Cigar roller from my childhood home

[D_W]

I grew up in a Pennsylvania German area (which isn't like germany german - more like the rural castoffs that germany wanted out - mostly pacifists who didn't assimilate quickly).

You could have businesses like this one until the government pushed forward more and more and made it impossible to keep going (this business sold its equipment to a dominican owner in 2017 as they owner flatly put it, it wasn't possible to meet the government's demands).

At the time, the scrap cigar roller used premium local tobacco from PA and connecticut (and probably elsewhere) and rolled high quality/flavor cigars for less than a dollar each at retail. The leaf is the same leaf that is exported to cuba and then hand rolled whole, coming back in cigars $4-$8.



What I recall of this company (before it shut down) is that true smokers of cigars (I'm not one) thought the cigars were fantastic, but with a tight draw, because the machine packed the scrap tightly and not as loose as a hand rolled cigar.

At one point, one of the large cigar magazines did a blind test of cigars, and one of the cigars made by this company (out of these machines) placed fourth out of over 600 varieties. The advertiser reaction wasn't positive (as in, if you're selling a $5 hand rolled cigar, seeing it below a <$1 machine rolled cigar is displeasing).

Since these machines were relocated to DR, the brands still remain but the cigars cost more now (some of that probably due to opportunism from the new owner recouping his costs).

Why is the german part important? PA germans would tend to run a business without changing much and they'd choose to make enough to be comfortable and that's it. The original owner liked the idea of an affordable cigar that didn't have glue or filler garbage in it (remember, tobacco is local to the area, so it's not hard to get good quality tobacco - where I grew up, the amish still grow it, and it's still grown in connecticut - getting a supply of local or relatively local leaves isn't an issue).

When this company went out of business, it had been going at the above location for at least 150 years (probably hand rolling before the machines. In the tiny area where I grew up, there were four separate hand rolling operations, and probably many times that amount in the town over where this factory is).

The machine is a marvel - it wasn't made on site, but rather developed by someone and then leased all over the place (rather than selling the machines) to retain the machine rights and have continuous revenue. At some point, one would guess that the company leasing the machines probably went out of business.

 

[D_W]

When I was a little kid and the early 1970s and 1980s, there were a lot of small operations like this - whether lumber, or building materials or cigars, or whatever else. Whatever they made generally cost less than anything bought retail. Over time, those companies have either shut down, been bought or have gotten into agreements to sell their goods through distribution. Anyone selling something underpriced now is a target for a venture capitalist to either buy the business when an owner gets old (either to jack up the price and resell the company again, or to eliminate the making of something that you already make). That's too bad.

The lifestyle of the workers is sort of a gone thing, too. In the town where I worked making cabinets between college summers, it was common to do drudgery jobs like this, the pay wasn't great (figure this would be a $12 or $15 an hour job now), but the workers usually lived nearby in modest housing and had a pretty good standard of living as they didn't have huge wants. A bygone era. You could travel a half hour away and work at caterpillar or harley or another union type location if you wanted double the pay and a more high flying lifestyle without going to college.