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June
2003
The House of Grauer
TRENDS AND TRENDSETTERS IN SPECIALTY TOBACCO RETAILING
Search for Cuesta-Rey Lady: New J.C. Newman Promo
Tampa, FL - J.C. Newman Cigar Co. is on the lookout for look-alikes, searching for a woman who resembles the dark-haired lady pictured on the company Cuesta-Rey cigar brand label. It's all part of the Ms. Cuesta-Rey Look-Alike Contest taking place this summer and fall.

"Through the help of our retailers we hope to find our Ms. Cuesta-Rey," says Eric Newman, president of J.C. Newman Cigar Co. "Somewhere out there we know there is a look-alike, and we are bound to find her."

The winner of this nationwide contest will appear in national print advertisements for the Cuesta-Rey brand and win an all-expense paid trip for two to Madrid, Spain - the birthplace of Angel La Madrid Cuesta - for six days and five nights.

A panel of industry judges will select ten semi-finalists from all the entries received. These semi-finalists will each win a $100 gift certificate, two boxes of Cuesta-Rey Aristocrat cigars imprinted with the contestant's name, and two boxes of Cuesta-Rey Pyramid No. 9 cigars.

Three finalists selected from phone interviews will be flown with a guest to Tampa, Fla., where they will stay at the Don Cesar Spa and Beach Resort for three days and two nights. The trip also includes a day at the Don Cesar Spa, a tour of the J.C. Newman cigar factory, and attendance at the Ms. Cuesta-Rey Look-Alike Contest award presentation.

Smokeshops can win too: The tobacconists specified on the photos of each semifinalist, finalist, and final winner will each receive the same prize package as the contestants, from the boxes of cigars to the trips to Florida and Spain.

Entry forms, rules, and promotional materials will be made available at J.C. Newman Cigar Connoisseurs Club partner smoke shops nationwide. Contact J.C. Newman Cigar Co. toll-free at 1-800-477-1884.

RETAIL RADAR

  • The Fox Sports Grill is slated to opened it second location at the Irvine Spectrum in Irvine, California. The casual but upscale sports theme restaurant features an open-air cigar lounge.

    li> Alfred Dunhill announced it is closing all of its U.S. retail stores, with the exception of the New York City location which opened at a new Fifth Avenue site last year. The London-based company has already transferred distribution of its smoking pipes and accessories to Music City Marketing of Nashville, Tenn.

    • BITS & PIECES

  • New York City's controversial smoking ban became effective March 30, banning smoking in all bars and restaurants. Only a handful of existing cigar bars - pending final certification - and retail shops are exempt from the ban. In July, New York state enacts a similarly restrictive ban statewide.

  • tobacco123.com has been named the 2003 winner of the first annual "Best Online Retailer" by the Cigarette Board, a non-profit created to review the sale of cigarettes over the Internet. The site best matched the board's criteria for ease of use, product selection, truth in advertising and popularity.

  • Montana has raised its cigarette excise tax by 59¢, from 18¢ previously to 70¢, while pipe tobacco and cigar tax rates have doubled to 25%; Idaho has hiked it cigarette tax by 29¢ to 59¢.

  • A proposal to ban smoking in all Nevada restaurants outside big casinos was rejected by the state's Assembly Judiciary Committee; Connecticut has banned smoking in workplaces effective Oct. 1; bars, restaurants have until April 2004.
    • SMOKESHOP - June, 2003