JR-Cigars and suck it

[DaBear]

Originally Posted by OLS

Business is business, you don't get to be a success by cutting people breaks. Price match is a strategy
employed by people with a goal, to steal business from other businesses. JR does not need to steal business
from anyone, they are the largest cigar retailer on earth. Your money really DOESN'T mean anything to them.

I'm calling 100% BS on that statement right there. EVERY online dealer requires people to value their low prices over seeing and getting the cigars at a B&M. Plus JRs has a massive in store collection that many go to to buy in bulk which hurts every B&M in the Carolinas. Now I'm not saying it's hurt us per se at work, but we would have a hell of a lot more people coming in for Olivas, General, and Altadis stuff if JR didn't have them. Plus their business even hurts the reps who are out there just tryin to sell their cigars and help out the B&Ms. Every large account like that is done by the higher ups in the company, not the reps. The reps end up losing money on things like that since their clients start needing less as people go else where, plus they don't get the commission for an account like that.

[OLS]

Originally Posted by DaBear

I'm calling 100% BS on that statement right there..

You can call whatever you like, your paragraph sounds like sour grapes to me.
I understand the perspective of the small B&M against the mighty JR, but this is not like JR became big
when B@st BUY and Sams and all these places became the shape of things to come. JR was a massive
operation LONG before that. If JR is hurting your business, perhaps your business failed to grow at the
right time to BE JR. This is America where anyone can succeed on that level if they are
smart enough to act at the right time and be ready with the cash when the time comes. Saying that
JR hurts your business is like saying "we don't like the customer valuing convenience and selection over
our homey atmosphere and tendency to follow them around like they are going to steal us blind."
We have all gone over this a dozen times, 'how B&Ms shoot themselves in the foot.' The B&M industry
has a lot bigger problems than JR. If anything JR helps you by bringing more customers into the pool and
giving you a boogeyman to rail against.

JUST ONE of the reasons JR is so big is that no MATTER WHAT the economy or the outlook for cigar sales,
Lew Rothman provided a steady stream of income to cigar producers worldwide. Not just when cigars
were popular, but when they were unpopular. He kept the US industry moving. I will grant you that he
has also twisted a lot of arms and played hardball with people who likely resent him for it, but that's also
business. Most B&Ms in this country owe him a debt they can never repay. Love it or hate it, JR succeeds
because it deserves to.

But don't worry, I put this opinion with your 'known fact' that Padron uses Mexican wrappers and have decided
where I should place your opinions on my continuum of validity.....sorry, but it ain't too high, lol.

But a man is certainly entitled to his opinion, and I would not want to tell you your opinion was invalid or anything.
It's one way of looking at things.