Why are B&M's outrageously expensive?

[Submarine123]

So I just purchased some new vertical OCC's from MFS for $15, shipping and all. If it was a local B&M, it'd have been $25. I purchased a KBOX from VaporBeast for $18 - at a local B&M, it was $50, just for the mod.

This is pretty outrageous, and no wonder why B&M's struggle.

If a B&M is getting their products directly from the brands themselves, then there should be no real reason for such a mark up. Sure, businesses can mark up prices in order to keep a certain client base (like a gourmet restaurant) but vaping isn't a posh hobby, and you make just as much money selling more products cheaper, rather than just a few at a ridiculous price.

I'm one of those many people who'd shop at a B&M every day if the prices were anywhere near sensible. And if a shop sells 50 coils a day at $5 each, or 100 a day for $3 each, isn't that the same money earned? If the products were cheaper, yes, many, many more people would be buying in-shop per day, there's no possible argument there.

And if you have more people coming in for cheap coils, then they naturally spot other things to buy.

But the prices are so insane that people far and wide know it's easier and much cheaper to order online. It even saves gas money and gets you the latest gear. There's no sense in a local B&M charging $5 for an old OCC when MFS has the new ones for $3 each, free shipping with coupon.

And juice! It takes probably 50 cents to make a 30ml bottle that sells for $20-30! Even the sloppy old local brews cost this much! You can't possibly get by doing that - I swore off buying that stuff, I'm positive that I can be happy with something or other from Ohm's Vapes, The Grind, or Charlie Noble for $15-35 per 120ml.

I understand shops have to make money, pay taxes, and pay rent, but as someone who has a bit experience in real estate when comes to shopping centers, these B&M's could save a good couple grand or so by stopping and thinking "Hey, we don't have to rent the building that is plated with gold and diamonds, vaping is a dedicated hobby, people will come to the older, cheaper building down the road, all the same."

You also don't need a shop the size of Walmart to host a juice counter. I walk into many shops and see 3/4th's of the place empty and barren. You could let another business (coffee bar or whatever) co-rent and save a ton, or just find a smaller space.

It's just ridiculous that we have to pay such ridiculous prices. And the B&M's are supposed to be the places that attract new vapers! I for one enjoy the experience of a local shop, it's part of the community and magic, but these shops are really destroying that, and I think some of them need to start trying to make a difference.

 

[Alien Traveler]

I feel no need in B&M. And I do not understand why should I "support local business" if business sucks.

 

[Jdurand]

I have found if you build a relationship with a good B&M they will do what they can to keep your business. Now if you just go in and have never patronized them before and say "hey, I can get this way cheaper on the internet" and convince them they are trying to rip you off, they won't help you.

 

[Jdurand]

I feel no need in B&M. And I do not understand why should I "support local business" if business sucks.

And this is why most local business sucks. No loyalty or relationship built. Where is the humanity anymore.....geeesh
Go click a button and then ask that button for help or to get you out of a bind if you accidentally run out of something.......GRRRRRR

 

[alicewonderland]

some B&M's are good. I find the little new shops with poor management usually cost higher because they have so little customers... therefore they have to try to makeup for the overhead costs by charging an arm and a leg for the few customers they get. One of my favorites recently is planetofthevapes, they are located in my area and they seem to be popular with super friendly employees. Given some online vendors do lots of sales just to get rid of stock - some of the stuff costs a bunch, but they also have prices equal to online prices. They also sell coils for my arctic tank a pack of 5 for 20$ - which is basically the same thing for me if I buy it online (would end up to like 15$+shipping so around 18-20$ anyways), but I think mainly you can tell by B&M's pricing how good or bad of a B&M they are, if their prices are high then they dont really have many customers and rely on the major profit off of few sales of unsuspecting customers. If they are good B&M they usually have a lot of customers and therefore can sell stuff at lower costs. This is just all speculation but this is usually the correlation I have seen between the B&M's I have been to.

I usually just frequent B&M's where you can tell the employees are advocates of vaping, they help you a ton and are friendly with information. I refuse to give my money to lazy B&M's with poor management and lazy unhelpful employees. I've been to a couple of crap B&M's and never went back, but I dont mind paying a few bucks extra to B&M's that earn my business with help, friendliness, and the shared love for vaping. +benefit is you get what you want right when you need it and dont have to wait for shipping (which sometimes shipping cost is the difference in cost of getting it at the B&M compared to online anyway, some shipping is like 3.50$-7.50$ for me).

 

[Baditude]

You have to consider the amount of inventory a small business must maintain. The manager must be able to predict future trends as well as maintain supplies for beginner vapers. Chinese manufacturers are not the most reliable in producing and shipping their products, and many also do not have a dependable warranty. Then consider the operating costs of rent, insurance, utilities, and salaries. It gets pretty expensive to operate a new business.

I worked for a higher end vape shop in 2014, and please believe me this is not an easy business to operate and maintain. I loved what I did by educating new vapers in how to quit smoking, but the business end of a vape shop is something else. When I first started we were one of two shops in town. Almost a year later and there were twenty in town competing for customers.

Where vape shops can shine is:

• Having a juice tasting station to taste a flavor prior to purchase. How many of us have wasted money online on a flavor solely based on a name or description only to find out it sucks?

• Being able to actually see and hold a piece of gear that you are interested in?

• Being able to hold a conversation with a knowledgeable sales person about how one product compares to another. Or if we are having issues how we can alleviate them. I wish I had a dime for every customer who came into the shop saying, "My tank leaks."

• Holding vape meets to meet other vapers and promote the vaping community, and holding contests to win free juice or gear, vaping contests, etc.

• A place to learn rebuilding skills. Or if you're not into building your own coils but still want to use one, a place where you can pay a reasonable amount for the staff to build your coil for you.

 

[Steamix]

B&M's have much higher overheads than online shops operating out the middle of nowhere. So they do need to ask more.
And of course, there's B&M's that are tryin' to cash in on the quick trend, with the sole aim of making as much money as fast as possible.
Local B&M steered me towards China and decent online vendors real quick; asking 12 bucks for a single CE4 clearo
But there's also rip-off artists on the web as well. Seen sites offering starter kits ( CE4 or CE 5 plus USB-Charger plus 650 mAh battery in a pouch ) for a whopping 99.95 ...
And cuz they loves you so much, they even toss in 10ml free liquid of your choice ... Gimme a break.

That's why this and other vaping forums are important. Separate the wheat from the chaff supplywise.

It does take a lot of reading sometimes, but I do recommend that new vapers gather information on whatever they've set their eyes on. Forum here, youtube, there isn't a piece of hardware that hasn't been reviewed and discussed thoroughly. And by doing so you also get a ballpark figure of what would constitute a fair price. All of that could make the difference between a purchase you're happy with or a waste of your hard-earned $$$...

Vape on and - vape with wisdom

 

[jseah]

Another thing to consider is quantity discounts that the seller, whether it be a B&M or an online retailer, may get from the manufacturer. An online retailer will have a wider customer base, so they can negotiate better wholesale prices by buying 100 mods, or even 200 at a time. A B&M's customer base will be customers local to them, so they may only purchase 5 or 10 of the same mod at one time. For example, the B&M that I frequent sells the SX Mini (I purchased mine there) and they sell it for the same price that other online sellers are asking ($200). Including the one that I purchased, I believe they only sold 3 or 4 of them. I doubt they ordered much more than 10 of them on an initial purchase. They do charge more for the iStick 30 ($50) because the price, while higher than online, is still fairly reasonable, and it was a popular mod.

That said, I still do business with them because while their prices are a bit higher for many items, for the stuff that I am buying I don't mind spending $5 or $10 more than online and doing business there does build up goodwill. Of course I also have to tack on 8.25% sales tax on top of the price, but the B&M rebates the sales tax as rewards points that can be redeemed for future purchases. The store will also rebuild coils for me for free (they normally do charge $5 for a coil) and they will provide me with support even on gear that I didn't purchase from them. I might only go there maybe once a month or a month and a half, but when I do go there I will spend at least $100 to purchase juice or some coils.

 

[Stratsworth]

One word, which I'm sure has been mentioned numerous times already: Overhead.

I routinely order from small dealers that are most likely run by only the sole proprietor. You can really undercut the competition when you're simply running a website and possibly utilizing options such as drop-shipping.

Contrast that with a B&M who needs to lease a building (my local B&M is probably 25k a month), hire a staff, stock inventory... It's a totally different beast. With exponentially higher overhead there will be huge mark-ups.

For hardware (mods, batteries, tanks) I purchase online due to the cheap prices, but most of my juice and the occasional incidental will come from a local shop that I support. I may be paying a bit more, but I like the people, the atmosphere, the occasional free stuff, etc. This was a huge advantage when I started vaping, as I was able to experiment and ask questions. I could also drive up the street when I got a bum coil or a bad charger and swap them for a new one, no questions asked. There are benefits to having a good relationship with a B&M who needs the locals.

 

[Thrasher]

I call BS on most of these explanations, they know for a fact, if 90% of their customers knew it was cheaper somewhere else, they wouldnt be standing there in the first place, asking -so what does wattage do again, wow I guess $30 for a 5 pack of heads would save me money.

Goes back to the $2000 bucks a gallon people are paying for juice- 15 bucks at a time.
I deal with all kinds of b&m non vape related that have no problem turning a profit without charging 2-3x what it costs.

And also 3/4 of our online shops ARE b&m's madvapes is doing ok, so is smoketek (around the corner from me) and many others.heck how about all the sales at vapenw and codevapes. These stores dont seem to need to stab your wallet.

To most vape shops people walk in with a vuse in their hand and they think "jackpot"

 

[Bad Ninja]

Top of the line go daddy website with shopping cart and CCportal and all the bells and whistles
$495 per year.

Rent on a half decent commercial store before buildout and lisc/permits, insurance, or utility bills. Just rent
Averages about $5-per sq FT, per month.


The overhead of renting a shop
Alone shows you why a B&M cannot compete with the prices of an online retailer.

 

[edyle]

Online shopping is going to keep growing.
This isn't really about vape gear; it's more about online shopping compared to storeshelf shopping.

Over time, 'b&m' places are just becoming temporary shelf space for fast moving product.
Specialised products are better sold online

 

[Vaslovik]

B&M's have a huge overhead, payroll, rent on commercial space, insurance etc, so I understand why they mark stuff up the way they do, and that's not my issue with them. My issue with them is that they don't have what I want. They cater to the herd, and I'm not one of the herd. B&M's here can only talk box mods and drippers. I don't use either one, so I haven't much use for the B&M's here, which is fine since I can just order what I want online.

If I want mesh no B&M carries it, and precious few have kanthal. Of course no B&M is going to sell you the stuff to make your own juice as I do, they want to sell you their juice, so again, I have no use for the B&M's, because what I make at home is better than anything I ever got from them and they aren't going to undercut their own market by promoting DIY.

By and large they don't sell gennies either, though sometimes I get lucky and find the one they've had for a couple years that didn't sell. Pretty much everything they have in these parts is a clone anyway, and if I'm going to spend the kind of money they mark stuff up to I'd rather have the real item. So the only remaining reasons I have to go into a B&M are to socialize with other vapers, and find drip tips.

 

[Stinkytofus]

for convenience, B&M wins always, short on juice? forgot juice? only mod broke? look for nearest b&m, price wise most of the time they are more expensive
online you pay cheaper, if you can wait...but you gota wait 2-30 days

 

[Rabbit Slayer]

IMHO most of them just prey on unknowing people and try to squeeze the most money out of them before they learn enough to know they're getting ripped off. I would stick to shops that have been around for over a year at least

 

[DoctorJ]

To most vape shops people walk in with a vuse in their hand and they think "jackpot"

BINGO! That's one reason why vape shops are so expensive. Greedy owners trying to make a quick buck in a growing market! A friend of mine walked into a local vape shop (before consulting me) and the owner took her to the cleaners. He sold her a beginner kit and a few bottles of juice for $75. When she told me she had purchased a vape set up and showed me what she had and told me what she paid, I wanted to go punch the shop owner in the face. I went online and priced out everything she got and found every bit of it for $45!

I live in a rural area of VA and the biggest town near me recently got 2 vape shops within the past year. I visited both, hung out for a bit, talked to the owners and clientele. First of all, you were a cast out if you were still using anything other than a mech mod and vaping high VG, basically cloud chasers. Most of the customers that came in and hung around were there to show off their mods and blow clouds trying to impress each other. One shop was strictly vaping and the other was a tobacco outlet that added a vape bar. Both places prices were outrageous and both places focused on selling high end mods with a few clones here and there. Neither catered to the "non mech mod" users. They had very little to offer someone like myself. Every time I would go to hang out and try to meet some like minded people, the owners or staff would take a big pull from their mech mod, blow a huge cloud of vapor my way and hint that my set up was outdated and try to sell me a mech mod. I politely declined until one clerk pretty much told me, in not so many words that I was not worth his time to talk to about vaping. So pretty much, that ran me off from the local shops, besides their high prices.

 

[Aadavis94]

I like the local B&M where I live bc they are very nice. They have answered all my questions. Pointed me out to some awesome juice and gear and always have what I want. Plus if I let's say burn out my coil and I'm in town without any extras I can go in and grab one. Plus I don't like having to wait for my new gear.
Oh and they also have beer on tap and a decent food menu.

 

[jbok]

I can remember the first time I realized that my B&M was bending me over; I had just bought a Vision Spinner ll for $45. When I got home I decided to see what they were going for online and BAM!! $25 I was soo ...... at myself for not doing my research. Now I will scan though 5-6 online retailers before I pull the trigger on anything.

 

[suprtrkr]

Because they are B&Ms. Ever rented any retail space in a mall or strip center? This is not cheap. You also have to either work 12-18 hours a day to keep the store open or hire somebody to do it for you. An online retailer can check their website and eBay once or twice a day, make one trip to the post office and that's it.

 

[Thedudeabides870]

Wow, everyone must have Local shops that are just terrible. All of our local shops are nowhere near the horror stories that have been described. Very helpful and prices are only a few dollars above online.