By Nicolas Van Praet
For Roland Comerford, a cigar is not just a rolled up tube of tobacco leaves. It’s one of life’s finer pleasures that takes time to cultivate.
And that, he says, is why the passion of Ottawa’s three year dalliance with cigars is over. The city’s quick-hit hipsters just don’t have the attention span of true cigar buffs.
Comerford is owner of Comerford’s Cigar Store on Bank Street, a family run operation that’s been in business for 51 years.
He confirms reports the big North American cigar boom is over and that Canadian cigar retailers are seeing drops in sales after years of steady growth.
While Toronto retailer Winston and Holmes estimates a 20 per cent drop on sales Canada-wide last year, Comerford says his own cigar sales have declined by 50 per cent. But he quickly adds the original boom was so huge, he’s still selling more than before.
“I don’t know if it’s burned out completely but the fire is gone. Now we have their serious cigar smokers left.”
What has happened, Comerford says, is that fad-following puffers found the pleasure of cigar smoking too much work. When they realized that it’s not easy to get good quality cigars, that there’s not a cigar shop on every block, that many retailers don’t know a Cohiba from a Reas, that there is some effort in smoking a stogie, they got turned off.
“A guy can buy the same 25 cigars but you get tired of smoking the same. So they liked to come into the shop and get two or three different ones. And so after they’ve tried those and finished those, they came back and they bought five more. And it becomes a chore, you know? It’s not easy. And they thought it was.”
Nevertheless, Comerford says his clientele is steadier than before and that they’re buying good quality cigars ranging in price from $5 to $20 each.
Not so for Chandra’s Cigar Shop on Sparks Street. The shop’s owner, who asked not to be named, said his sales have gone down by 30 per cent and that even the aficionados aren’t opening their wallets like they used to.
“They know what they’re buying and they’re stringent in their buying too. They don’t buy as they used to buy before. Give me a box here and give me a box there.”
Chandra’s owner says he has “no single clue” why sales have dropped.
Simon Leclair , proprietor of Globe Mags and Cigars in the Byward Market reasons that many people are getting their cigars outside the country.
“I know that a lot of people go to Cuba and they bring back a couple of boxes for their neighbours, their cousins and it cuts off sales here in Canada. But what can we do?”
Leclair, who says his sales are down 10 per cent, is slightly ticked off that non-smokers buy cigars for their friends at prices he can’t compete with when they go on holiday.
The same medium-quality cigar that he sells for $16 in Canada, for example, goes for $2 or $3 in Cuba, he says.
The high cost of cigars in Canada is the topic of some discussion on the Burning Desires Web Page, a site devoted to Canadian cigar smokers.
One devotee writes that high tobacco taxes and resulting high prices drove him south across the border to buy. “Honestly, after a few months, the thought of paying upwards of $20 for a decent smoke was getting to me.”
Back at Comerford’s, another cigar customer is being shown the goods. The owner laughs as he says the industry is still vigorous.
“There’s never been more cigar smokers than today. Even though the casuals have gone, it was, and is a trend, a trend caused by more leisure time to enjoy. People have learned to appreciate a good cigar.”