B&M charging money to test juice ?
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I'm guessing poor management hiring poor employes. We have two B&M's here now, both the same company, different management. They have one employee that goes between both stores and he's terrible. When one of his buddies comes in they sit down and hog the vapebar. Can't get his attention if you set the joint on fire.
Then a couple more friends will come in and join him in the back room mixing up different juices to their liking. I was in there yesterday and the manager was going nuts about how much sample juice had been used. I was going to say something and then I realized it was her son.
Too bad, he will ruin her business if she doesn't get rid of him. In this case I could see a manager either stopping the sample or charging and not having enough sense to realize it's the employees she needs to worry about, not the customers.
I saw the same thing years ago in the bar business, you can't tell someone their blood relative or close friend is the one ripping them off, they just won't listen.
Then a couple more friends will come in and join him in the back room mixing up different juices to their liking. I was in there yesterday and the manager was going nuts about how much sample juice had been used. I was going to say something and then I realized it was her son.
Too bad, he will ruin her business if she doesn't get rid of him. In this case I could see a manager either stopping the sample or charging and not having enough sense to realize it's the employees she needs to worry about, not the customers.
I saw the same thing years ago in the bar business, you can't tell someone their blood relative or close friend is the one ripping them off, they just won't listen.
You're probably better off going the DIY route, anyway. That way you can make your juice exactly to your taste. I have a ton of juices that I'm not thrilled with...lolGotta say, I'm really jealous you guys. In my country, the shop that I went to don't even have vapebar whatsoever to let I try juice at all, just buy it or leave it, and AFAIK the juice selection just dekang or hangsen
Buy from other country and DIY is the way to go for me.
Well, you have to give the owners of that B&M points for having the balls to charge for samples, especially given what B&M's charge for juice! It's a short term plus for the owner but a long term negative since it will ultimately drive customers away.
Maybe that's why they don't send everybody free samples. They don't want you to know.
The amount of money gained vs the amount of money used for sampling makes it a no brainer. Set up a free juice bar for your customers. I will generally take 2 or 3 pulls out of a flavor and probably try about 10 flavors before I make a choice. Sometimes I will buy 3 bottles, sometimes 1. I have probably sunk about 200-250 into buying juices from my favorite B&M. I can pretty much assume that I have only consumed about 1 dollar at most of their testers. I went to a store that had 10% of their flavors available to test. Now all the ones I thought sounded good were not set up for testing. I left without ever coming back.
My wife's bff from SF came down to visit. She spent about 20 mins at the juice bar and tried about 60 different flavors. She walked out buying a bottle of every Villain Vapor flavor they had. I think it was about 10 bottles. And on her next trip down, she bought 2 bottles each of her 3 favorite flavors. And she frequently asks me to to pick up bottles for her to have friends bring them to her...
It just makes sense to have a juice bar set up. Sure there will be those who just want to hit and run and don't buy, but the amount of customers attracted vs the cost of the juice bar itself will drive sales up easily.
My wife's bff from SF came down to visit. She spent about 20 mins at the juice bar and tried about 60 different flavors. She walked out buying a bottle of every Villain Vapor flavor they had. I think it was about 10 bottles. And on her next trip down, she bought 2 bottles each of her 3 favorite flavors. And she frequently asks me to to pick up bottles for her to have friends bring them to her...
It just makes sense to have a juice bar set up. Sure there will be those who just want to hit and run and don't buy, but the amount of customers attracted vs the cost of the juice bar itself will drive sales up easily.
If I spend time at a juice bar, I am going to leave with juice. I look up the selections online, and go in with a plan on what to try. I try my list for that day, and buy what I want. My main B&M has a discount for buying 3 bottles at a time, so it's usually 2 tried and true, and one new one. In, and out.
Since we have more than one vape shop in the area, I'd inform the owner I was going to a shop that allows me to taste before buying.
Yeah, I have discovered, through free samples, flavors I never would have considered purchasing otherwise. And I buy them.
I think there is a difference especially in terms of cost. With online stores, the samples are usually at least 1ml and there is the additional cost of the bottles and bubble wrap etc. Additionally, usually the buyer doesn't choose the sample flavor so there is a good chance the customer won't like the flavor and the sample will not lead to an increased future sale. In a B&M the cost of providing sampling is much lower as most stores just have prefilled cartos or clears with their liquids for you to take one or two drags. There is a much higher probability of a customer finding new flavors they like if they sample 4 to 6 then if they get 1 little sample bottle in the mail. There is also the business tenet that the longer you keep a customer in the store the more they will buy of your product. And don't forget good ole guilt; if I've sampled a bunch of your juice for free, I have to buy at least one bottle.
I'm picturing the mall chinese food places and the samples of bourbon chicken on a toothpick.
I hope this is not off topic but when you have gone to stores that sample do most sample juices at 0 nic? One I went to only carried premade juice at 18 strength so that is all they had to sample. Personally, I think stores should do the samples at 0 nic to ensure no one gets higher nic than they usually or to avoid problems with attmepts by underage kids coming in, and just for liability issues.
The shop closest to my house samples 18, because the lady who owns it vapes 18
I've been in shops that do 12-18mg samples. It's not really a good choice, from a flavor perspective. For someone vaping at a lower nic level, that much nic masks the flavor.
simple marketing 101 says that with each order you give a sample write off the cost as an expense and hope to hook a % of the "samplers" on purchasing a volume of the sample juice. Just like they give out samples at Costco or Walmart or send them in the mail or anywhere else.
I was going to use wineries as an example. Some do free sampling, but others charge say $5 which goes off the bill if you buy anything.
It's an individual thing across the wine estates, and growing regions, some charge, some do not.
They look at consumption vs sales in the end to work out whether to charge or not I guess. If they are losing out or if all the other local wineries are doing it, they charge but it's used as credit towards purchases.
If during a festival they normally just sell you the glass as a souvenir. If not during a festival, most people just take the glass anyway
E: Ha ha, charge but keep the clearo would be a good idea, as who wants to use a s/h clearo anyway.
Now this would be a doable approach. It could be possibly the store owner put everything he has in to getting up and going. So hes trying to recoup some of his investment at the juice bar. Id have no problem slapping down a 10 if it was credited at my purchase.
I see the OP is in GA & i also know of a store here that charges for testing (probably the same one). I thought that was just how B&Ms did it so I guess those who have free taste testing are lucky.
edit: If it's the store I know about they are not hurting for business and they have more than 1 location so they're doing well enough to support both stores.
The store I order from online does give free samples. In fact ever store I've ordered from has given free samples. I might just be lucky though.
edit: If it's the store I know about they are not hurting for business and they have more than 1 location so they're doing well enough to support both stores.
The store I order from online does give free samples. In fact ever store I've ordered from has given free samples. I might just be lucky though.
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To be fair, we don't know the whole story here. Like some one else stated, there may have been a particular problem at this store with people constantly coming in sampling liquids without buying anything. And like Buzzzluv just stated, maybe you don't get charged for sampling if you make a purchase or 'discretion' is used by the store on an individual basis. Is this a good policy? Again, it depends upon the store's specific situation.
Coming in to try a sample doesn't obligate you to buy something. That's why they're samples. If the store had issues with the sampling, charging money won't necessarily fix the problem.
That being said, what issues could they have encountered that would make them start charging? People stealing sample clearos/cartos? If that was the case, culprits can be easily identified and warned not to come back.
I see no situation where a store owner would/should charge for samples.
That being said, what issues could they have encountered that would make them start charging? People stealing sample clearos/cartos? If that was the case, culprits can be easily identified and warned not to come back.
I see no situation where a store owner would/should charge for samples.
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