New high-end cigar store trend?

[Black Plague]

Just curious if anyone else is noticing this trend in their area...

Where I live, in the Southern Indiana/Louisville KY Metro area (popularly called "Kentuckiana" by us locals), I've noticed a growth in cigar stores in just the last few years, despite smoking bans on both sides of the river.

But not just any cigar stores...rather than boxes of the same old, same old General Cigar and Altadis products, they all focus on the smaller, boutique brands, like Tatuaje, Illusione, Don Pepin, etc.

http://www.billowshop.com/ - Billow, in my home city of New Albany
http://www.jshepherdcigars.com/ - J. Shepherd in Louisville, KY
http://riversidecigars.com/ - Riverside Cigar Shop in Jeffersonville, IN

I actually just discovered Riverside and stopped by on my way home from work the other day. The one thing I noticed about all these shops was the one exception to otherwise very new brands were the presence of Fuente and Padron products on the shelves, being the only older, large market brands there. The owner lady of Riverside explained to me that she preferred to focus on independent and "family-owned" brands, rather than the big conglomerate-owned ones, hence why Fuente and Padron were present. I must admit I really liked that approach to stocking their shelves.

Sure, some of it is just trendy crap (*cough*Room 101*cough*), but having that focus on the higher end really sets them apart from the older, more established shops in town. And at least on the Indiana side, they all have really nice smoking lounges as well. Billow, the one in New Albany, also has a whisk(e)y bar and adjoins a coffee shop called Quills that the same folks own. Guess that helps pay the bills in slower smoking months of winter.

(Kentucky bans indoor smoking, even in cigar stores...which even my wife, who hates smoking, thinks is retarded)

Has anyone else seen this trend in recent years? I have to admit I rather like it!