News / Entertainment
Battle Royale heats-up between Famous Smoke Shop and Pete Johnson
Cigar store manager will fight Tatuaje cigars creator in June to settle score on Cigar Expo matter
It all started on February 7th, 2009, when Pete Johnson appeared at his first Famous Smoke Shop in-store event.
"The store was filled to capacity and we were having a banner sales day," said Tim. "That's when I asked Pete to be one of the featured vendors at our Famous Cigar Expo in June, and he readily accepted."
Several weeks later, Pete called Famous Smoke Shop's Humberto Gonzalez to tell him that he wouldn't be able to attend the Expo.
"When I pressed him as to why, Pete admitted that one of Famous' competitors 'persuaded' him not to participate," said Gonzalez. "I reminded Pete that he had a handshake agreement with Tim, and tried to convince him otherwise, but he wouldn't budge. Then when I told Tim about the conversation, he was really teed-off that Pete hadn't called him personally."
After that, Tim made several unsuccessful attempts to call Pete.
"When I finally got through to him, the conversation was pretty heated," said Tim. "I told him he wasn't sticking to his word, like a man. That must have gotten his feathers pretty ruffled, because then he hung up on me."
At the end of March, Tim flew to Miami to meet with Christian Eiroa of Camacho Cigars. He told Christian about Pete backing out of the Expo and the argument, and Christian offered to support Tim in any way he could.
Soon, word of Tim's conversation with Christian got back to Pete, making him furious. The two men took their dispute public on Friday, May 1, by calling each other out over the airwaves during Famous Smoke Shop's weekly Happy Hour, which is broadcast live on ESPN Radio of the Lehigh Valley. The result was that Famous Smoke Shop and Tatuaje Cigars would settle their differences in the ring with a boxing match that will take place at Famous Smoke Shop's headquarters in Easton, PA. on Friday, June 26th.
For more information visit www.cigarfight.com
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Famous Smoke Shop is the nation's leading discount retailer of imported premium handmade cigars, offering one of the largest selections of premium cigars, cigar humidors, and cigar accessories, including a free monthly catalog. Famous-Smoke.com has been awarded BizRate's "Gold Honoree" status for excellence in customer service, product selection, customer satisfaction, and per-dollar value.
