2025 Cigar Insider Retailer Survey: Cigar Shops Report Sales Gains For 2025
Now that 2025 has concluded, we asked retailers to look back at an entire year of business and give us their feedback. Cigar retailers had plenty to say in our yearly survey, and they had strong opinions on everything from prices and the economy to taxes and the Internet. There was no shortage of opinions, and much of the feedback was positive. After a few booming years in the world of premium cigars, many retailers say that sales are still up. Our latest Cigar Insider survey shows that a good number of cigar shops sold more cigars in 2025 than the year before. We polled 65 U.S. retailers representing a total of 126 cigar shops and 46.2 percent of them said sales were up in 2025 over 2024. A considerably smaller amount, 30.8 percent, reported that sales were flat in 2025, and a mere 23.1 percent reported a decline.
2025 Cigar Sales Compared To 2024
| Status | Percent |
|---|---|
| Sales are up | 46.2 |
| Sales are down | 23.0 |
| Sales are flat | 30.8 |
Source: Cigar Insider
The numbers are slightly less optimistic than those from our survey last year, when nearly half (48.5 percent) of retailers reported gains over 2023 and down markedly from 2022 when 69.1 percent of retailers reported gains. This indicates a market cooling in the wake of the pandemic-driven cigar boom, a spike in sales that started in the latter half of 2020 after lockdowns resulted in higher cigar consumption across the country. In other words, it looks like the cigar boom that began during the pandemic is over. The good news is, it seems to have left behind a healthy market.
In 2021, the United States imported 456 million handmade cigars, a 25.3 percent increase over 2020 and the first time import numbers hit 400 million since the 1990s. It was officially “boom time” for the cigar industry. The numbers were even higher in 2022: 464 million. For 2023, imports were slightly up to 467 million (essentially flat). The boom may indeed be over, but 400 million cigars per year seems to be a good indicator of a robust industry. The Cigar Association of America (CAA) has yet to release the final year-end import numbers for 2025, but performance through the third quarter of the year shows imports up slightly and it looks likely that the magic 400 million unit mark will be hit once again.
Has The Cigar Boom Leveled?
| Status | Percent |
|---|---|
| Yes | 66.1 |
| No | 24.2 |
| Unsure | 9.7 |
Source: Cigar Insider
Prices And A Post-Boom Economy
The total numbers for 2025—tallied by the CAA—won’t come in until the spring, but many retailers agree that the boom has subsided. An overwhelming 66.1 percent of polled tobacconists believe the boom is leveling off, while 24.2 percent say the boom is still going strong and another 9.7 percent aren’t sure.
“The price increases have made people more selective,” says Juan Barboza of Cigar Box in Aventura, Florida. Other retailers like Steve Castro see a cooling as well. He owns a dozen Davidus Cigars locations throughout Maryland. “It’s clearly slowing down in my market,” he says.
“I believe cigar sales are beginning to level off due to a number of factors,” offers Michael LaVopa, who owns and operates The Smokin’ Gentleman in Port Jefferson, New York. “Economic conditions, the threat of higher state taxes and possible tariffs being imposed on major cigar-producing countries. These factors are influencing the price consumers are willing to pay for premium cigars and the frequency of their consumption.”
In Plymouth, Michigan, Michael Lanier says things are still robust at his La Casa Plymouth shop, but sees his customers now looking for more value: “[The market is] still strong, still selling the same number of cigars, but customers are seeking better prices.” Trae Roberts of Cigar Mojo in Malvern and King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, agrees. Both his shops are located in suburbs of Philadelphia, and he says that “price is becoming more of a factor and concern to the customer.”
Prices are an issue and concern in just about every business, and the premium cigar industry is no exception. Most of the U.S. retailers we polled observed that prices went up in 2025, similar to our findings last year. An overwhelming 95.2 percent of the retailers said they’ve seen an increase in manufacturers’ suggested retail prices. Unsurprisingly, 92.2 percent of retailers also said they had to raise prices as a result.
Have You Had To Raise Prices This Year At Your Store/Stores?
| Status | Percent |
|---|---|
| Yes | 92.2 |
| No | 4.7 |
| Somewhat | 3.1 |
Source: Cigar Insider
Some are pointing to recent tariffs as the culprit. “It’s interesting how some manufacturers are including tariff increases in their prices with no proposed give-back if and when the tariffs go away, while others are showing a tariff increase with a note saying that the increases will go away when the tariffs do,” observes Roy Brown, president of Iron Horse Cigar Depot in Hudson, New York.
Colleen Murphy, who owns HogsHead Cigars & Fine Tobaccos in Hermann, Missouri, sees a trend toward more exclusive, expensive cigars aimed at a wealthier clientele: “It seems that some brands are attempting to elevate the experience of their cigars—which are the same damn sticks they’ve been selling for years. But in the end, they are pricing themselves out of certain markets, and in the process, making their brand less affordable or unappealing for smaller shops to carry.”
Dan Aliseo of Smokers Delight in Union, New Jersey, concurs: “Most new cigars are being marketed to the super-premium buyer, not the everyday smoker. I haven’t heard of any doing well.”
Logistics, Inflation And The Internet
Supply chain issues have drastically improved. In our 2024 poll, 43.5 percent of retailers reported that they were receiving product later than they should. By comparison only 14.3 percent reported delays in 2025 while 77.8 percent said that they’re getting shipments on time.
“We are getting product quicker than we ever have in the past 30 years,” offers Castro, but Mike Lohsl, owner of Chesapeake Pipe & Cigar in Annapolis, Maryland, has a different experience: “We’re still regularly affected by out-of-stock issues. I think the manufacturers are bringing less into the United States to avoid paying tariffs on stock that’s not moving right out the door to retailers.”
“Depends on the company,” says Jeff MacDonald of JM Cigars in Exton, Pennsylvania. “Some have been great. Others have taken up to five separate shipments to complete an order.”
If timeliness was a minor issue, the economy was a major, if not the biggest concern among most business owners, and inflation continued to weigh on the minds of U.S. retailers. In the cigar industry, three quarters (75 percent) of the retailers we polled reported that inflation changed the buying habits of their customers.
Has Inflation Changed Buying Habits?
| Status | Percent |
|---|---|
| Changed habits | 75.0 |
| Has not changed habits | 12.5 |
| Has somewhat changed habits | 12.5 |
Source: Cigar Insider
“People are looking for more bang for their buck,” says Danielle Leone, the retail store manager at Best Cigar Pub in Drums, Pennsylvania. “I am seeing an increase in purchases of bigger-sized cigars for that reason. And people are getting less of the more expensive brands.”
Only 12.5 percent of retailers said” that inflation made no difference, and 12.5 percent were unsure. Shops like Old Virginia Tobacco Co. are seeing both sides. It has seven locations throughout the state, including Alexandria and Falls Church. “There are more cigars over $50 (without tax) than ever and they seem to sell,” says owner and longtime retailer Gary Pesh. “But at the same time, there is also a large segment of the market that is price conscious and buying less expensive cigars under $12. Or they’re reducing the amount of cigars they are smoking.”
Retailers don’t just provide cigars for their customers, but also a place to enjoy them. This can be an incentive to bring people into the cigar shop and away from the Internet. Factors such as state-wide smoking bans and, in some cases, the onset of colder weather, make lounges a necessity. Cigar lovers often need a place to smoke, which is why cigar lounges are common: 81.3 percent of the retailers we surveyed have a lounge where customers can light up.
What’s On Their Minds?
Many of the issues that trouble cigar shop owners are nothing new—taxes, regulation, the Internet, the economy—but that’s not to say that they are not legitimate concerns. Internet sales in particular are a cause of frustration, as online orders are not subject to local taxes, which can put brick-and-mortar shops at a notable disadvantage, especially those in high-tax states like New York or California.
“I really wish buying cigars online and out of state wasn’t a thing,” laments John Aprim. His shop, Cigarclub, is located in Sacramento, California’s capital city. “Consumers don’t pay the tobacco tax they should on products. Also, cigar brands should focus more on retailers and make exclusive cigars for retailers, not online stores.”
LaVopa would just like to see more tax equality from state to state. “I wish it could be a more level playing field,” he says. “Being in a high-tax state like New York makes running a successful cigar business a real challenge, especially if you’re like me and only sell premium cigars. I refuse to sell cigarettes and Hookah pipes to make up the difference.”
Some retailers are pointing the finger directly at manufacturers, claiming they don’t get enough support from cigarmakers. “Manufacturers need to think more like retailers,” asserts Josh DeSiena of Doc James Cigar Lounge in Mamaroneck, New York. “They want us to sell everything they make, but they don’t understand what it takes to sell it. We’re the one that is directly dealing with the customer.”
The sale of cannabis is relatively new point of contention, and especially troubling for Aliseo in New Jersey. “With sales of cannabis becoming more prevalent across the country, our organization needs to start screaming ‘discrimination!’ as many of our stores and lounges are being held to old, irrelevant, draconian laws that restrict cigar use—which has never been illegal—in a world where more and more, the public can buy and use what was once considered an illegal drug.”
But it’s not all outrage and discontent on the retail front. Pesh has been in the business for more than 45 years and is still happy to be in it.
“This is a really good time to be a cigar smoker,” he says. “Some of the best cigars are being made right now. As an industry, even if the market place has flattened or maybe even declined from the pandemic boom, we are in a very strong place. I’m so grateful I am part of it.”
To see the Cigar Insider retailer survey on the hottest and best-selling cigar brands, click here.
To see the Cigar Insider retailer survey on best-selling sizes, click here.
To subscribe to Cigar Insider, click here.
