After doing a lot of research into e-cigarettes, I'm starting to wonder if buying devices wholesale and a) either reselling them to local businesses, ie gas stations and other retailers, or b) opening a mall kiosk to sell the devices might be the way to go here.
I'm currently in central Illinois, and we have a state-wide smoking ban. As I'm sure the other states' bans are worded, the Illinois ban is very specific to tobacco products and therefore e-cigs are allowed. I'm in a college town so there are a lot of people with disposable income (daddy's money) and a fairly active bar scene.
I've contacted about 6-7 different wholesalers so far, including Smoking Everywhere, Blu, GreenSmoke, and Cloud9 about their wholesale prices and programs, and most of the starter kits wholesale for about 35-45% of the retail price, allowing for a decent markup.
I really think I can take advantage of the smoking ban and push the idea of being able to use this product in the bars, at work, etc. There's also a headquarters for a very large company here in town (they probably employ about 5-6k) who's campus is about to go completely smoke-free as of Jan 1st.
A woman at the mall who handles the vendors says she's heard of e-cigarettes and one or two of their company's malls out on the east coast has some kiosks selling them and they do pretty well, and she's amazed no one hasn't set one up yet. Literally nowhere in town can you find these devices... yet.
Just wondering if anyone has looked into, or actually pulled the trigger, on selling e-cigs. I'd like to personally test each different company's devices, but if anyone here has input on which e-cigs are better than others, better customer service, etc to help me decide which products I would carry, that would be great.
I'm currently in central Illinois, and we have a state-wide smoking ban. As I'm sure the other states' bans are worded, the Illinois ban is very specific to tobacco products and therefore e-cigs are allowed. I'm in a college town so there are a lot of people with disposable income (daddy's money) and a fairly active bar scene.
I've contacted about 6-7 different wholesalers so far, including Smoking Everywhere, Blu, GreenSmoke, and Cloud9 about their wholesale prices and programs, and most of the starter kits wholesale for about 35-45% of the retail price, allowing for a decent markup.
I really think I can take advantage of the smoking ban and push the idea of being able to use this product in the bars, at work, etc. There's also a headquarters for a very large company here in town (they probably employ about 5-6k) who's campus is about to go completely smoke-free as of Jan 1st.
A woman at the mall who handles the vendors says she's heard of e-cigarettes and one or two of their company's malls out on the east coast has some kiosks selling them and they do pretty well, and she's amazed no one hasn't set one up yet. Literally nowhere in town can you find these devices... yet.
Just wondering if anyone has looked into, or actually pulled the trigger, on selling e-cigs. I'd like to personally test each different company's devices, but if anyone here has input on which e-cigs are better than others, better customer service, etc to help me decide which products I would carry, that would be great.
