At a local vape store today...
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Some brick and mortor stores I go into I say I am smoking a SQUONKER and they say what in the world is a Squonker-----hahahahhahah
Then I slide up the little door/hatch on my Smokless Owl and show what's under the hood.
Then I slide up the little door/hatch on my Smokless Owl and show what's under the hood.
I also like Old Pueblo. It's about 4 blocks from. My home.
My friend was wanting an 18650 battery for his hammer, and the person had the battery in and the hammer assembled in about 30 seconds. Very knowledgeable person behind the counter.
I know these feels. im from New Zealand and vaping isn't very big here. even the local websites are somewhat limited and a little on the pricey side. comparatively anyway. i have one local vape shop in my city. it's a pretty chilled placed where you can buy a coffee and hang out for a couple of hours and talk vaping, which i like because as i said vaping isn't very big here so any chance to chat about it and vape in peace is good. and im down for supporting a local business. however i do have a few gripes.
1. Incredibly over priced. iv seen things on fasttech or focalecig for $4.50 NZ (3.00 US) been sold for $30.00 NZ ($45 US), this particular instance was for some UD clapton wire. $10 attys for $50. or worse sigelei 150 tc for about $280 NZ were as they retail on New Zealand websites for about 1$40.00. Maybe im been unfair i understand there is a lot more cost to running a brick and mortar store. but its not like they are struggling. they are about to open a second shop. and i don't mind mark ups, even big ones if it's in the right context. for example. If i see and RDA for 70 dollars there and it's normal rrp is is 50 i don't care that im paying a markup on the RRP because im spending quite a bit already and i can get it then and there and im supporting the business. but when i see clones worth 10-15 dollars going for 50+ dollars. that irks me.
2. far to casual. I work in retail and like to do my job well. so im a stickler for customer service. Im not a bad customer who complains but i notice things and have high expectations. I like that the place is a cool, casual place to hang out. but sometimes i feel like someone decided to buy some juice and vape gear put a price on it and put a sign outside their house and if someone buys something then "sweet". and considering this shop is beneath a house in town. it's not much an exaggeration. Sometimes il quickly stop buy to get some juice while going somewhere and i have to wait like 20 minutes because they are chatting to their friends etc. or they will be serving/talking to me then suddenly stop to talk to another co worker about something important. i needed replacement coils for my herakales and couldn't find some anywhere. so i got some lemo's from there.was told they were the 40-80 watt ones. found out they are older gen and max out at 40. take them back, ask if they have any coils that are in the 80+ range, guy's sitting in an armchair chilling out, shrugs his shoulders, "nah don't think so.
i can't be bothered ranting anymore. the place is cool but it needs to up it's professionalism. it's a popular business which is growing everyday. it needs to act like it. and they need to increase their range of products and range of costs. they have few products and most of them are overpriced. They have a BBQ event this weekend with, juice tastings, giveaways, a coil workshop and a vape could/tricks comp which im very excited about. I don't hate them. I like a lot of things about the place. just a lot of room for improvement.
1. Incredibly over priced. iv seen things on fasttech or focalecig for $4.50 NZ (3.00 US) been sold for $30.00 NZ ($45 US), this particular instance was for some UD clapton wire. $10 attys for $50. or worse sigelei 150 tc for about $280 NZ were as they retail on New Zealand websites for about 1$40.00. Maybe im been unfair i understand there is a lot more cost to running a brick and mortar store. but its not like they are struggling. they are about to open a second shop. and i don't mind mark ups, even big ones if it's in the right context. for example. If i see and RDA for 70 dollars there and it's normal rrp is is 50 i don't care that im paying a markup on the RRP because im spending quite a bit already and i can get it then and there and im supporting the business. but when i see clones worth 10-15 dollars going for 50+ dollars. that irks me.
2. far to casual. I work in retail and like to do my job well. so im a stickler for customer service. Im not a bad customer who complains but i notice things and have high expectations. I like that the place is a cool, casual place to hang out. but sometimes i feel like someone decided to buy some juice and vape gear put a price on it and put a sign outside their house and if someone buys something then "sweet". and considering this shop is beneath a house in town. it's not much an exaggeration. Sometimes il quickly stop buy to get some juice while going somewhere and i have to wait like 20 minutes because they are chatting to their friends etc. or they will be serving/talking to me then suddenly stop to talk to another co worker about something important. i needed replacement coils for my herakales and couldn't find some anywhere. so i got some lemo's from there.was told they were the 40-80 watt ones. found out they are older gen and max out at 40. take them back, ask if they have any coils that are in the 80+ range, guy's sitting in an armchair chilling out, shrugs his shoulders, "nah don't think so.
i can't be bothered ranting anymore. the place is cool but it needs to up it's professionalism. it's a popular business which is growing everyday. it needs to act like it. and they need to increase their range of products and range of costs. they have few products and most of them are overpriced. They have a BBQ event this weekend with, juice tastings, giveaways, a coil workshop and a vape could/tricks comp which im very excited about. I don't hate them. I like a lot of things about the place. just a lot of room for improvement.
Maybe you could talk to the owners Privately.
Something like. I know you have overhead with paying employees, building rent, and taxes.
I don't know if you know this but Fasttech sells this RDA for $X.xx and this tank for $X.xx, this spool of Kanthal for X.xx. just thought you would like to know.
This is a way of saying I know your prices are WAY TOO HIGH without coming across too shrill.
It's funny because i was in there last week and chatting to the two very friendly staff and one of them is a bit of coil wrangler and we got talking about coils and i was telling him how i want to try more complex coils but can't be bothered building a lot of the time. he asked me, if they got sticks of coil wire like alien,clapton etc in a little tube would i buy them. which i did like the idea. then that night i came across these on focalecig focalecig.com - Kanthal A1 Alien Clapton Coiled Heating Wire for Rebuildable Atomizers (10-Pack / 118mm) -
They obviously get their stock of focalecig and probably fasttech to. when i first discovered focalecig i was stoked to finally find a cheap source with a huge range. i also figured that this is where they probably got their stock from and this has just confirmed me. They cost $3.18 US which is about $4.70 NZ. If they do get them in i wont be surprised if they are charging $30 NZ ( $20.00 US). which in my opinion is to much. $20 dollar NZ is more reasonable to me, $15 is what they should be. i would happily pay $20 without thinking twice (if i hadn't already found them on focalecig/ didn't want to wait). $25 i would pay but i would have to think about it and my wallet would feel it considering what im paying for. $30 is way to much. Just like $ 30NZ was way to much for a small clapton spool. i had only just learned about claptons at the time and had made a few messy ones myself so i was excited they had clapton in stock and wanted to try it. but i felt ripped off paying that much for a small spool of wire.then again vapings not very big in New Zealand and i live in a small city of 100,000 people. a lot of their business will come from juice and people buying basic VW mod kits,ego twists and the occasional high wattage APV. they probably don't get a huge amount of business from their RDA's,RTA's and other "advanced" vaping wares. but maybe if their prices were lower they would. they have a website and there ain't much online competition in NZ if they stocked up with a large range from fasttech with a small mark up they would do pretty well. especially in combination with their B&M store.
And yea i have been thinking about ways to get my thoughts across in a constructive manner and intend to do so. They have part time work available at the moment and if i wasn't in a full time well paying job i would love to do it. i mean there's a lot about vaping i don't know but i know more then some of the people working there and could bring a lot to the place in terms of suggestions for stock, business model and customer service. Would much rather be doing that then my current job haha.
We still don't have any Vape franchises is Australia afaik (excuse my ignorance, B&M is a franchise?) Similar to the NZ experience to a degree, boutique shops mainly. However, here in Melbourne we have half a dozen to choose from.
On the down side some have a limited selection and, of course, the higher price point you'd expect. On the up side, they offer good customer service, which I'm more than prepared to pay for. I'm certainly doing what I can to support them.
Certainly I can understand how a franchise style model could hurt the general experience, but it's important to support the good ones. For my part I've probably spent two thirds of my total vapping spend retail, only really buying online for those items I can't get locally; some juices, the odd tank and particularly most of the blending equipment.
On the down side some have a limited selection and, of course, the higher price point you'd expect. On the up side, they offer good customer service, which I'm more than prepared to pay for. I'm certainly doing what I can to support them.
Certainly I can understand how a franchise style model could hurt the general experience, but it's important to support the good ones. For my part I've probably spent two thirds of my total vapping spend retail, only really buying online for those items I can't get locally; some juices, the odd tank and particularly most of the blending equipment.
Hypothetically at least, a vape shop employee could know much less vape trivia/history/book learning and still have more practical experience. Spending lots of time on ECF isn't everything. In the case of the employee discussed by the OP, probably just a case of if you're going to have unskilled workers they can at least look good.
My main gripe with B&Ms is they just don't help me that much with the way I vape, and they seem better suited to compete among each other and the big vape crowd than new vapers. But it's more profitable.
My main gripe with B&Ms is they just don't help me that much with the way I vape, and they seem better suited to compete among each other and the big vape crowd than new vapers. But it's more profitable.
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