John Higgins retired from private equity at the age of 55 and picked up a new hobby: cigars.
Higgins found the local cigar store in Tupelo, near his home of Guntown, Mississippi, did not have the selection he desired, so he bought it out. That location became Spring Street Cigars.
After opening stores in Tupelo, Booneville, Southaven and Oxford, Spring Street has now opened its fifth location, right in the heart of downtown Starkville.
The cigar store hosted an opening night on Jan. 29, and Higgins said upward of 200 people came in and out of the store.
Higgins said while a business like this can be risky in a college town, he learned much from his experience with the store in Oxford.
“You have to remember that the federal law for smoking is 21 or older, so there’s less catering to a college crowd. We cater to professionals and the business crowd. We get a much different crowd in college towns,” Higgins said.
Spring Street Cigars offers a yearly membership, with perks including discounts on products, a private lounge and a personal humidified locker. Higgins talked about the membership perks and some of the people it attracts.
“We get a lot of different coaches and sports people that are coming here. Mike Leach, for example, is a member. One of the other perks we’re planning on having is a golf cart service to and from sports events,” Higgins said.
Spring Street Cigars embraces a rustic feeling in their building, which is located across the street from Restaurant Tyler. The walls are adorned with old-school cigar advertisements, and the leather chairs and wooden tables are reminiscent of a place where Winston Churchill would have enjoyed a cigar.
Higgins discussed the role aesthetics played while designing the newest addition to his business.
“Smoking a cigar is not a short experience. Do you want that in an uncomfortable environment, or would you want to have it in an environment like this? It’s not rowdy, it’s a very professional environment,” Higgins said.
Teddy Mullins, former assistant manager at the Oxford location, now manages the Starkville store. Mullins said he sees the business going “only up.”
“We had a soft launch on December 31, and our grand opening on January 29, and a lot of people don’t even know about the Starkville location yet. I see baseball season and football season as having a lot of new business,” Mullins said.
Mullins also mentioned the demographic difference in locations like Tupelo compared to Starkville and Oxford.
“In a place like Tupelo, you have a lot of lawyers, professional types. It’s the same thing here, but with the brewery in house, we do expect some young people, some professionals. This is not a lounge or a club, so we do expect a professional crowd,” Mullins said.
Mullins explained the sort of budget needed to purchase and the amount of products the store has on hand.
“In our humidor, you’re looking at about 3,000 cigars. These can range in price from $4 to $115. Everybody doesn’t like the same thing, so we have a range,” Mullins said.
The upstairs bar is tended by William Burris, who goes by Raden. Burris is a junior at Mississippi State University studying building construction science, and is a cigar aficionado. Burris, who hails from Clinton, Mississippi, enjoys a cigar with patrons every once in a while, and self describes his attire as being “like a ‘Peaky Blinders’ character.”
Burris sees Spring Street doing well in Starkville, sharing the optimism of Mullins.
“I see Spring Street going to great places, for one simple reason. Every time we get someone in here, they always say the same thing. ‘Starkville needed a place like this.’ People have been saying this was a long time coming,” Burris said.
Burris also brought up the venture into Starkville being similar to the location in Oxford.
“You could say that we already had a trial run at the Oxford location. Oxford turned out to be a great turnout. They already knew that opening up in a college town was going to go well,” Burris said.
While Spring Street Cigars is presently localized in the state of Mississippi, John Higgins has far greater ambitions. Three stores are on the way this year alone, with 15 total stores being a long-term goal.
“We’ll be outside Mississippi this year. We’re not quite ready to announce where until we’re a little further along. We are far enough along to say that we’re opening stores in Meridian and Olive Branch. We have a very unique model, and because we have this model and this environment, we’re successful,” Higgins said.