Consignment & On Premises Humidor Services

The FranklinOne of the most important keys to success in retail is making sure you have the right products within arms reach of your customers when they need them. Our Consignment & On Premise Humidor Services offer many businesses a natural add-on to their core product sales by making quality premium cigars available for sale at their point of purchase.

Liquor stores, golf courses, gas stations and marinas are the perfect places to add a premium cigar kiosk at no cost, other than one or two square feet of counter space or floor space, to the host business. Through our time tested turn-key program, we set up a humidor for you, stock it with popular premium cigars and maintain the complete installation for you. Once you have your OTP (Other Tobacco Products) sales license, which is a simple add-on to your current cigarette and trader’s licensing, all you have to do is ring up the sales and collect the sales tax as your customers add a cigar or two to their regular purchases.

The RooseveltWe maintain the humidor, keep it properly stocked, pre-price each cigar and pay all the tobacco taxes for you.

We can either set you up as a PRE-PAID account, where you pay us upfront for each cigar and pay you a 33% commission. Or, you can choose to start as a POST-PAID account, where you only pay for what you’ve sold and earn a 30% commission.

As we said, this is a time-tested proven system that is already working for hundreds of businesses throughout Maryland and beyond. All you have to do to make it work for you is provide a few square feet of space, walk your staff through the simple process of reaching into the humidor and getting the customer’s choice of cigar and ringing it up as you would any other product you sell. Of course, like cigarette sales, your staff is responsible for checking ID’s as appropriate — the Federal government requires you to check the ID of anyone that appears to be 27 or younger for all tobacco product purchases.

Our typical client sees an increase in gross sales of between $250 to $1,000+ per week, with no upfront expenses or restocking hassles. That equates to a lot of Snickers bars, golf tees or bags of Cheese Doodles, depending on your business. As professional tobacconists with our own successful award winning cigar shop, we know what sells and what doesn’t. If something in our kiosk isn’t selling in your location, we remove it and replace it with something else that will sell at no expense whatsoever to you.

The vast majority of your customers don’t expect any expertise from your staff. They know cigars are there as a convenience product only. If you want to put a little extra effort in and educate your staff just a little, we can help you zero in on what cigars are the best choice for your customer’s needs. This can triple your gross cigar sales with just a few encouraging words from your employees.

PRICE — SELECTION — CARE

Over the years, the feedback we have gotten from customers regarding the cigars they purchase (or won’t purchase) at liquor stores, pro shops, gas stations, marinas and bars has helped us shape our approach to making our program a success for your customers and yourself. The three primary complaints we here about other kiosk efforts are that;

  1. The prices are unreasonably high.
  2. The cigar selection is poor and the humidor is messy.
  3. The cigars are not properly humidified.

One of the biggest issues consumers have with cigars being sold in on premises kiosks is that they feel they are overpriced. Unlike other cigar kiosk services, we are a full-time retail tobacconist that do face to face business in Annapolis, MD everyday. That means we get our cigars directly from the manufacturers rather than distributors and sell them directly to consumers. What this means to you is that we know what the retail prices should be in our area and the prices we place on the cigars you’re selling are pretty close to the prices we sell these same cigar for in our retail shop. For instance, one kiosk company charges $11.99 for a Rocky Patel Edge Torpedo. The standard Maryland MSRP for that cigar, including the 15% wholesale tobacco tax, is $8.43. We price this cigar in our kiosks at $8.99 (almost all our cigars are rounded up to the closest 99-cent level.) While most customers don’t know the exact MSRP price for an Edge, they do know that $11.99 is way too much for this cigar! You won’t have pushback on price on our cigars because we start out pricing them without the add-on’s from middlemen. If we can’t offer it at a fair price, we won’t offer it at all.

Every couple of weeks, we visit your business, make sure your kiosk is properly humidified, tidy up the presentation, assess your sales and adjust the stock as needed. We use a custom made humidification system to insure that the kiosk will stay properly moist between our visits.

Consumers are hesitant to buy cigars that aren’t well presented, To successfully display cigars, there needs to be an ample supply and that supply needs to be relatively well organized. A humidor with one or two cigars that are haphazardly placed on the shelves does not inspire confidence in the product.

WHAT ARE OUR OPTIONS?

We offer several kiosk options for your business — generally, a couple sizes of countertop humidors or free standing cabinets — depending on your desires. We can start out with a small countertop unit and move up to larger installations if your customers demand a larger selection over time.

As for the actual kiosk, we have personally selected our humidors to maximize your customer’s ability to see the cigars that are available. While there are many beautiful humidors available on the market, we have found a select few that make customer shopping much easier than others.

Does it sound too good to be true? Well, it isn’t. We can give you references in your specific type of business to back up every claim we’re making.

ALREADY SET-UP?

Do you already sell premium cigars? We know that there are many business out there doing something like we do — but not as well as we do it. One of our liquor store locations has experienced an over 900% increase in their cigar sales over the 2 1/2 year period since we took over their account. And, every single one of our kiosk clients that sold cigars prior to us servicing their accounts has seen an increase in sales AND profit as a result of letting us help them with their premium cigar sales.

We’ve run across a number of organizations that already have successful full-box cigar cabinets with a limited selection of cigars from one or two manufacturers. We can still help! We can supplement your cigar selection to cater to the tastes a a larger number of your customers. Additionally, unlike these folks that have to buy and pay upfront for a full box of cigars, we only place the stock you need in your humidor — our minimum sale of cigars is ONE stick!

Keep doing exactly what you’re already doing, but let us supplement your humidor with popular cigars your current suppliers don’t offer. Just like our turnkey kiosks, you have no risk and no upfront expense. We place product in your existing cabinet and you only pay for what you sell.