
I Started a $20K/Mo Cigar Subscription Business as a College Student - patwalls
https://starterstory.com/stories/how-i-started-a-20k-mo-cigar-subscription-business-as-a-college-student
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greenyoda
> I always felt like subscription boxes for something non-consumable, like
> socks, wouldn’t work. After a few months, you would have enough and cancel
> the subscription.

Socks and underwear are definitely consumables - they wear out from regular
wear and washing. And they have a definite advantage over cigars: they don't
give your customers horrible diseases. (I watched someone die of lung cancer.
It's not a pleasant way to go.)

~~~
flukus
Heavy smokers have a ~25% chance of getting lung cancer (plus various other
horrible things), it drops to ~15% for light smokers, that's people who smoke
many cigarettes a day every day. This service sends out 4 Cigars a month, the
lung cancer risk from that is minuscule.

~~~
eesmith
Another way to view it is that they encourage people to start smoking ("new
hobbyists").

In addition, while they currently send out 4 cigars a month, from the article:

"We haven’t been extremely active in the larger cigar community because the
hardcore fans generally buy in bulk cigars, which isn’t really our customer.
Our customers are generally beginners/novices who are interested in getting
started. _This is an area we are interested in jumping into soon, however._ "

(Emphasis mine in the last sentence.)

It therefore doesn't seem like they are limiting themselves because of any
concern about the health of their customers.

When would the disease risk be high enough that you think it would be
unethical for you to sell/distribute cigars?

