cigars orthe cigar authority, and you do
a phenomenal job.

SPEAKER_02 (13:51):
Well, it is a partnership, no doubt about it,
that I do look at themanufacturers as partners.
I have some great ones like you,and I have some not great great
ones.
Sometimes it takes them a whileto figure out that we're in this
together.
I can certainly buy cigars.
The question is, are we gonna beable to sell them and churn
them?
You know, eat when when a cigarcomes in, I'm gonna sell the

(14:13):
first round of that cigar, nodoubt about it, because I'm
gonna get excited and show thecustomers, my staff is gonna
show the customer, here's what'snew.
The question is, are they evergonna get there?
We're gonna go order the secondround because we're gonna sell
the first round.
Then it becomes, are we evergonna buy the third round?
There's so many that don't makeit through the third time.
That's when we have to startworking together.

(14:34):
So, what are we gonna do on thethird round to end up making
that happen?
Is it gonna be events?
Is it gonna be promotions?
Is it gonna be gift withpurchase?
Is it gonna be some sort of, youknow, I have a podcast, I have
somebody on there, and let's getthis train rolling.
Let's get let's get it going.
As much work as it is to try toto get a good customer and hang
on to them, the same happenswith a good partner, uh,

(14:57):
somebody I'm buying cigars from.
I don't want to keep looking fornew friends at the trade show.
I want to certainly hang on tothe ones I have.
Every once in a while, there's athere's a new hot guy out there,
but some of these othermanufacturers, to be honest,
drop off.
They they're happy they made thesale and it's over.
They they rub their handstogether, it's over.

(15:18):
They've made the sale and it'sover.
It is not over.
It's it's just beginning.
That same thing happens when Iget a new customer that comes
in.
They're new, and now I want toget them into the engaged into
events.
If we could break breadtogether, if they can do show up
at one of my events, if they cango to cigar school with me, if
they can be a watcher of thecigar authority, then we're

(15:40):
curating long-term customers.
Same happens with amanufacturer, and there's this a
few that get it, most don't.
And you've been with me, oh mygod, since the very beginning,
when you know your slips wouldbe handwritten before even
computers.
So you know, I look at that andit's it's been a long run, it's

(16:02):
been a great run.
You get it, and it's been a backand forth of helping each other
out.
That's partnership, that's whatthe uh a retailer needs to do.
They have to find great partnersin this business.

SPEAKER_03 (16:12):
And the consumer sees it.

SPEAKER_01 (16:15):
Yes, yeah, absolutely.
Well, Mr.
Dave, you know, one of thethings too is you know, outside
of building an incrediblebusiness and being a great
partner not only with us butwith a lot of different
companies, you did somethingtotally different.
You started working and you youreally were early on content,
right?

(16:37):
And one of the big questions Ihave to ask you is, and I think
you've been going on I think 16years now with the Cigar
Authority show.
I had the honor of being the youbeing the Cigar Authority being
my first ever live interviewthat I ever did, and I think I
was 17 going on 18 years old inmy senior year high school, so
that was cool.

(16:58):
And what what motivated you todo that and and really how did
it change your business?

SPEAKER_02 (17:05):
So we we have uh issues being selling cigars
because for whatever reasonpeople think that the product is
bad, so there's no law againstadvertising cigars, but a lot of
companies decide they want nopart of it.
That goes for social media.
We cannot advertise on socialmedia, they won't allow it.
The newspapers, the magazines,the radio stations, TV stations

(17:29):
around here.
Back in the early days, Iadvertised heavy.
I understand advertising pays.
You know, people say advertisingcosts, it also pays done
properly.
So I did a good job.
I I I got the name out of it,but as time went on, I would see
new people moved in our area anddidn't know who two guys was.

(17:50):
I I built it years ago, but asnew people move in, they don't
even know who we are.
So my daughter, Gianna, you knowGianna, and she's the one that
said, Dad, you got to get onsocial media.
So she sets up a Facebookaccount for me, and I said,
Okay, and she says, putsomething on there, and I put
something on there.
A whole bunch of people friendedme and answered back from

(18:12):
whatever I wrote.
And a day goes by and she says,Hey, do you all these people
wrote to you and you just postedanother post?
You're supposed to answer whatthe people wrote.
And I said, Well, I have no timefor that.
I said, You answer, and shesaid, I don't know the answers.
I can't answer it for youbecause I don't know what the
answers are.
And I said, I just can't dothat.
I can't be on there and answerhundreds of people's things when

(18:36):
I'm operating my three storesand my online business, and
there's no time to do that.
So she said, You have to.
It's social media.
The idea is to be social.
So I said, I'm gonna have tofigure something else out.
And I bought a book on socialmedia, going to the airport,
going to see somebody.
I grabbed the book at theairport, it said social media,

(18:56):
and I read about social media,and in it said podcast.
So I read about that and I said,Wow, this is kind of
one-directional.
I get to say it, and theinformation is out there.
This is even before there wasany video to it, it was audio
only at the time.
And I said, Okay, I'll uh I'lltry that.
So we put a podcast together in2010.

(19:19):
Nobody knew what a podcast was.
I I remember even telling peoplethey would come in, I said, You
got to listen to the podcast,and they go, Well, I don't have
podcasts.
And I said, Let me see yourphone.
And I said, See that littlepurple thing?
It says podcast.
Click that button, let me do itfor you.
And it was really hand-to-handcombat at that time.
But very quickly I learned thatpodcasting wasn't my local

(19:43):
advertising, it wasinternational, that our our
listeners were coming fromCanada and coming from England
and usually English-speakingcountries.
But as I was looking at, I go,these people from everywhere.
So it be it became a pivot atthat point and say, okay, this
is not going to work for that,but it works.
So what do we do with this?

(20:04):
And the whole idea was toeducate the consumer.
If I can do that, I believe aneducated customer is my best
customer.
If if they really know aboutcigars, they can re they can
look and see two guys asprobably probably caring for
their cigars, seeing the vastinventory we carry and that
there's something for everybodyhere, training my staff to know

(20:26):
about cigars, they would come inand say, Wow, those guys really
know about cigars.
When you when you don't have aneducated consumer, they they
don't see it yet.
So you get them educated andthen they realize how good we
really are.
So that was the idea of it.
I'm not a quitter.
You know, I there was nobody atthe beginning.
It took us three and a halfyears to get our first
advertiser on the show, whichwhich helps fund the show to

(20:50):
begin with and keeps memotivated, to be honest.
If if if I'm seeing nobody'slistening and nobody cares, I'm
gonna care less or say it's notworking.
All of a sudden it startsworking.
You get all the reps that areRoad Warriors that these guys
are are doing lots of time,windshield time, they call it,
and them contacting me, I startshowing up at trade shows and

(21:13):
they go, Oh, I listen to you allthe time.
There was more people talking tome at the trade show, not for
being two guys, but being forthe guy on the cigar authority,
which to me is, you know, like41 years of working very hard on
this on two guys, I became theguy from the Cigar Authority
because the power of media,right?

(21:33):
Social media, which is thepodcast, you guys are brand new
with it, but you're you'realready seeing drastic numbers.
Well, I'm I'm watching anyway,that huge numbers of followers
that you have listening to ourpodcast already.
What's the magic that's gonnahappen is you're gonna get
people that aren't yourcustomers, and maybe they smoke

(21:55):
something else, but you're gonnaeducate them anyway, and they're
gonna appreciate what a Perdomosmoke.
Cigar is and the work that getsput into it as they learn of
what's happening.
It's you you see it when youhave your tours that all these
people that go to the PerdomoTour, and I don't know if it
ever happened that you knowpeople that aren't into Perdomo
cigars end up going on the touror somebody goes with somebody

(22:18):
that isn't there.
I would I would tend to bet thatthey leave a Perdomo fan after
they have got educated.
So an educated consumer for agood product, which I believe
two guys is a good product, aneducated consumer becomes my
best customer and a will foryou.

SPEAKER_03 (22:36):
I agree with you 100%.
You know, we kind of mirror eachother, like I said earlier.
Your daughter talked to youabout social media and
podcasting, and Nicholas is theone who brought it up to me, you
know.
And one of the things we wereexcited about with our podcasts
is this is what we do for aliving.
We're on cigar farms.
You know that you've been to myfacilities numerous times.

(22:56):
And you being so educated, beingin the industry for over four
decades, and being in numerousfactories all over the world
from the Dominican Republic,Honduras, Nicaragua, Cuba,
you've been everywhere.
Your knowledge is vast, butthere's a lot of bad knowledge
out there and a lot of bad bumdope that you hear, and you hear
it all the time too.
And one of the things thatNicholson brought up to me when

(23:17):
we were doing this podcast wasreally to meet the makers, the
guys who actually do it everyday, not a guy who picks up
hints of plum and you know,button wood and all these other
things that I don't really tastein a cigar, and probably you
don't either.
But you know, one of the thingsthat we did is, you know, we've
been in the industry for overthree decades, and I'm proud of

(23:37):
my son, and he taught mesomething which was really
great, and that's that's thetruth.
But you know, we launched theProdomo 30th anniversary, then
we then we launched ProudomoLegacy, and now I'm proud to say
we've launched the ProdomoLegacy father and son together,
and we're launching it with you,the three most really special

(24:00):
brands in our family'sportfolio.
And people asked why'd you why'dyou launch it with two guys
cigars?
And my answer is to them is theyjust don't sell cigars.
And my question to you is youreally don't just sell cigars,
you build brands decades ago,and today I think you do even

(24:21):
more.
You build anticipation, andthat's something that's special
that people don't get.
And I wanted to, if I could, askyou if you could walk our
audience through on how you dothis, some of these ideas that
are just you know, I'm like asponge.
I want to listen and learn fromeverybody.
And when you came out with yourfirst book, I was on a flight to

(24:44):
Italy.
I think I took a picture of it.
I was on a nine nine and a halfhour flight.
I certainly wanted to take alittle nap, but I couldn't put
that book down.
And I literally read that book.
It took me nine hours andthirty-five minutes.
I read that book from cover tocover, and Janine kept saying,
Are you gonna go to sleep?
I said, I can't put this bookdown because I'm you know, I'm
fascinated by things I can learnfrom.

(25:06):
And my dad always used to say,if you don't learn every day,
why I'd live, you know what Imean?
And I just wanted to see if youcould walk our audience on how
you do these, how do you buildthe anticipation, where others
really get a lot of benefitsfrom it.

SPEAKER_02 (25:20):
They do.
And and I know, you know, andafter you did the first one with
me, which I was very gratefulthat you did it, when you came
back for the second one, I said,why don't you go to somebody
else?
Because I don't want you to getany negative pushback from it.
And you fought me on it, and youand it made sense that you said,
listen, you're really helpingthe other stores because you're

(25:41):
you're you're getting everybodyexcited about it.
This is, you know, there'speople in the cigar industry
that are in the cigar industrythat were my customer first.
And these are big, some bignames that are out there that
lived in the area and used toshop.
And I remember them as theystarted shopping with me and
what ended up happening withthem.
And they said that my excitementof the product is what drove

(26:05):
them into the business.
And there's many people that getexcited to listen to the cigar
authority, and they say, I wantto get in the cigar business,
and I try to talk them out ofit.
And I said, I'm just m gettinggetting you excited about it,
but I w you you need to know thethe bad end of it and the
business end of it because it'sit's not easy, it's uh it's a
lot of hard work.
And what what ends up happening,and and maybe some of this comes

(26:29):
from the nightclub DJ stuff too,because I had to fill rooms
every single day.
I worked Wednesday throughSunday at stores.
I had seven clubs going at once,and that would be the deal I
would make the barum that Iwould turn into the nightclub,
and they would say, Well, whatare you gonna do on Wednesday
night?
And I said, Well, Wednesdaynight is ladies' night, and
ladies get in free.

(26:50):
And the guy says, Oh, we don'teven charge cover charge.
I said, Well, we're gonna startcovering shut cover charge and
we're gonna let the ladies infor free on Wednesday, and this
is what's gonna happen.
And then what's gonna happenThursday?
Because they could they couldpack the place on a Friday,
Saturday, everybody could.
But what are you gonna do foryour retail store on Tuesday?
Well, it's slow on Tuesday.

(27:10):
You need to do promotions,events, and things to drive
people in.
You got to create excitement.
And some of this excitement,we're gonna launch the Prodomo
Father and Son Legacy on aWednesday, and we're gonna
jam-pack a restaurant on thatday with over 200 people, and
then we're gonna launch it inthe retail stores on Thursday,

(27:31):
and then move you aroundThursday, Friday, Saturday, and
three of our different stores,and we're gonna blow it up, and
then we're gonna run out ofcigars.
And I said it to Nicholas wasgetting a little pushback from a
retailer.
I don't know if he's listening,and I'm sure he is.
I get it.
I get the I get the the thoughtof why you're doing it with him

(27:52):
and you're not doing it with me.
Please understand what issupposed to happen here.
I would never try to hurt thePerdomo company, family, or
brand.
Quite the contrary.
What I'm hoping to do isactually blow it up and get the
anticipation for their cigars.
And we saw it because as I'mpushing back, I'm saying the

(28:14):
question that I end up actingasking Nicholas is after the
fact, and I go, What ended uphappening?
And they said, they didn'treceive their cigars yet.
My phone's lighting up, and theyordered X amount of cigars
already.
And they said, I want to placean order.
And he said, You alreadyordered.
And he says, No, I want todouble the order because now
customers are coming into themand saying, When are you getting
that?
When are you getting the newPodomos in?

(28:35):
When are you getting the newPodomos?
And the guy realizes, oh my God,20 people already asked me.
I'm going to need more of these.
And they're ordering more.
They come in and they end upselling.
I wish, I wish everybody wasdoing this for everybody and
rise all chips.
Let's rise them all.
But that that comes withexcitement of the product.
I truly, I'm not an actor.

(28:56):
I truly am excited about theproduct that comes in.
I couldn't fake it.
It's genuine.
And the people end up biting.
You know, they get excited too.
If I yawn, that's contagioustoo.
You'll yawn too.
If I get excited, you'll getexcited too.
So what do we want to do asbrick and mortar retailers?
We want to get excited over theproduct.

(29:16):
The customer will get excited.
And where I have the platform ofthe cigar authority,
unfortunately, the idea was thatit would narrow down to my
stores, but that's not whatended up happening.
It went international.
So we're going to blow it up.
And as we do this,internationally, the Prodomo
Father and Son Legacy is goingto be talked about, thought

(29:39):
about, and that person whereverthey live is going to go into
that store, hopefully, and weknow already it's worked already
twice.
Why shouldn't it happen thethird time?
It should.
And I'm a proponent on that.
If I have a slot machine, I puta dollar in and two comes out,
when do you start putting thatdollar in?
Never.
Just keep doing it.
So you're saying, okay, here'sthe third one.

(30:03):
Is there another guy to do this?
I hope there is.
Maybe somebody's in in thelearning process of this and
said, okay, let me hypesomething up and see what ends
up happening.
I'm telling you it works becauseit's worked for me for 41 years.
It works for you too.
Hype it up.
I'd be happy to sit on thesideline and waiting for the
people to pour in because it'sgoing to require a lot of work
on my side.

(30:23):
I'm going to do it.
It's going to benefit for me,but it's going to benefit for
everybody, including Perdomo, atthe same time.
My fingers are crossed, but wehave experience already that
we've done it not just twicewith Perdomo.
I've done this a hundred times.
And I feel proud that I canactually bring a brand to life.

(30:44):
I try to do it.
I've done it many times.
I did it with music.
Back in those days, in the musicdays, this is disco era.
I would take a song that hasn'teven hit the radio yet, ever,
start pushing it, pushing it inthe nightclubs that I was
controlling.
The radio stations would call meon a weekly basis and say, what
songs are working?

(31:05):
I would tell them the songs thatare working on the floor.
The radio stations would thenstart adding it into their mix,
and the next thing you know,there's a hit song.
If you go back in those days,you'll see that that's what
happened in those days.
I was breaking the music.
I think I've been breakingcigars, good cigars.
I got to stand behind them.
I'm not going to, you know, Ithought about it once and said,

(31:27):
I wonder if I could take acrappy cigar and blow it up and
it would be popular anyway.
Eh, but then all of a suddenit'll ruin my reputation.
So I never ended up doing it.
But I think I could, but myreputation would be shot at that
time.
So if the cigar was lousy, no,I'm not going to do it and blow
it up and tell everybody this isthe next big thing.
But if I believe in it, I can doit.

(31:50):
And I'm not special.
I'm just going to put the effortand work into it.
They should do it too.
And right now, feed off of me ofwhat I'm doing.
And if you're able to step upand do it, I would be honored to
step aside and feed off of you.
The only thing is I I hear, Ihear it that retailers say it's

(32:10):
not my job to sell the cigar.
That is the only reason why youcame to work today is to sell
cigars.
We are cigar salesmen.
We sell.
Or you're a cashier, one or theother.
You're a convenience store, aconvenience to them to walk in
and grab that cigar that they'regoing to be there, or you're
selling cigars.
I'm a cigar salesperson.

(32:31):
And that's what I'm going to dois sell.
If everybody can get in thatmode, I think we could actually
defeat and beat the onlinediscounter.
And that's what the book was.
Dave Drus Goliath, how tocompete and beat the online
giant, is me helping a retaileronce again.
And it was for all retail, butagain, I've been in the same
business for 41 years.

(32:51):
This is all about cigars.
I would just sell less books ifI just told, just said it was
about cigars.
It works for anything.
So let me sell the book toeverybody because I'm a
salesperson once again.
And I'm I'm trying to do that.
And rising tides raise allships.
If I can hype that cigar up, Idon't know, I don't know how
many regular legacies you sold,Ashia.

(33:11):
We sold a lot of them, but afterthe fact, did it work?
Did you sell more legaciesbecause I did that?
I know you, Nick, and Nicholas.
You wouldn't have come back tothe well if it didn't work.
You're not stupid.
So you came back to the wellthree different times.
So I'm delivering.

SPEAKER_01 (33:28):
You are, but one of the things too is we want it, we
wanted to be like the LA Lakers,the Chicago Bulls.
We're looking for a three-peatwith you.
And so, but also, too, this isthis is very personal.
You know, I consider you like asecond dad, Mr.
Dave.
You've always been there for me,and especially when I needed
questions and advice.
I mean, Pronomo Legacy was a wasa it was a thought for me.

(33:50):
And you know, I called you andit was a secret.
My dad had no idea about it.
For a long time, Arthur didn'tknow about it.
Just I was I was reallypiggybacking piggybacking off of
you in terms of your advice, andyou have helped set the stage,
so I'm forever grateful to you.
And but as much as this is aboutbusiness, this is really
personal, and I take it thatway.

(34:11):
I know my dad does too, andArthur, and we're we're grateful
for the partnership.
But I think with our audience,you know, the tremendous amount
of retailers who are listeningand people who want to get into
cigar retail.
You know, there's these stories.
This is why we're doing thispodcast, right?
This is why we have you on againas on on as a guest.
This is why my dad and I, we dothis a couple times a month.

(34:32):
And you know, we're this is whatit's all about.
So I'm I'm really grateful tohave you on.
I'm grateful that we we'rehaving this conversation.
I I think you agree, Dad.

SPEAKER_03 (34:41):
100%.
So I'm gonna ask you the nextquestion if you don't mind.

SPEAKER_01 (34:44):
This would be rapid fire.

SPEAKER_03 (34:45):
Yeah, and I think this is gonna not only help the
retailer, but also the consumeris probably gonna echo
everything you say because oneof the great things about your
store is your customer service,too.
And so my question is, Dave, ifyou could give me three things
that every retailer should startdoing tomorrow.

SPEAKER_02 (35:05):
Okay, rapid fire means I go short versions of
these long stories I have.
One is gonna be price the box ofthe cigars.
And the answer is you've neverbought anything in a store that
didn't have a price on it, I'msure I didn't, and they don't
either.
And I hear from retailers thatsay I don't sell very many
cigars, and I say, I've neverbeen to your store before, but

(35:27):
let me guess.
It says$10 with a magic markerwritten on the side of your box,
maybe a crayon, and that's allit says on there.
And they go, No, no, I use alabel maker.
I said, Okay, does it say howmuch the box is?
And he says, No.
And I said, Well, how do youexpect somebody to buy the box
if the price isn't there?
What do you give a discount ifthey buy the box?
And he said, I'd give tenpercent.

(35:48):
I said, Well, you're here withme right now.
Who's working in the store?
How much will they give?
Well, nobody's buying it anyway.
I said, Nobody's buying becausethe price isn't on it.
Put the price on it in a year.
Will you give me that somebody'sgonna buy a box of cigars?
Let's take a$10 cigar, it's abox of$20, it would be$200.
You're gonna take 10% off, whichwould be$180, and the place to

(36:09):
go would be$179.99.
It says$10, it says$179.99 nextto it for the full box of$20.
They can see that they're saving$20 on the box.
Is somebody gonna buy a box inthe course of a year?
And he says, Yeah, of course.
I said, How many boxes do youhave open?
He says,$700.
I said, that's$700 if they onlybuy one box a year.

(36:29):
There's 700 boxes.
I just changed your life.
I probably doubled or maybetripled your your your business
for the year, but you got toactually do it.
You know, you only have to do itonce.
Until the price changes of thatproduct, you only have to do it
once.
That's the number one thing thatI look and see that that's
missing.
Selling 20 cigars instead of oneis 20 times more that that'll

(36:51):
happen.
Are you gonna get 100% of them?
No.
But if you visit two guys, 80%of the cigars I sell, 80 is by
the box and 20% by the single.
Nobody else is probably doing20% by the box that I have seen
yet.
You can tell me you go aroundthe stores, I don't, but I don't
I don't see that happening.
And that so you know, goingagainst the the mail order guys,

(37:14):
almost 100%, besides gift packsthat they make, 100% of their
sales is by the box.
They don't sell by the single.
So people are buying by the box,just not from you.
So we got to change that up.
For that, the number two thingis inventory.
You need to have inventory to beable to do it.
Maybe you're not putting theprice of the box on the box
because you don't have theinventory.

(37:35):
You need to have inventory, it'sthe most valuable thing you
have.
Besides your mailing list, thepeople's names and addresses you
need to get a hold of, thesecond biggest thing you need is
inventory.
You need to have that product onhand.
Even when the guy comes in andsays, Listen, I'm going away.
Like I was telling you, mycustomer feels bad when they buy
a cigar when they're going away.

(37:55):
They bring a box with them, butthey go through it.
Well, the next time he comes in,he's not going to buy a box.
He's going to buy two boxes.
But I need two boxes for him tobe able to do that.
And at Santa Maria's my buyer,he does a great job, three
different stores that we makesure we have plenty of product
on hand for that to happen.
Besides the oddball thing ofsomebody lowering their price of

(38:17):
the product, and the only personI can think of that ever did it
is Nick Perdomo for the FDA thatlowered the price.
Usually the price goes up,meaning my inventory value goes
up every single time there's aprice increase.
I should be happy actually whenthe price increase happens.
The value of my overall uhinventory goes up when that ends
up happening.

(38:38):
So kept properly, the cigarslast longer.
There's not a problem.
It's not like we're we'reselling food that goes bad.
These cigars are kept properly,the value ends up going up, but
have the inventory.
What I did early on is everymonth the money that was coming
in, I didn't take the money, Iinvested it back into my
business and built theinventory.
Every year our inventory levelgoes up and goes up, and our

(39:00):
business goes up and up at thesame time.
If you don't have it on thecart, you can't sell it.
And then you say, you know,where can we go?
I have plenty of inventory.
Even my accounts have have havesaid you need more turns, you're
carrying too much inventory.
They're wrong.
The the inventory level helps megrow, and that's why an

(39:20):
accountant is a historian.
They just look at what thehistory is, they're not looking
into the future.
I look into the future.
I want to grow.
How do I grow?
And you grow by inventory.
That's number two.
So put the price on it, grow theinventory.
I'm looking for a third thing.
You have to take care of yourcustomers.
Your customer is the mostimportant thing.
When a customer comes in thedoor, they're the only reason

(39:41):
why you came to work.
That is it.
I say it to my employees all thetime.
There's a little dinger thatgoes off, a little bell when
somebody comes in.
All of the three, two guys,you'll hear it when you walk in.
Certainly our employees do.
It's showtime.
If you are pricing cigars, ifyou're doing something else,
drop it, and we're on thecustomer at that point.
We're there to serve thecustomer, get them everything

(40:03):
they need to have a greatexperience.
And that includes every add-onyou can possibly think.
The guy comes in and buys fourtorpedoes because he's going
golfing, and you don't tell himthat he needs a lighter and a
cutter, the guy's gonna have abad experience with that
torpedo.
Imagine showing up and trying tognaw through a torpedo because

(40:23):
you, as as a experiencedtobacconist, didn't explain to
him that he needs a cutter onthat golf course to cut that
cigar.
He's gonna have a badexperience.
And he needs a lighter.
And here's the here's a jetlighter, a windproof lighter
that's gonna help you on thegolf course, and that is
customer service.
That is not adding on.

(40:44):
If you get them for the carashtray, you get them for extra
cigars, all that, all that isgood of hey, if you tried this,
you'll probably like this.
That's all great.
But the the regular stuff ofwhat you need to have a great
experience, or else you're justacting like a convenience store.
If you're a convenience store,then you're carrying out of
convenience these items forthem.

(41:05):
They're gonna find somebody thathas it cheaper, closer to them,
more convenient, or whatever.
You have to differentiateyourself or do things that are
different than the online guydoes.
We have things that we can dothat they can't do.
So you have to do more of thosethings, which is suggestive
selling.
What do they need?

(41:25):
So that is the the third.
I got a million of them, butthose are if you ask me three of
them, those are the three.

SPEAKER_01 (41:31):
Thank you, Dave.
Thank you.
Appreciate it.
What is it?
Promo cut the S chip.
That's right.

SPEAKER_02 (41:38):
They're the only ones I can think of that ended
up doing it.
My, you know, it's it's funnywhen that happened, and I was
talking to Arthur and your dadas you were preparing to do
that, and you said, Well, whatabout your inventory?
And I said, What about it?
And they said, We've devaluedyour inventory.
You got a lot of inventorythere.
I said, Nick, we've had priceincreases at that time for 30

(41:58):
years from everybody.
I never called a manufacturerback up when the price goes up
and said, by the way, this ishow many cigars I have.
I must owe you some moneybecause the price, the value of
my inventory just went up.
I've never even offered that.
So I'm certainly not going toask you to cover my inventory
for the one time that the pricewent down.

(42:18):
I think I think that would bevery unfair and unreasonable to
ask.
I said, Don't worry about it.
Happy to do it, and let's seewhat ends up happening.

SPEAKER_01 (42:27):
Okay.
I get it.
And I guess the second fire, youknow, rapid fire question I have
for you, Mr.
Dave, is what is the biggestmistake that retailers are
making right now?

SPEAKER_02 (42:40):
They are going, it's it's what they're carrying in
the humidor.
So I have I have a graded systemwhere I try to take the
personality out of it and say,what is good cigars for me to
have in my in my store?
And there's there's some bigname brands, and I'm not going
to name them, but there's bigname brands.
If you if you're a retailer, youknow what it is.

(43:01):
It's it's online at real deepdiscount prices, and you're
hearing it from your customer.
Your customer's coming in andsaying, How much is that cigar?
$12?
I can get it for$6 online.
Those are things you have tohave out of your store, out of
view, because they're looking atthat and they're assuming
everything in your store isoverpriced.
But the customer's asking forit.

(43:22):
Well, brand switch them, findsomething else for them to do
and get that poison out of yourstore because it's actually
degrading it.
But again, in order to do that,you're gonna have to do some
work.
You're gonna have to find analike product for it, show it to
them, explain it to them, andbrand switch at that point.
I've taken brands out of ourstore that we do huge numbers

(43:44):
with, some numbers higher thansome stores do in their whole
store.
And you gotta bite the bulletevery once in a while, and
you've got to say, this ishurting me in the long run, not
in the short run.
In the short run, you're gonnamake your your$5 or whatever
you're gonna make in profit.
In the short run, you're gonnalose that customer.
Customer, because he's gonna buythat single from you,
overpriced, then he's gonna buythe box from them, and they're

(44:06):
gonna do it right actually, bythe way, right in your lounge as
they're sitting there.
They're smoking the cigar,trying the tasting rounds, which
is your store, just a tastinground, tasting the cigar and
say, wow, it is really a goodcigar.
I like it.
It's good.
It's a$12 cigar, it's reallynice.
Now they're gonna startsearching.
Oh, here it is for six dollars.
Let me buy a box or two directlyfrom them.

(44:26):
They bought a single from you,two boxes from them, and you're
saying, wow, I don't really sellcigars.
It's your product mix.
You gotta change your productmix when and if that happens.
And the majority of stores arecarrying these poison brands
because they're asked for.
Guess how they built, got builtin the first place?
We, the brick and mortar store,built them.

(44:46):
Me, I did it too.
I was part of that too.
It wasn't a problem until itbecame a problem.
And some of these brands own thebiggest discount mail order
places that there are.
They're the owners of it.
Of course they can sell thecigar cheaper than you can.
They sell it to you and theymake money selling it to you.
They make more money selling itto your customer.

(45:07):
It's called brand acquisition.
They acquire your customer.
Customer acquisition.
They're acquiring your customer.
I don't think you should bepartners with them.
That's not a partnership wherethey sell you cigars and take
your customer away.
They're just gonna put you outof business.

SPEAKER_03 (45:25):
Makes total sense.
Here's a tough one, but it'llhelp a lot of people, I think,
in the future if they'd want todo something.
If you started if today you hadto start a new cigar store, is
there anything you would dodifferently?

SPEAKER_02 (45:41):
My new book that's coming out, Don't Burn Your Hand
on the Stove, these uh businessand life mistakes that have
made, and you learn from yourmistakes.
That's what the whole book isabout.
So I do learn from my mistakes.
That that if if I have to saywhat's my magic sauce of it, is
I don't make the same mistaketwice.
I certainly make mistakes andprobably more than most people,

(46:02):
but I probably get to bat morethan most people, but I make a
lot of mistakes.
But making the same mistaketwice, I hate myself if that
happens.
So I try not for that to everhappen.
And if I'm looking at how I runtwo guys now, I'm running it
with none of those mistakes.
There'll be new mistakes,there'll be other mistakes that
end up happening, but I Ithere's there's nothing that I'm

(46:26):
doing right now that is amistake or I would have
corrected already.
So it it's it seems you knowcrazy to say I'm running
perfect, but I'm constantlylooking at something.
If something's wrong, it getsfixed as fast as humanly
possible.
So there really is nothing.
If you want to see somethingrunning at 100% of the way it

(46:48):
is, this is it.
And as this next thing falls,and that could be the next
company buys another discountmail order catalog, and I have
to start working that brand out.
But short of what's happeningbehind closed doors right now
that I don't know about, this isthe way a new store should open.
And I've had retailers thatalready exist come and spend a

(47:11):
little time with me and see howit operates, or some come before
they open their store, andthat's very smart of them.
Come to look at somebodysuccessful and see how they do
it and emulate that success.
And unfortunately for me, Ididn't have that option to do.
I just, you know, did it andmade mistakes along the way,
corrected those mistakes, caughtcostly mistakes at that time,

(47:36):
because I didn't have very muchmoney, and when I made a
mistake, it hurt.
But if I made those mistakestoday, they would really cost a
lot of money because I orderlots and lots of cigars now.
So a mistake would be lots morepainful.
But I'm wiser.
I'm wiser today than I was.
So listen to the people thathave been around for a long
time.
Because and I do, not just inour business either.

(47:58):
It could be any business.
I'm learning all the time.
If you look at my bookshelf,it's marketing, promotion,
advertising, sales.
I'm studying all the time.
If you look at my phone, you'llsee all the books on tape and
stuff that I listen to.
That's what I do, and it'snonstop sharpening myself
because times have changed too.
How would I have known aboutpodcasting if I didn't read

(48:21):
something at that at that timeto know that the next thing
exists?
AI is something now.
Looking at, I'm looking at it,studying it.
I'm like, what is there that canhelp me as a brick and mortar
retailer that's happening on AI?
I'm trying to learn as it goeson.
I'm usually first to market withall these things.
I was the second male onlinecigar store.

(48:42):
I was first at a lot, a lot ofdifferent things that ended up
happening in the cigar industry.
And as I'm getting older, I knowthat there's younger minds.
I employ younger people.
I ask them all the time, youknow, how how do I get the
younger person to come in here?
What is is happening?
And they say, you know, theyoung younger people like
experiences.
Okay, so let me do the NewEngland Cigar Expo that I

(49:04):
started three years ago.
Let me create a two-dayexperience where somebody new
could could dive into the cigarindustry.
I we have the Cigar Hall of Famethat we're creating up here in
our second floor, and it'll be aplace for people to go so they
can have these experiencesbecause that's what this
generation supposedly is into.
We'll see as it goes on, andI'll uh I'll pivot when I need

(49:26):
to pivot.

SPEAKER_01 (49:27):
Yeah, it's it's great.
Yeah, I mean, 100%.
I you know you look and youknow, everything's about just
you know, my next question toyou, Mr.
Dave, is what for you, and evenas a consumer for in your
opinion, as for a cigarconsumer, a retailer, but
specifically for yourself, whatmakes a cigar manufacturer, what

(49:49):
makes a cigar brand worth yourtime?
And how how is it personally foryou and how is it
professionally?
I mean, there's got to be abalance, right?
It's just there's a connection,is my point.

SPEAKER_02 (49:59):
So one thing I learned recently is it seems
like certain people mend wellwith the same type of person.
So I have core values, and I'mliving by them very, very
strongly lately in my lateryears.
And as I go back historicallyand I look at people I dealt

(50:20):
with that didn't have the corevalues I have, uh, it never
worked out well.
And they end up either gettingaway from me or I get away from
them.
That includes employees, thatincludes partnerships with
manufacturers that I deal with.
I want to deal with people thatare like-minded from me, that
are honest people, hard-workingpeople, that, you know, the

(50:42):
handshake is good enough.
They say they're in, they're in,fast and efficient, work the way
I work, and I work very wellwith people like that on on the
ones that are different, and notto say it's better or not, their
their core values are differentthan mine.
If you really look at it, you'llsee that they, the people that
they're dealing with is all thesame as them.

(51:04):
They say that people you hangaround with, that if you average
the weight of all these people,you end up weighing in the same
group of people that weigh whatyou weigh.
So you can imagine I have guysthat are heavier than me and
guys that are lighter than me.
Same goes for you know what theylike, what they're interested

(51:24):
in, what you know, family typepeople that care about their
family, and and you know, thatbecomes today, and if I could go
back in time, that's the thing Ididn't understand most recently,
is the core values.
And say if I could ever go back,I would have not done business
with certain manufacturers inthe first place.

(51:45):
I wouldn't be uh hiring certainpeople that I hired and didn't
work out.
But today I feel like the corepeople that I deal with on a
day-to-day basis have the samecore values that I have.
I'm happier for it and businessis growing because of it.

SPEAKER_03 (52:01):
Makes total sense again.
You know, Dave, this lastquestion I got for you, I think,
helps the consumers equally onthis question.
But I wanted to ask you wouldyou give us your five what final
advice would you give toretailers that are listening?
Because we have a lot ofretailers and consumers that
listen all over the world.
What advice would you give them?

SPEAKER_02 (52:24):
And I'm not telling anybody to do it exactly the way
I do it, because if you havesomebody doing it in your area
the same way, I even say it tolocal retailers that open near
me.
And we we're unique unique inthis state of New Hampshire.
We have the by far the beststate organization, the Cigar

(52:44):
Association in New Hampshire.
We retailers get togetherusually on about a monthly
basis.
Uh, we all get together here attwo guys, and these are all my
competitors, and we have alobbyist and we fight
legislation.
We're one of three states in thecountry that have no tax on
tobacco.
It's not by accident, it's a lotof hard work.
But retailers seem to hate eachother for whatever reason

(53:08):
elsewhere.
When I was in Boston, that's theway it was too.
They hated me in Boston.
If they hate me in NewHampshire, they're keeping it a
good secret because they comevisit me on a monthly basis,
they call for help, we help eachother.
We're living the same life.
So we don't need to hate eachother.
We need, we're the only friendswe have, is each other, to be
honest with you.

(53:28):
And, you know, people will say,well, that store is right on top
of me.
I don't know if they push backand say, don't sell that cigar
to this other one because thisone's right on top.
You guys know better thananyone.
You want to know about a cigarstore that's right on top of
each other.
I have a cigar store on top, onthe next floor from us in our
natural location, literally ontop.

(53:51):
We have nine cigar shops on thesame street as us in Salem, New
Hampshire, and the same goes forSeabrook.
Competition is never negative tome.
I like it.
It makes me better.
I work harder aroundcompetition.
It brings everybody up.
If you want to compete, if youwant to work hard, open a store
near David Garofalo, and you'regonna work hard.

(54:11):
You're gonna be forced to, oryou're gonna go out of business.
So the folks we have around usare hardworking.
And you you make your way aroundNew Hampshire.
You probably do well here in NewHampshire because they all work
very hard.
But don't they try to be me.
I be I'm me the best becausethat's what I do.
And I say to them when they doit, you know, if I were you,

(54:32):
find find another way aroundthis.
Be be a little different, carrydifferent products than I do,
uh, do different events becausewhatever you're gonna do, I'm
gonna try to do better thanyou're gonna do, and you're
gonna be in second place.
So do it different.
That's what we have around hereis a bunch of great retailers
doing a different job.
There was one time I was invitedto the Cohiba 25th anniversary

(54:57):
in Dominican Republic, whereEdgar Cullman, who owned General
Cigar at the time, took the top25 retailers in the country, got
us together, and said, You guysare gonna make the next cigar.
You're gonna pick the blend,pick the packaging, pick the
pricing.
We're gonna do it all togetheras 25 people.
Well, we fought like cats anddogs for two days till he threw

(55:18):
his hands up in the idea andsaid, It's over.
Have a nice couple of days here,rest and relaxation, because you
guys can't agree to anything.
These were all successfulretailers, and we all did it
differently.
So I'm not telling you to do itmy way.
They were all successful doingit all a different way.
So you can do it a differentway, but let me tell you, every
one of those 25 werehard-working, smart retailers,

(55:42):
and that's what they had to be.
We we we had some things incommon, but some people wanted
to sell the cigar for a real lotof money and make it look old
school.
Other people wanted to make ithigh-tech and look new and be
lower priced, and this was thefight that was going on.
Well, one of the retailers wasin Las Vegas where they were
selling hundred dollar cigars,and another one was in New
Hampshire selling Garcia Vegas,which was me, and everything in

(56:05):
between.
So we we your area is different,your customer base is a bit
different.
Some of the things connectexactly the same and and
shouldn't change, but some ofthe things do.
So be yourself, be honest withyourself, be true, uh, be
excited about the products thatyou carry.
Uh if you're yawning about it,so is your customer.
If you're excited, it'll becontagious.

(56:27):
It'll be they'll be excitedabout it too.
Get off, you know, I hate to sayit, but get up off your ass and
work on your business.

SPEAKER_01 (56:36):
Great points.
Yeah, it's awesome.
I mean, thank you, Mr.
Dave, for those great, greatanswers.
My question is, you know, whatwhat should consumers look for
in a great cigar shop?
What makes it a great cigar shopand and why should consumers
what what do consumers actuallyhave to look for to designate it
as a great cigar shop, in youropinion?

SPEAKER_02 (56:57):
Well, nobody likes a filthy store.
And I know some of it was, youknow, I want to look like that.
It looks rough and rugged orwhatever, and it's dimly lit
lights and it and it's notdisplays thing, and this is how
we do.
We want you to feel at home.
Unless you live in a shithole.
Nobody wants it.
And nobody wants a dirtybathroom.
I promise you.
The the place has to be toppedoff and cleaned multiple times a

(57:20):
day during the day.
Empty the asheries, clean thatplace.
It looks like junk.
Get your feet, get make sure thecustomers get their feet off the
furniture.
They have to act a certain waytoo.
Every once in a while you gottafire a customer, which is very,
very painful to do.
Again, hard to get them, butthey have to act a certain way
too.
It's a business, it's a realbusiness, it's not a hangout.

(57:42):
You're there to to sell product.
It's as much as some of theseguys hang out and spend the day,
it's not their clubhouse.
It has to be treated like abusiness.
And they'll there'll beespecially if you've been doing
that for years and you'relistening to me and say, I'm
gonna make a change.
Let me tell you it's a painfulchange when you make that
change, that the pushback isgonna be dramatic that happens.

(58:05):
So do it carefully and with witha heart as you make these
changes.
But you you have to treat yourbusiness as a business.
Most of the retailers that areout there and you know seem like
hobbyists, that this is theirhobby, uh, this is what I want
to do when I retire and have aplace to hang out.
Well, open a open a little men'sclub or something like that.

(58:27):
But to call it a cigar shop in ain a business, it's it's not
gonna go well.
And you know, you believe me,your customer doesn't appreciate
being around that filth and andthe your business will grow if
you do it right.

SPEAKER_01 (58:41):
Absolutely.
No, I mean this was Mr.
Dave, we can't thank you enoughfor being on the show.
This was it was great.

SPEAKER_03 (58:49):
I think the customer and the the retailer got a
tremendous amount of knowledgefrom Dave in his 41 years, and I
can speak for myself.
I certainly did.
Every time I talk to him, it'salways something new.

SPEAKER_01 (58:59):
Yeah, it's great.
I mean, this is the episodewhere we've talked the least, so
I love it.
I love it.
We appreciate it.

SPEAKER_02 (59:06):
I I'm honored to do it.
But you can see 41 years later,I'm still passionate that and I
excuse my language if I you knowwhen you when you said something
that that sparked a a nerve inme, this is the way I talk, and
this is the way it is.
This is how I was brought up.
You know, you know my mother andand how it is.
It is what it is, this is it.

(59:26):
And and some people don't liketo hear the way it is, but I
think they need to.
I need I think they need to hearthe hard truth.
And I'm not, I don't know whothey are.
They're watching this.
If you're watching it, don'tpush it aside.
If this is you, look atyourself, look at yourself in
the mirror, basically, and cleanup your act, and it's not too
late to to do it.
And you'll believe me, you'llsee the fruits of your labor as

(59:48):
it goes on.
But doing the same wrong thingover and over is not only
insanity, it is unprofitable.
And you you'll hear it in in thenext book that comes out for me,
Don't Burn Your Hand on theStove.
People are gonna get triggeredby it, they're not gonna like
what they read.
And I get it, and I say it a fewchapters in, and I go, here's
another one you're gonna hatebecause you are gonna, if it's

(01:00:11):
you, you're gonna hate itbecause I'm talking to you as it
goes on.
But the person I'm talking to,the the book comes out on April
29th.
It's my grandson's Jamesbirthday.
And that's why what I put it onon purpose for that to come out
for him, because I'm talking tohim.
I love him, and I want him tohear the hard truth.
And he's not even gonna readthis book for another 10 years,

(01:00:33):
probably, but maybe I'm gonesomeday, and he wants to know
the the hard, ugly truth.
Some people need to hear that.
I think everybody needs to hearit.
So that and that's what I justsaid to y'all listeners here.
This is the hard, ugly truth.
Can I do it in a different way?
I suppose I could.
I don't know because I neverdid.
This has always been me.
I just come out and say it,that's what it is, and you know,

(01:00:56):
and I hear the things.
You're pretty harsh, Dave.
You you know, whatever.
And I go, I'm just telling youthe truth.
And if you don't want to hearit, don't ask me, because that's
all that's gonna come out everysingle time is the truth.

SPEAKER_01 (01:01:08):
Well, that's where you and my dad are pretty much
identical.
You know, you you guys neverlie, you just say the truth.
If you don't want to hear it,just don't ask.
And that's that's just the wayit is.
But I think the biggest thingwhen you look, it's it's
discipline.
You know, discipline's doingsomething day in, day out that
you really don't want to do, butyou do it because it's important
and it makes a difference.

(01:01:28):
And I think when you look atPromo Cigars, you look at two
guys' cigars, we're verydisciplined companies, and
that's what that's what drivesus at the end of the day.
But I can't thank you enough forhaving you on, you know, being
on our show with my dad and Iand listen to our retail
partners.
If you guys are listening andand watching today, you know, if
you apply what Dave just shared,you won't just sell more cigars,

(01:01:51):
you're gonna sell more moreexperience and really
one-of-a-kind type ofexperiences.
And you'll build up your retailstore or retail stores.
So the consumer is going to geta much better experience.

SPEAKER_03 (01:02:02):
100% enjoy going more to the store.
I still believe that people wantto come touch, feel, and walk
into a cigar store and feel andfeel good about it.
Yeah, yeah, 100%.

SPEAKER_02 (01:02:14):
But we have power.
We brick and mortar retailershave the power.
Every single cigar that uh isout there that's very popular
was built in the brick andmortar retailer.

SPEAKER_03 (01:02:25):
100%.

SPEAKER_02 (01:02:26):
The the the online discounter only wants it after
we have already built it.
So we have built it.
Don't let them take it.

SPEAKER_01 (01:02:34):
100%.
100%.
Well, thank you again, Mr.
Dave.
We appreciate you being on theshow.
Dad, thank you very much.
Thank you again to our audience.
Absolutely.
If you're if you really enjoyedthe show, please like,
subscribe, hit the notificationbutton on our YouTube page at
Perdomo Cigars.
Also follow us on Instagram andFacebook.
We appreciate the support.

(01:02:54):
Thank you.
Have a wonderful day, and wewill see you soon.