Peeved about my local vape shop

[Cearamm]

Hey guys. So here I am 3 weeks ago, looking to get a nice setup for my birthday present, right? I figure a hundred bucks shuld get me and my fiancee set up with plenty of juice and a couple ego style kits. Since I was really not sure where to start, I ventured over to the only vape house in town to get set up. Well to my surprise....they had a ton of stuff buuuuut....seemed REAL pricey.
Immediately I was like, you know I could find this stuff online for a LITTLE cheaper.

Boy was I wrong . Headed home and hopped online to shop around. Found Evod starter kits were about 35 bucks....huh?! The vape shop wanted $89.99 for a frikin Evod starter kit with no juice included.

Now trust me, I own a business and understand profit margins. But when you get Evods at wholesale for probably 20-25 bucks TOPS....you cannot and should not hawk them off to unsuspecting smokers who dont know any better and are trying to make a life saving decision for 300% profit!!! Am I out of line here? An iTaste SVD for 225? Whaaaaa?!?! Protank I for $34.95?!?

Not to mention a 5ml bottle of juice is 6 bux. And its more like 4mil in reality. Being a resourceful and internet savvy individual certainly allows me to bypass these places, but MOST average joe smokers arent going to spend countless hours researching and shopping around like I did. So they dont know any better and get ripped off big time on a product they know nothing about which may or may not work for them. Im sorry but it really peeves me. $12 for a 10mil of cheap import Chinese boring flavors?! Heck no! I just ordered 80 mil from Ahlusion for 45 bucks! Man...


Point here is...vendors: please do not manipulate and skew prices for a profit! That should be illegal.

Vapers: please DO shop around and find better prices if something is off.

Too bad its the only shop in the area . O well, vape mail here i come!

 

[JonnyB88]

Cearamm, what you need to understand is:
B&Ms have overhead. They need to pay for rent, wages, --no, I'm kidding.

300% markup on things is utterly ridiculous. And you made the smart move.

But, I really encourage you to urge LOCAL, unsuspecting/budding vapers to shop elsewhere until they change.

 

[Vicshalls]

wow i am so glad i have plenty of shops i can go to in a bind. They are all about the same price so it is all about selection. Some have more than others or just diffrent things. I still order on line to get it cheaper but if i want it now i at least have some good shops to go to.

 

[devauto]

So B&Ms do need to make a profit, that is what they are in business to do. They also have a much higher overhead cost than an online only type vendor. They do have to pay for the facility, and supplies (especially if they have a vape tasting station, tanks, coils, juices, etc.), staff wages, advertising costs, etc. AND still try to make a profit. If they happen to be the only place for 200 miles, then they can command whatever prices the market supports.

 

[Harlen]

Yep we got one shop in100 miles and they stick it to vaper's that don't know better.
For the cost of one set up and a weeks juice 150.00 and that's on sale .

 

[ConradM]

Here in Boise the market is over-saturated with Vape shops. We probably have 25 - 30 shops and this is a small city. I've been to 4 of them since I started and they're all either over priced or selling cheap knock off junk for the same price as name brand.

I'm no stranger to getting a better deal online so I wasn't to surprised.

 

[mavric]

I haven't been to a vape shop here yet that doesn't put a hefty overhead on their prices. In all honesty, it doesn't bother me now that I know about it. I support the local vape scene and want to see it grow. Once you get to know the people running it, you can sometimes get some good deals on stuff that's hard to find, like special run APVs, RBAs, etc. Plus, you can make a couple like-minded friends in the process.

 

[Tinkiegrrl]

Wow. I thought the local place by me was pricey... That's kind of crazy. I do understand about overhead. Things like rent, utilities.... I'm in factilities management, and I know those numbers. I still occasionally buy from the local place by me, despite their prices because of that. That said, there comes a point where prices can be just taking advantage, and could even be a detriment to those considering vaping as an alternative to smoking. Price was actually a detriment to me to consider vaping when those cigalikes starting hitting mall kiosks years back. That, and the few of my friends who went for it let me try, and it the technology just wasn't there yet. It would be a pity if those in your town that aren't computer savvy are priced out of this.

 

[Cearamm]

Thanks for all the replies!!

Several valid points and arguments for both sides.

Maybe this is the case simply due to the market dynamic of the area. They have a monopoly. Until the market catches up, this will be the case.

I do realize that any BM shop in any industry is 99 percent likely to have slightly higher prices to combat wages and overhead costs. This I understand. I cannot accept such insane sales tactics however.

Example: Joe Shmo decides to quit smokig. He takes that $50 he spends a week on a carton of smokes and heads to a vape shop. Damn,100 bucks just to get a setup? No way cant afford it.

Joe Shmo is now incredibly put off by this whole vaping thing and returns to smoking. Or he buys a Blu, doesnt satisfy him enough, and thinks vaping cannot be good or work well enough.

That is a very likely situation in this case, I feel.

Id buy an Evod for 45 even, just for the sake of shoppin local and supporting the community and havin the convenience factor. Heck maybe even 55....

So yea profit and overhead should not equal a 300 percent markup. I have ethical issues with this. Unless your business model is just terrible lol.

So that is my rant. Ill get off the soap box. I would love to hear any other thoughts/experiences/problems related to this!

Thanks

 

[wonner]

If you have a vape shop, you need to make money fast, because the competition is moving in fast.

Sometimes I wonder if I'm the only one around who doesn't own a shop, sell ejuice, or do YouTube reviews.

 

[Cearamm]

If you have a vape shop, you need to make money fast, because the competition is moving in fast.

Sometimes I wonder if I'm the only one around who doesn't own a shop, sell ejuice, or do YouTube reviews.

Very very interesting point which I had not considered. You are right though, as vaping catches on more and more some companies will undercut you and may even take you out of business.

Call me crazy but Id love to go to a walgreens and pick up an Ego starter kit packaged all 'Apple-ish' with tht sleek cardboard and stuff. "Mini Ego with 2 nano clearomizers and 3 blank cartos with your choice of flavor!" Lol. I feel like Blu could be a really great brand if it just stepped up to that next level. Sadly, Idoubt that will happen.

Ecigs and mainstream may find a happy marriage but right now its such a "controversial" topic. to push that far. We have made many great strides in securing our rights and also technology has made them highly efficient, but we arent *quite* there just yet. I give it 2 years

 

[MiamiMom63]

It's all about supply and demand, and competition. We had one store for awhile and they are very high dollar. Now we have a ton of stores opening up all over and their prices are much better. Of course, many of them are a little bit more expensive than online, which is understandable. And you don't really mind paying a little bit more (within reason) if you don't have to pay for shipping and can get it immediately. But if they are just way too overpriced then chances are they won't sell much, especially with the competition there is now. Plus people just don't like you if they think you are trying to rape them, and once those new stores open up and sell for cheaper, all those customers will go to the new store and never that over-priced store again. In fact, even if that over-priced store goes down on it's prices, those same vapers will always remember how wrong they were in the beginning and still probably not go back. So if you live in a small town with only one store, I would think it's a prime opportunity to open your own store there and definitely out do that real expensive store that likes raping new vapers. JMHO

 

[SimianSteam]

I'd definitely suggest you post a review to Yelp and other review sites to let local newbs know that their prices are way high.

 

[Jay-dub]

I grew up in wholesale jewelry. From us to retail the markup would be as great as 1,000%. What retail jeweler would want to buck that trend? Hopefully, this market developes in a more competative manner.

 

[MiamiMom63]

Also, vendors that started selling online and that have built up a following online prior to opening a store tend to be more reasonably priced because they are still getting a large amount of business through their website so it makes up for overhead costs. I personally don't understand how a vape shop can open up and be competitive in prices without prior having an online base of customers to supply, but I'm not a vendor. It just makes sense to me though and from what I see with the successful vendors in our area versus the non-successful ones. Some vendors get a huge part of their business online, especially the ones that are juice makers because there's a huge markup in making eliquid and selling it, which keeps the prices more reasonable for the rest of the items they sell in their store.

 

[rico942]

I have wondered why more existing B&M stores haven't added vaping gear to their inventory, and I have to assume this is more collateral damage from the intense media disinformation campaign ...

If you were the owner of a small drugstore or novelty shop, would you risk alienating much of your customer base by selling those hazardous, kid-addicting, worse-than-tobacco "electrical cigarettes", with the exploding batteries and toxic fumes ?

Sad really. A dedicated vape shop has to mark up prices to some degree, but a well established business should be able to accomodate PVs and juice easily, without gouging on prices ...

 

[zahzoo]

I believe there's another aspect at play specific to the e-cig retail business explosion...

First and foremost... there's a lot of people opening up shop who have little to no prior retail business experience. They are underfunded up front and can only position themselves for quick, short term profit just to stay a float. That's a very high risk business model...

Then there's also a lack of established whole sale and distribution infrastructure. It would appear most places are buying from alibaba, FastTech or direct from the few established manufacturer/distributors. This would explain why many local shops go through inventory fluctuations and sale items generally sell-offs on gear they have in excess.

Then there's greed...

 

[second2none]

I just don't see how someone can open a shop, pay rent, themselves a paycheck and all the other overhead and stay afloat.

I'm in an city that doesn't have a vape shop and I'm tempted, but I just can't see me not going crazy sitting there hoping someone walks in to buy juice for months on end till a clientele is built up.

 

[Jonathan Tittle]

I just don't see how someone can open a shop, pay rent, themselves a paycheck and all the other overhead and stay afloat.

Most don't, or they shouldn't, just open a shop and hope it works out. They should have financing or the funding to open up shop and be able to pay all of their costs for 6 months to a year or more (with more being preferred). It's a suicide mission to open a shop and not be able to pay for all your costs for a length of time unless you already have a following and are confident you're going to see traffic.

It's cheaper to start-up online than it is with a B&M as you have fewer upfront costs. You face similar obstacles, like getting traffic to your site and getting people to buy, but there are ways to self-market yourself and your business online that don't cost much, if anything at all.

 

[patkin]

Frankly, I lump shark B&Ms right in with BT... same motivation in my book.... and I wouldn't trust anything in the store from hardware to juice not to mention their reaction should I have a problem with what I purchased should I throw caution to the wind with an impulse buy.