Business Spotlight: Just for Him specializes in men's gifts, cigars

It's probably the most masculine store in town. Then again, that's the atmosphere Bob and Judy Gravett wanted to create when they started Just For Him, a men's gift store.

The Gravetts came up with the idea for starting a gift store geared toward men after they saw a similar store while on vacation in 1989. Although the Gravetts already were running two automotive businesses located in Springfield and Joplin, they decided to open Just For Him. By 1991, they sold their other businesses and were devoting all of their attention to the store.

Located in the Fremont Shopping Center, the store originally contained only a small tobacco closet. When the cigar craze hit in the mid-1990s, the Gravetts decided to expand their selection of humidors, pipes, tobacco and cigars, and they moved Just For Him into a larger space within the Fremont Shopping Center.

Half of the store contains men's gifts while the other half contains tobacco products. According to Judy Gravett, most of the women who shop at the store frequent the gift side, while men frequent the tobacco side.

"We do allow people to smoke in the store, and there's a smoking lounge with a TV and fireplace in the back," Judy Gravett said. "We have a lot of wives who drop their husbands off here before they head off to Battlefield Mall."

Nearly all of the cigarette products carried by Just For Him are imported from Europe, which has strict regulations governing the use of additives, chemicals and preservatives. Just For Him also carries other tobacco products from all over the world, and the store has one of the largest selections of pipes in southwest Missouri.

Cigars and other tobacco products are kept in a special section of the store called The Humidor, which maintains just the right temperature and humidity to keep these products fresh.

According to the Gravetts, the store carries more than 50,000 cigars from 150 brand-name manufacturers. Customers also can find Zippo lighters, cigar cutters, pipe cleaners and other smoking accessories, as well as a large selection of humidor boxes.

To stay competitive with other tobacco specialty stores in the area, the Gravetts attend shows in Kansas City, Atlanta, Dallas and Los Angeles. The store also is a member of the Tobacco Association of America, which links members directly to tobacco suppliers.

On the gift side of the store, customers can find many specialty items, such as golf accessories, pens, desk accessories, mugs and Reploge globes, which are quite detailed. You also can find chess sets, board games, keychains, watch fobs and even a jukebox that holds up to 100 CDs.

Three full-time and two part-time employees help the Gravetts run the store, and several of the store's employees have more than 10 years of tenure. In fact, Judy Gravett, credits the employees for helping make the store such a success.

To attract customers and maintain the store's regular clientele, the Gravetts publish two catalogs each year which are mailed in bulk to residents of the Springfield area. Although mailing the catalogs is expensive, the Gravetts said they believe the money is well-spent.

"We've had enormous success with our catalog," Judy Gravett said. "We advertise on TV and in the newspaper, but I'd have to say the catalogs are our most effective form of advertising."

In 1998, the Gravetts took their business one step further when they opened an online store on the World Wide Web. Like their brick-and-mortar store, the online shop sells pipes, tobacco, cigars and gifts, and business has increased steadily since the site was launched, they said.