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An Interview With Robert Levin
Owner, Holt's Cigar Store, Inc., and the Ashton Brand
Marvin R. Shanken
From the Print Edition:
Danny DeVito, Winter 96
(continued from page 1)
Levin: It was a very small store.
CA: What kind of revenue was it doing?
Levin: It was well under a million dollars. It was in the $100,000 to $200,000 range. It was a good cigar business at the time, and we were cigar specialists. Philadelphia was known as a city for close-outs. Big market for seconds. We used to buy huge lots of Garcia y Vega seconds.
CA: When he bought the store, did he then go in and operate it himself?
Levin: He was there. He was the owner and the operator.
CA: What did he pay for the store in the mid-1950s?
Levin: He paid about $40,000 for it.
CA: He bought the store, he operated the store and then you said in 1980 he purchased another store.
Levin: No, my father was retired by that time. I bought Harry A. Tint & Sons, which was a more upscale business. Holt's cigar store was always the store you went to for deals. Harry A. Tint & Sons was for the uppercrust Main Line customer. That store was the Cuban cigar importer for that area before the embargo.
CA: When did you enter the business?
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