retail founded new york new york u.s. october 1939 1939 10 headquarters easton products cigars & cigar accessories owner arthur zaretsky parent famous smoke shop pa inc. website http www.famous smoke.com famous smoke shop is one of the largest cigar mail order businesses in the united states . 1 2 3 the company was formed in october 1939 in midtown manhattan as a cigar and gift shop . in 2000 increasing rents and taxes 4 forced the company to move its operations to easton pennsylvania 5 a state that currently imposes no cigar tax . 6 famous smoke shop is engaged primarily in the retail and wholesale of cigars humidors and cigar accessories through mail order catalogs a brick and mortar retail shop and several websites . 7 contents 1 incorporation and growth 2 cigar manufacturing 3 see also 4 notes 5 references 6 external links incorporation and growth edit famous smoke shop s original retail store located at 1433 broadway new york city founded in 1939 . david and rose zaretsky incorporated famous smoke shop in new york city in october 1939 . in 1970 their son arthur zaretsky began working for the company . he assumed sole ownership in 1984 . 4 famous smoke shop has maintained a brick and mortar retail shop since its incorporation . the original shop was located at 1433 broadway in new york city . the 350 sq. ft. store primarily sold imported and domestic cigars as well as magazines and other sundries . in 1975 the company moved to a 550 sq. ft. location at 1450 broadway . in 1986 unable to absorb increasing midtown rents the company moved its cigar store to a 1550 sq. ft. location at 55 w. 39th street . its current retail shop is located in the north end of its 24 000 sq. ft. easton headquarters . 4 in 1970 famous smoke shop published its first mail order cigar catalog . the catalog consisted of a typewritten pricelist of available cigar brands . 4 the catalog is currently produced in house by a staff of copywriters and graphic artists and mailed monthly . 4 between the years of 1992 and 1998 the cigar industry experienced an unprecedented boom . cigar sales increased by as much as 36 % in the first quarter of 1996 . 8 increased sales during this period provided the company enough capital to upgrade its telephone 9 and computer systems . 10 during this period the company also diversified its marketing efforts expanding its catalog and developing a web presence . 4 famous smoke.com was first published in 1997 . the company now markets cigars through several web properties . in 2004 the company published an online auction website cigarauctioneer.com which sells humidors lighters cigar cutters and cases to the highest bidder s . 11 in december 2006 it published cigarmonster.com a one deal a day website . 12 it also operates cigardomain.com a cigar wholesale website . cigar manufacturing edit famous smoke shop is the sole owner and distributor of numerous cigar brands manufactured on its behalf by rocky patel padr n la aurora and don jos pepin garcia among others . 13 see also edit jr cigars thompson cigar fum e notes edit sic 2121 cigars description market prospects industry history published by reference for business . accessed november 5 2009 . famous smoke shop . fall 2005 hunt club digest p 106 new no. 1 in retailer rankings published by cigar cyclopedia september 8 2009 . a b c d e f famous smoke shop the backstory published by cigaradvisor february 14 2007 . cite error invalid ref tag ; name cigaradvisor defined multiple times with different content see the help page . cite error invalid ref tag ; name cigaradvisor defined multiple times with different content see the help page . cite error invalid ref tag ; name cigaradvisor defined multiple times with different content see the help page . cite error invalid ref tag ; name cigaradvisor defined multiple times with different content see the help page . cite error invalid ref tag ; name cigaradvisor defined multiple times with different content see the help page . ford william j. tobacco firm opts for forks . dec 20 1999 morning call allentown pa . p b3 pennsylvania escapes cigar tax published by cigar aficionado october 9 2003 . operations and management famous smoke shop published by multichannel merchant jan 1 2003 . the cigar boom what it was and is published by the free library may 19 2009 . lines of fire published by inc june 15 1998 . famous smoke shop selects junctionrbi to manage its multi channel retail business published by the free library . famous rolls dice with retail auction site published by smokeshop magazine august 2004 . cigar news published by about.com december 11 2006 . buying cigars online published by about.com . references edit bianchi alessandra 1998 lines of fire inc magazine an automated call center can improve customer service and analyze how calls translate into sales . here s how to turn the telephone into your most important strategic tool and competitive edge . external links edit official website coordinates 40 44 24 n 75 13 24 w 40.74000 n 75.22333 w 40.74000 ; 75.22333 retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title famous smoke shop & oldid 743232073 categories american companies established in 1939companies based in northampton county pennsylvaniaeaston pennsylvaniaprivately held companies based in pennsylvaniamail order retailersonline retailers of the united statescigar retailers1939 establishments in new yorkhidden categories pages with reference errorspages with duplicate reference namespages using infobox company with unsupported parameterscoordinates not on wikidata navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 8 october 2016 at 17 22 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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