I spent this past week opening up our new store in Gainesville. It is always a lot of hard work, but I do enjoy seeing the transformation from an empty building to magnificent market in just a few days. This experience really reminded me of just how much ABC Fine Wine & Spirits has improved its cigar business since I started with the company back in 1995.

When I walked into my first ABC store, I recall seeing a pair of wall cabinets well stocked with the days' top brands. As a matter of fact, almost all stores had at least a desktop humidor on their counters and a select number of stores sported the wall units. In 1995 ABC was already in the early stages of replacing many of these cabinets with walk-in humidors as we began our transformation away from the lounge-liquor store era. Although the humidors today really make what we used to do seem archaic and amateur-ish, ABC was really ahead of its time concerning the coming "cigar boom". I started with the company just three years after Marvin R. Shanken first published his now iconic magazine, Cigar Aficionado. I can recall going to a very popular local tobacco shop and not really finding much that we didn't carry at our stores. The switch to walk-in humidors was a huge step in increasing our image in the cigar industry. As we replaced the cabinets in all of our big stores, we then turned our focus on the
smaller ones. Today one would be hard pressed to find an ABC store without a walk-in humidor. In the Jacksonville market we have 19 stores and only 3 of them are without humidors. 

If upgrading from the wall cabinets to the walk-in humidors is akin to us going from steam to gas engines, then our new Cigar Room design has us going light speed in the Millennium Falcon. Considering what we are attempting to do for our guests, I don't believe one could design a room any better than this. The thing I love most about the new design is its minimalist approach. It is really just a wall of glass with glass shelves that gives the illusion of cigars boxes floating freely. This is brilliant because there is simply no need to get fancy or over-creative with art and design. The cigar makers do such a wonderful job of creating these great cigars, adorning them with artistic labels and placing them in very ornate, handcrafted boxes. Our new humidors allow the cigar to be the star. They add nothing, nor do they take anything away.

The inside of our new humidors

Of course a well-designed humidor is no good unless it is filled with quality cigars. This is another area in which ABC has come a long way. As stated earlier, ABC has always carried good quality sticks, but we have not become complacent and have done a great job of growing with the trends. It is no secret that we are not a cigar specialty store, nor do we pretend to be. But just because we sell top shelf spirits and the world's finest wines, doesn't mean we can't offer our guests some of the most popular, as well as most sought after, cigars available today.

Over the last few years we have brought in some really super premium and very limited cigars. It really makes me happy when a guest raves about finding a Liga Privada 9 series cigar in one of our stores. Our buyers are very proactive in searching for just the right products, making sure we have cigars for all types of smokers. It is our goal to provide a humidor that a first-time smoker, novice smoker, or cigar connoisseur can find something to make them happy. After all, we are in the celebration business and making sure everyone can enjoy a celebratory cigar, no matter their taste preference, should be priority number one.

I can't wait until July when I head out to the trade show to assist our buying team in selecting some new editions for our stores.  If you haven't visited one of our humidors in a few years, please gives us a visit. Even if it’s an older style humidor, I am certain you be happy with our current selection. And it is only going to get better.

Long Ashes,

Chris Gwaltney

ABC Fine Wine & Spirits regional manager in Jacksonville. Follow him on Twitter @chrisgnole