PCA 2023: Day 2 Recap

The first two days of the 2023 PCA Convention & Trade Show are over, and so far, things seem to be going swimmingly for quite a few of the manufacturers and retailers that are present. In fact, multiple booths were so busy that I had to return numerous times over an extended period before I was able to squeeze in a quick run-through with a representative. Having said that, there are signs that might indicate a massive change coming for the latter half of the show, as you can read below.

 

1. Attendance, Attendance, Attendance — After spending two days covering this convention, there does not seem to be a consensus when it comes to the number of people who are attending the show. On the one hand, there were so many people waiting to get into the opening dinner that it felt like it took an eternity to get to the end of the line. Having said that, when I walked down to the show floor on the morning of day two, there were only three people in the line at Starbucks, a number that is significantly smaller than the normal 25 or so that are usually waiting to get their caffeine fix at that time. There has not seemed to be a dearth of people in the aisles or in most booths for the majority of the first two days, but then again, the show floor has seemingly been reduced in overall size compared to last year.
2. Leaving On a Jet Plane…A Bit Early? — Representatives from a few different manufacturers have independently told me virtually the same thing: the number of appointments with retailers was almost overwhelming for the first two days—Saturday and Sunday—and the trend continues through about lunch today.

   After that, the number of meetings falls off of a cliff to the point where there are entire stretches of empty time. Historically, the last day of the PCA show is an absolute ghost town–walking into the show on the last day and seeing booths already broken down is not exactly uncommon—but because of the Saturday through Tuesday timeframe of the show this year, there seems to be a possibility that more people tried to get their business done during the two weekend days in an attempt to get back to wherever they came from before—or very closely after—the start of the week.

3. The Rise of the $15-$20 Cigar – Multiple retailers have mentioned being perturbed at the trend of increased cigar prices—the new $300 Oliva and $100 Dunbarton Unicorns were both mentioned a number of times—leading them to look for less expensive alternatives, albeit alternatives that don’t compromise quality.

   In those conversations, the names of the same brands kept popping up: Forged—specifically, the La Gloria Cubana Serie S Maduro—RoMa Craft Tobac’s Intemperance Volstead VO 1920 line and Gran Habano’s G.A.R. American Standard. A couple of those same retailers also made a point to mention they were looking at a larger number of less-established companies like Definition Cigars, Big Sky Cigar Co. and Rojas Cigars.