[ninjavanish]

I feel like you guys may be forgetting that for every price hound out there, there's some guy who knows no better or has enough money that he doesn't care about the price and/or is willing to pay whatever price to get whatever it is that he wants.

I mean, I worked in retail for a long time. People would come everyday and say "I can get these for almost half as much online." The answer was always, "Then sir, I believe you may be in the wrong place." No offense meant to those who are constantly on the hunt for the best prices, but you must recognize that you're not the only clients a store may have. I also had guys come in nearly everyday and say "I want a box of the most expensive cigar you've got." Or, "I want a box of whatever you recommend is good, don't care about the pricing as long as you say it's good." And would gladly pay it without blinking an eye.

While it's nice to fantasize about the customer always being right, that's in regards to customer service. Not pricing. Sorry to say, but when it comes to keeping the doors open and making a profit, that's a decision that the manager/owner must weigh. The truth of the matter is you have no idea what their overhead/clientele demographic/COG's/ROI/Market Position/etc/etc are and therefore telling someone how to price their cigars is comparable to telling them how to run their business. Which, quite frankly, is impolite at best, unless you have some special relationship with the manager/owner which would allow such a discussion to take place in earnest.

This is not to say that you (the consumer) have no recourse against pricing that doesn't suit you. You can simply not purchase and walk away and say "You know, I don't think the pricing is right in here for me, but thank you anyway." That's not accusatory or inflamatory, and you might be suprised how quickly some sales associates would jump to say "well, that's something we could remedy." You're also much more likely to get a deal from someone if you're not coming to them with a complaint about their pricing. And trying to grind a deal out of someone is probably going to be met with flat out "Can't do that. Or, My manager isn't here to approve a deal like that right now."

The thing is, you must know by now (Because it's not like this has happened overnight), the internet and catalog business will forever demolish Brick and Mortar pricing unless something drastic happens.

If you don't want to purchase from a B&M... Just don't. There's someone else who will.