THE BIG IDEA Smoke ’Em (if You Can Get ’Em)
The cigar industry, like so many other businesses, has been completely transformed over the past two years—it’s also facing nearly unprecedented demand. At the beginning of 2020, tobacco stores and cigar lounges were forced to shutter nationwide, yet for many cigar enthusiasts that actually meant more opportunities to enjoy a smoke than ever before. Today, surging online sales, along with the reopening of established brick-and-mortar locations as pandemic restrictions loosen, have resulted in the greatest uptick in cigar purchases since the boom of the 1990s.
“When it comes to premium cigars, we saw a 25 percent increase in 2021 sales,” says David M. Ozgo, president of the Cigar Association of America, Inc. In that year, he says, “we imported 400 million cigars for the first time since 1997.” While Ozgo admits “it isn’t clear that there’s been an increase in the number of new cigar smokers,” he seems confident that all the extra downtime played a significant role. “With so many people working from home, without a commute, without getting dressed up, many cigar smokers suddenly found an extra two hours or more in their day,” he says. “A good cigar has always been a personal indulgence for many people. More people are simply taking the time to enjoy life’s pleasures.”
Yet the current rise in cigar consumption is not without its complications, with fewer workers in some factories due to the pandemic, which in
