Yes, I can't tell you how akward and uncomfortable I feel in *some* vape shops.
I'm not a prude by any means but I'm not a fan either of having the clerk suggest something like "My wifes last orgasm" e-liquid or something along those lines. But what I've also learned from my
vaping experience is that I do not judge the clerk by his appearance. We found a vape shop (2 actually) out in the sticks one day on our 150 mile trek home and stopped in at them.
At the first shop there was one clerk, a big heavy set man with tatoos covering the vast majority of exposed skin, including some on his face. I was about to do an about face upon first glancing on him through the door but decided to take a chance. Turned out this guy was like a giant teddy bear, nice as could be, didn't talk "gangsta" and was so full of knowledge. He was thrilled with
vaping and wanted to turn everybody onto it. He even let us vape on his own personal device (using our own drip tips of course) so that we could experience truer flavors to the liquids as he replaced the wick and burned off the coil between changing flavors for us (of course we could have used the sample atomizers too).
The second store that we found was also full of rough looking characters but they couldn't have been nicer. They took their time to answer all the questions we came up with and there was never any pressure. However there is one store that is local to us that we just feel uncomfortable going into as every time that we have tried to visit there the place is like a fog machine is running. The shop is very very hot and there is no fan to blow the fog around. The people behind the counter seem nice enough although they lack patience. It's just very uncomfortable for me to go into a vape shop that is thick in vapor. I'm seriously not talking about a little vapor hanging around but when you walk into a shop and literally it's like they have a Hollywood film style fog machine going off, that's how thick the vapor is, that just makes me uncomfortable.
I much prefer going into a shop that is clean, has the AC on and maybe a fan as well to help disperse the vapor from the customers a bit better. There is one in our town called Vape On (no website, but I think they have a facebook page) that is all that... knowledgeable family, friendly, decent enough prices for a B&M store, and never has it ever been a fog machine style store inside. I love this lady's store and I feel comfortable enough to sit on one of the bar stools and idle away the hours talking with her, her husband and or their son.
I went to a new (new to me) store a few miles away a couple weekends ago to pick up an RSST that they had listed on their website for something like $10 and when I produced a printout of the page on their website showing the price the clerk came back with one and said it was their last one, take a look at it. I looked briefly and bought it. I got home, took it out of the box and found out that it had been used, as there was still a couple drops of liquid in the tank and on the bottom plate that holds the tank. That made me feel really uncomfortable to know that they'd sell me a used atomizer without saying it was such. My guess is that they didn't want to honor their own website price so they sold me a return. Being that I was new to Genesis style tanks I didn't know what to look for, the rolled up steel mesh wick already inserted should have been a dead give away but I figured they must all come like that. Live and learn. Into the vodka bath with all of it and then a wipe down with rubbing alcohol just for good measure. Won't be returning to that store... EVER.
I usually only feel awkward when the clerk treats me as if I'm a fifth grader when I ask questions. When they treat me like that I treat them to my closed wallet and wait until I am near home to go to my favorite store even if I'm going to pay more. If I ask a newbie question it's because I don't know the answer and I don't want to be treated like a 5 year old with their response. So, usually though I just feel uncomfortable in *some* stores but I've felt a bit awkward in some other stores where the clerks lack patience or want to treat a newbie to something to do with
vaping as a 5 year old.
Anyway, can't judge the book by the cover as I've seen at those two stores that we found out in the sticks.
Oh and my favorite vape shop nearby doesn't charge anything to rebuild atomizers. The shop down the street from them that is full of fog said they charge $5 per rebuild, and that's just the coil, if you have a Genesis and need a new stainless steel mesh they charge extra for that. The favorite shop just considers it part of doing business I suppose and customer goodwill and all that. Not that I need them to rebuild my RSST, I can do that, but I've been in there when I was having problems with my build and they just asked if I minded if they simply rebuild it instead of trying to figure out why it was having problems. No charge. I know it's a small thing, as the wire to do it couldn't cost more than a few pennies for them but it's the little things like this that will keep me going back to her to buy my liquids and when I get ready to buy a Provari it's her shop that I'll go to.
ecf has better info than most vape shops and more reviews of online vendors. Online buying is usually much cheaper than a B&M
