Retail Sales Associate

Company: Cigar Circus

Location: Clearwater, Florida

Pay: $20-$22 per hour

Schedule: Evenings and weekends required; availability across weekdays and select holidays preferred

Reports To: Retail Sales Manager / Store Management

Position Summary

Cigar Circus is looking for an outgoing, dependable Retail Sales Associate to work the sales floor and help customers find the right cigar.

This role is about selling and service. You will spend your shift with customers — learning what they like, making recommendations, and building the kind of relationships that bring people back through the door.

Cigar knowledge is helpful, but a genuine interest in learning the product and a strong customer-service instinct matter more. We can teach the product.

Primary Responsibilities

• Greet customers, learn their preferences and budget, and recommend products accordingly.
• Actively sell rather than wait — engage customers on the floor and in the lounge.
• Identify natural opportunities for upselling, cross-selling, memberships, promotions, and add-on purchases.
• Build product knowledge continuously: brands, wrappers, strength profiles, sizes, and pairings.
• Create a welcoming, high-energy experience that makes customers want to stay and return.
• Operate the POS system and accurately process sales, refunds, discounts, and exchanges.
• Handle cash accurately and follow all register and cash-handling procedures.
• Maintain a clean, organized, and inviting showroom, lounge, humidor, checkout area, and customer spaces.
• Monitor humidor temperature and humidity and report readings outside acceptable range.
• Restock merchandise and ensure products are properly priced, labeled, and displayed.
• Rotate stock and inspect product for dryness, damage, or quality concerns.
• Report low-stock items, inventory discrepancies, damages, and pricing errors to management.
• Assist with receiving and putting away deliveries when needed.
• Follow company policies, including tobacco age-verification requirements, without exception.
• Help prevent theft, unauthorized discounts, and inventory loss.
• Support store events, promotions, memberships, and special sales initiatives.
• Escalate customer complaints and unusual situations to management.
• Assist wherever needed to keep the store operating smoothly.

Customer and Compliance Expectations

The Retail Sales Associate is expected to:

• Verify identification on every tobacco sale, regardless of apparent age or familiarity with the customer
• Refuse any sale that cannot be lawfully completed
• Never sell, transfer, or hold product without a recorded transaction
• Follow all product-handling procedures to protect merchandise condition
• Maintain an accurate cash drawer and report discrepancies immediately
• Escalate rather than improvise when a situation falls outside normal procedure
• Represent the store professionally in appearance and conduct

Qualifications

• Must be at least 21 years old.
• Retail, hospitality, or customer-service experience required.
• Previous sales experience strongly preferred.
• Comfortable approaching customers and starting conversations.
• Understanding of relationship-based selling rather than pressure selling.
• Reliable, punctual, organized, and trustworthy.
• Comfortable handling cash and POS transactions.
• Strong communication skills and a team-first attitude.
• Willing and able to learn cigar products, brands, and customer preferences.
• Available to work evenings, weekends, and select holidays.
• Reliable transportation is required.

Physical Requirements

• Ability to stand and walk for extended periods.
• Ability to bend, reach, stock shelves, and perform normal retail duties.
• Ability to safely lift and carry up to 40 pounds.
• Ability to work in an environment where smoking is permitted.

Performance Standards

Performance will be evaluated based on:

• Compliance with age verification and tobacco sales law
• Sales performance and customer engagement
• Product knowledge and quality of recommendations
• Transaction and cash-handling accuracy
• Showroom, humidor, and lounge condition
• Attendance and punctuality
• Workplace safety
• Communication and teamwork

Who We Are Looking For

We are looking for someone who genuinely enjoys people.

The best associates here are curious about the product, comfortable striking up a conversation with a stranger, and able to turn a browsing customer into a regular. You do not need to know cigars on day one — you need to want to learn them, and to care whether the person in front of you leaves happy.

If you like selling, like talking to people, and want to learn a category with real depth to it, we would like to meet you.

Pay: $20-$22 per hour

Cigar Circus is an equal-opportunity employer. Employment decisions are made based on qualifications, performance, and business needs without unlawful discrimination.