Wanted to Throw up :pu

[rlmedic]

Well john if you ever make to Raleigh stop in Empire Cigars they have Liga, used to have the sharks and its a great bunch of BTOL's Plus great prices

[neoflex]

I'm hoping to get up there one of these days to herf with you Raleigh guys. Every once in awhile I will go to Empires website and get jealous when I see their announcements of whats new. Seems like if it's put there they have it.

[weak_link]

My local cigar bar charges $70 for Davidoff Ani # 3's and $30-40 for big ass Gurkha something or others. People pay it or he'd lower his prices. Should he be drummed out of business because he offeres a nice lounge with leather couches and plasma tv's with a great wine selection and really expensive/overpriced cigars? His regular customers don't have an issue with that but I do so I don't shop there. I'm not going to picket in front of his store for lower prices, I just shop somewhere else. And I used to work there.

[md4958]

Originally Posted by bobarian

Sorry Bobby, but that is just an ignorant statement. A store owner has the right to charge whatever they want for their product. As consumers it is our right to not shop at that establishment.

There are several factors that may be involved other than greed. High overhead or they may not be a Fuente dealer therefore paid more on the secondary market.

Challenging a shopkeeper regarding pricing is always unwise, just walk and move on to another shop.

Originally Posted by Volt

Every business has the right to charge for even the air your breathing in their store. On the other hand, you have the option to take your business elswhere where you feel your getting the value for your money that you expect. .

I couldnt agree more with Bob and Mike. Smartest thing to do if you dont like the price on certain items is DONT BUY THEM.

[Volt]

Originally Posted by md4958

I couldnt agree more with Bob and Mike. Smartest thing to do if you dont like the price on certain items is DONT BUY THEM.

Ok, now I'm really geting concerned. The day I type something and it makes sense gets me worried. I truely want a #43 Troy Palamalu Steelers jersey. On the other hand the closest I can find is a knock off $80 look a like. As bad as I want one, I just can't see $80 for a fake jersey..... So I vote with my dollars. Still love my non play off making Steelers though.

[St. Lou Stu]

Agree with most that say move on, and that is what I would do.
However, I imagine that a Fuente rep would be interested to hear that someone is butt raping people and using their cigars as the tool.
Doesn't paint pretty brand image. (especially in my terms )

[bazookajoe]

Originally Posted by Namerifrats

...It's called supply and demand. Not gouging since cigars are not a necessity, but a luxury. ...No need for people to get worked up because somebody is trying to make money. If it's priced too high, walk away.

A friend of mine owns a coffee house - is he price gouging when he sells coffee, baked goods, sandwiches etc. at two to three times his cost or more? His customers don't think so and by the time he pays all his fixed and variable costs he earns less than you'd think. If someone thinks the prices are too high they can go to any number of other places, but he has many happy and loyal customers.

I just don't get why some people get so incensed at high cigar prices. What about movie and sporting event tickets and their concession prices, branded clothing (Nike, Billabong etc.), software, drinks at local bars, food at restaurants, kid's toys, guitars etc.. I have friends in all those product industries and in many cases those things are marked up 10 times or more. It isn't price gouging, "rape" etc. when you have a choice to not buy it...

[havanajohn]

30.00 a stick for Sharks is very high IMHO. I was at the CI Superstore in December. I saw the Sharks and asked what the price was. The sales person looked and said 30.00 each. I said no thanks they were more them I am used to paying. He asked what that was and I told him 10.49/MSRP each in the same state (PA). He said that was not the MSRP... I said to check it out, and he will see. Well, he did. He walked up to our group that was smoking in the upper smoking area, apologized to me, and handed me a Ruination as a gift. Very classy sales person. I looked him up when I left, and picked up about 125.00 of other gars from him...-John

[ScottieM]

Originally Posted by Volt

Hopefully your thread here doesn't say much about you really are and the BOTLs you are representing. Every business has the right to charge for even the air your breathing in their store. On the other hand, you have the option to take your business elswhere where you feel your getting the value for your money that you expect. If the store is charging those prices and getting them then why in the world would they charge less? They are there to make money. Unless they had some Red Cross painted on the front door indicating they are a charity and were giving them away I wouldn't expect any less from them.

I had the same conversation with a friend concerning the cost of NASCAR tickets. I told him the stands are full so the tickets muct not be too high. We teh customer control pricing, vote with your $$$, it works. Being an a$$ just makes it harder when the next BOTL walks in after you. My and worth about that much.

I disagree with your comments. He's the Customer. He didn't like the price of the Cigars so he let them know. Thats part of doing business and I don't see anything wrong with that.

[chenvt]

This is why I only smoke white owls

[Smokin Gator]

I really don't see anything wrong with making a comment about the pricing. If a retailer can't take my busting his/her chops a little for pricing things way above retail then they shouldn't do it. If you can't take the heat stay out of the kitchen!

[Wolfgang]

sharks $13 dollars a stick here. Thats ridiculous.

Originally Posted by St. Lou Stu

Agree with most that say move on, and that is what I would do.
However, I imagine that a Fuente rep would be interested to hear that someone is butt raping people and using their cigars as the tool.
Doesn't paint pretty brand image. (especially in my terms )

I think I heard somewhere that if you reported that kind of price gouging to Fuente that they would pull their "Authorized Dealer"-ness.... I don't know if it's true or not, but it doesn't hurt you any to make a phone call.

[Volt]

Originally Posted by ScottieM

I disagree with your comments. He's the Customer. He didn't like the price of the Cigars so he let them know. Thats part of doing business and I don't see anything wrong with that.

Feel free to disagree - I don't mind.

While Neoflex understood what I was geetting at, you didn't. I was concerned with his attitude about taking pleasure (maybe too strong a word) in seeing them change their demeanor based on his comments. That is above and beyond stating as a customer he was disatisfied with the pricing. Even as customers, we too also bear some responsibility as to the attitudes and the way we are treated in the stores. If evryone went in being the a$$, regardless as to being the customer, we will not be treated well. Case in point, see HavanaJohn's post a few posts ahead of this one. Also take a read on my "3 man herf" thread. By not being the a$$, we walked away with over $150.00 in comps and were invited back to the establishment for a commercial cigar herf with one of the company reps showing up. But, YMMV and it's my just .02

[ScottieM]

Originally Posted by Volt

Feel free to disagree - I don't mind.

While Neoflex understood what I was geetting at, you didn't. I was concerned with his attitude about taking pleasure (maybe too strong a word) in seeing them change their demeanor based on his comments. That is above and beyond stating as a customer he was disatisfied with the pricing. Even as customers, we too also bear some responsibility as to the attitudes and the way we are treated in the stores. If evryone went in being the a$$, regardless as to being the customer, we will not be treated well. Case in point, see HavanaJohn's post a few posts ahead of this one. Also take a read on my "3 man herf" thread. By not being the a$$, we walked away with over $150.00 in comps and were invited back to the establishment for a commercial cigar herf with one of the company reps showing up. But, YMMV and it's my just .02

From what I read in his post, He wasn't out of line. In this world the Customer is always right, Even when he's wrong.

[bobarian]

Originally Posted by ScottieM

From what I read in his post, He wasn't out of line. In this world the Customer is always right, Even when he's wrong.

This is completely misguided. The customer may think they are always right, but in reality they seldom have knowledge of the situation. Do you know what the rent is on the shop in question? Do you know the terms of his business loan? Do you know if there are city taxes on tobacco at his location?

To the contrary a shop owner is the one who is right and can set his prices as the market will bear. A few years ago Toyota and other dealers marked up Hybrids in California at least 30% over MSRP. And they still had waiting lists and people trying to outbid buyers. This is exactly how a free-market system should work.

A customer does not have the right to be rude or offensive. Nor does a shop owner have to take abuse from his customers. If you dont like the price, walk. Its that simple, you speak with your wallet. Being argumentative or confrontational will not get an owner to lower his prices any more than saying "I can get the same thing online for X"

[ScottieM]

Originally Posted by bobarian

This is completely misguided. The customer may think they are always right, but in reality they seldom have knowledge of the situation. Do you know what the rent is on the shop in question? Do you know the terms of his business loan? Do you know if there are city taxes on tobacco at his location?

To the contrary a shop owner is the one who is right and can set his prices as the market will bear. A few years ago Toyota and other dealers marked up Hybrids in California at least 30% over MSRP. And they still had waiting lists and people trying to outbid buyers. This is exactly how a free-market system should work.

A customer does not have the right to be rude or offensive. Nor does a shop owner have to take abuse from his customers. If you dont like the price, walk. Its that simple, you speak with your wallet. Being argumentative or confrontational will not get an owner to lower his prices any more than saying "I can get the same thing online for X"

Without the Customer there is no Business. Being out of line while doing business is never right for either side. But I don't see where Neo was out of line from reading his post.

We can speak with our wallet and "Walk" as you say. I can't say there is anything wrong with just doing that. But I also believe that the Customer can let a Business know that he's not happy. If I were a Business owner I'd want to know.

[NCRadioMan]

The shop Neo is talking about is a fairly new Fuente retailer but hasn't been in business long enough to land the higher end stuff like Opus and Anejo's. So they buy at regular retail, then mark them up accordingly. That's why they are so expensive. If I didn't know that, I probably would ask them why the high price.

I personally love this shop and the others they have opened mainly because it realy ticks the owner of Tinder Box's in the same area off. And that dude is a "grade A" pr*ck.

[bobarian]

Originally Posted by NCRadioMan

The shop Neo is talking about is a fairly new Fuente retailer but hasn't been in business long enough to land the higher end stuff like Opus and Anejo's. So they buy at regular retail, then mark them up accordingly. That's why they are so expensive. If I didn't know that, I probably would ask them why the high price.

I personally love this shop and the others they have opened mainly because it realy ticks the owner of Tinder Box's in the same area off. And that dude is a "grade A" pr*ck.

And there is the "X" factor. A markup of 50% over cost is neither unexpected nor out of line.

Well you realized in retrospect that you could've probably said it more tactfully and still got your intended message across. I've called vendors (not for cigars) and flat out told them that I could get a better price for a product online, but would prefer to do business with them locally if they could meet me somewhere between the two prices. A few times they've met me on price or part of the way and appreciated my approach, and other times they've told me to pound sand.