You've Open A Tobacco Shop - Now What's The Name?
ghostsofpompeii
Master
At a time when the FDA Deeming Regulations cast a foreboding shadow over the tobacco industry, the very notion of a businessman investing in a new brick and mortar tobacco shop is fool's errand. But cast reality aside for a moment and imagine you've inherited a windfall that will keep your family financially secured in perpetuity. Now with so much free time on your hands boredom sets in, and you're looking for a little diversion to kill a few hours a day, while at the same time incorporating your hobby as a tobacco aficionado. So you decide to open a neighborhood tobacco shop in your home town. Remember this little exercise is a flight of fancy, so making money and the harsh reality of being a successful business owner doesn't apply. Have fun with it.
As the proprietor of this new tobacco shop what name would you choose? Would you want the name to reflect the sophisticated tobacco coinsurer like "Briar Root Tobacco Emporium"; something a little less pretentious like "Puff & Stuff Tobacco Shop"; an over-the-top fanciful name like "Professor Meerschaum's Gallery Of Pipes"; or a simple name like "Smoke Rings", "Ashes Pipes & Cigars", or simplier yet - "Smokey Joe's Tobacco Shop"?
And if given the opportunity run your own shop, what might you do to make a visit more enjoyable to the customers, and set your establishment apart from other tobacco shops you've visited in the past? It's your shop - personalize it to fit your personality, and offer services and special features you wish other tobacco shops offered.
Comments
I suppose I would simply name my shop "Monica's Pipe and Cigar Emporium."
The hostess would most likely be dressed in blue, with large bill's, small bill's, and even counterfeit bill's accepted.
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I'd decorate it with antique or vintage furniture and give it a classic smoking room appearance. There would be a smoking room, with little board games like chess or risk to help pass the time and encourage camaraderie among my patrons.
I'd also have a small library of books by pipe smoking authors, as well as pipe books for the customers to unwind and read.
Paul's Pipe Shop
Campbell's
Hill and Hill
Watkins' Corner
Simple names. Unpretentious. That would be my idea of how to do it.
About twenty years ago there was a unique restaurant located in Highland, Indiana that went by the name of Sherlock Holmes Restaurant (which unfortunately now has been converted into a Funeral Parlor). At first glance upon entering the restaurant you might assume you've entered the wrong door because the shallow foyer looked more like the lobby of an old hotel with nothing more than an oversized desk positioned in front of a large floor-to-ceiling bookcase. A section of the bookcase would then open revealing itself to be the door to a secret passageway where the dining rooms were located. There were about four individual dining rooms that seated about 20 or 30 customers in each room, decorated like an English sitting room - complete with a working fireplace. The owner also had another themed restaurant in Crown Point, Indiana called S.O.B. (Sons Of the Boss - a password the customers had to utter before gaining admittance) which also had false walls and secret passageways - but the décor was meant to resemble a speakeasy from the Roaring 20s'
That whole concept of secret rooms and doors disguised as bookcases is quite appealing to me and I'd find some way of incorporating it into my smoke shop. Possibly having all the pipes and tobacco products in a main display room - and a sliding bookcase leading to a few smoking parlors (one exclusively for cigar smokers, one for pipe smokers, and another for both), a tea and coffee shop, and a small English pub - complete with dart board.