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SCHENECTADY
Old hardware store to be new home for cigar shop Owner hopes to create lodge atmosphere
BY AMEERAH CETAWAYO Gazette Reporter

    The old Wallace Armer Hardware building at 180 Erie Blvd. is getting a $90,000 overhaul to become the new home of That’s A Great Cigar Shop.
    The move, which will be complete by Sept. 15, will more than quadruple the footprint for the cigar shop and put life in a building that’s been sitting vacant for more than a decade.
    Paul Sickles’ business is currently at 426 State St., a place he has outgrown. That’s A Great Cigar Shop has enough capacity to cram in 15 people, but the new 1,500-square-foot location will give patrons the ability to sit around, play chess and possibly enjoy domino and card games.
    “I can bring more product in and have more to sell and bring in more people,” Sickles said.
    The renovation will create a lodge atmosphere in the space, with hardwood floors, a chimney, deer mounts and a new walk-in humidor.
    “It’s going to be real sharp,” Sickles said.
    The cigar shop will be open Monday through Thursday 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m. until the last football game ends, Sickles said.
    “I think this shop is going to do wonders for Schenectady,” Sickles said. “We are becoming a destination. People are seeking this out.”
    Many years ago, the Wallace Armer building was a destination of a different kind. The hardware store that opened in the late 1800s grew into a landmark, legendary for its old-time fixtures, a vast inventory of hard-to-find items and elaborate holiday displays, but it closed in 1997. The space has been vacant since.
    Schenectady City Councilwoman Barbara Blanchard said stepping into Wallace Armer was like stepping back in time. Tall ceilings were accompanied by little drawers stacked all the way up the walls. A ladder was used for clerks to go back and forth and fetch items for customers. The business existed before credit cards, and money trolleys were still used, she recalled.
    “When you paid the bill, they had this little moving box that your payment got put into and the box would move along the wall on a wire to somewhere where someone would make change for you and it would come back to the cashier with your change,” Blanchard ...........>>>>..............>>>>...................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....1&Continuation=1

I thought that the local/ state/ federal government was trying to discourage smoking because it was hazardous to our health?

Maybe the mayor will want it closed since it is in the same "category" as porn and guns.

I love a good cigar......

Me too Senders but you won't find a good one there {go to St Martin for Cubans}

     3 Lousy Cigar shops?-lol! Not a single grocery-not one retail store opened under flop Metrograft. Will be reporting soon on yet another shop closing downtown. Death Ray has done a job-closing every small business and replacing them with governmental gin mills. That never open.

What is the gazette giving out 'free advertisement' for businesses now? No wonder they are going down the tubes!