Wow... As a retailer they should know the more time they keep you there the more chance they have to sell to you. The real challenge is to get you into their store and get you to come back.
B&M charging money to test juice ?
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Mixed feelings about free samples. Big box store sams club has free samples but wine tasting here in ny is not free. All wineries charge for testing and they get zero complaints for charging a fee. And a bottle of wine in most cases is much cheaper than a bottle of ecig juice per ml
I've only used two local b&m. There are about maybe 5+ within a short drive from me. And quite a few within the metro area I live. I've sampled juices in one of them twice. They use pre soaked cartos, which both times I went in it was near of the day so that meant lots of crappy tasting cartos, carto tanks or clearos are a much better idea. Usually I would order something I like and then sample a few while waiting to see if I should get something different next time. I ordered online from the same vendor even though they are local to me and they sent me a sample bottle of their "heavens nectar" something I wouldn't have tried on my own but I liked it quite a bit. Also I found I liked their pb cookie from tasting in their store another flavor I probably would not have purchased otherwise. When I and a good chunk of people sample we take 1-3 drags to really get a feel for the flavor. If after 3 decent pulls you don't know if you like it, well I dunno... But I have seen people come in and camp on a flavor for sometime, or come in try multiple and buy nothing. Now if the juice isn't any good I get it. But it can get annoying when a place is packed and people go overboard on the samples. No samples wouldn't be a deal breaker for me. Vixen vapor, the plume room and velvet cloud vapor all sent me free sample bottles with my order which is always nice though.
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If you didn't mention the store name just to make sure we stay on the topic you intended, I understand. However the only B&M with 2 locations I know of in the ATL area is Vape Rite and I see no reason to avoid saying the name. I have tasted juice they already have in cartos for free. I don't know the whole story for charging but I know they have bottles full of juice that appear almost the same as the ones you would see in a bar with the attachments to measure shots. I haven't asked but I assume the charging thing has something to do with that since I read about a place (I think in NYC) that sells it straight form bottle to tank.
As far as your intended topic - I have nothing against charging for sampling if it is a credit towards what you end up buying. Some humans will abuse anything if given the chance.
My take on it is if your charging $15 for a 15 ml bottle of juice then you need to have samples available. It's their business though and they can choose not to do that. I personally would walk without spending a dime in there. I was at one last night and I tried about 60 different flavors. I bought one bottle and asst extras. This particular store did a booming business last night.
The closest B&M here limits sampling to 5 flavors (as per their sign), but I've never seen them actually tell someone no. It's more so to keep others from sitting there all day and vaping for free. A few weeks back I sat there for just 10-12 minutes, vaped about 8 flavors and bought a new drip tip as the ones I tried just weren't for me.
They didn't stop me at 5 and no one raised an eyebrow when I asked about 3 others. I can understand limits, but charging, no so much. I guess I could if I was sitting there wanting to vape through a few ML's, but with what appears to be 50/50, it'd take me more than 10-12 to vape that much in one sitting, plus there's only so much room, so I tend to think about others. If I see others hovering and it's a full bar, I'll get up and just browse around.
That said, the local B&M went from cartos to EVOD's and I'm not a bit fan of the draw on EVODS. Couple that with the fact that they use higher resistance heads in them and I just don't get the flavor I would from my Protank rebuilds w/cotton so what could be good, I never really buy based on what I taste at the bar.
When it comes to B&M's, I normally have to rely on sense of smell over taste since I know it's going to taste very different once I get home and vape.
They didn't stop me at 5 and no one raised an eyebrow when I asked about 3 others. I can understand limits, but charging, no so much. I guess I could if I was sitting there wanting to vape through a few ML's, but with what appears to be 50/50, it'd take me more than 10-12 to vape that much in one sitting, plus there's only so much room, so I tend to think about others. If I see others hovering and it's a full bar, I'll get up and just browse around.
That said, the local B&M went from cartos to EVOD's and I'm not a bit fan of the draw on EVODS. Couple that with the fact that they use higher resistance heads in them and I just don't get the flavor I would from my Protank rebuilds w/cotton so what could be good, I never really buy based on what I taste at the bar.
When it comes to B&M's, I normally have to rely on sense of smell over taste since I know it's going to taste very different once I get home and vape.
Seems to be a bad business practice to me. From the OP it seems they produce their own juices. Considering how dirt cheap it is in materials the amount they would gain from just a single purchase is going to far outweigh the .5ml they gave away in testing. Seems to be greedy and is going to cost them far more in potential customers than they will gain.
There's one shop here that does the same thing - after 5 or 6 samples, they're supposed to charge a quarter for 3 more samples. I've never been charged, probably since I've always bought something.
Seems odd to me. Half the power of being a retail vendor is the impulse purchase and it is unclear to me how that impulse is created if you don't let prospective customers try the product. Particularly if you are dealing with a large variety of high end products. How could you demonstrate that one device is superior over another if you don't have a sample to demonstrate that with? Maybe they are struggling financially and are cutting corners in a last ditch effort to stay alive? Is this purely anecdote or are there signs up to this effect? Maybe they pegged your friend as a mooch?
I'm thinking of some people I know who would spend their day somewhere "sampling" and NEVER buy anything.
You may not know their situation, it could be a "policy" that gets easily waved to discourage problem leeches.
If you don't have the policy for everyone it's difficult to single someone out other than to simply kick them out (which can open up a can of worms depending on some factors).
I wouldn't pay to sample (but then I DIY and don't sample because I won't buy).
You may not know their situation, it could be a "policy" that gets easily waved to discourage problem leeches.
If you don't have the policy for everyone it's difficult to single someone out other than to simply kick them out (which can open up a can of worms depending on some factors).
I wouldn't pay to sample (but then I DIY and don't sample because I won't buy).
It does seem (at least from a standard consumer/business point of view) a little bit counter-intuitive and depending on how they phrase it, it could come across as adversarial or confrontational to their customers.
Then again, "free samples" are two separate words that while they commonly occur together, can be used alone and in that case, a "sampling fee" is.... well, it kind of sucks, but it's their call. Just like it would be the customer's call to say "well, I actually WAS curious about this particular liquid, but without tasting it, I'll keep my money".
In the few B&M's that I've visited, they've had a "menu" of samples, clearos/carto-tanks filled with each, and disposable tips. I wouldn't imagine taking more than 3-4 drags on something that I was tasting/testing in order to fully make up my mind. If it was a "no", then a swig of water, wait a few minutes, and try the next candidate. My tests never involved more than 4 or 5 flavors, so I don't believe that I was abusing their hospitality.
Perhaps this particular vendor had personal experience of customers who chain-vaped their way through an entire sample and then moved on to another? Or do they have a membership that they are attempting to leverage/encourage customers to join for the benefit of "no cost sampling"?
I understand and respect a business owner's desire to maintain profitability and to contain costs/loss, but samples, especially complimentary samples could/should pay for themselves if their offerings are any good.
Then again, "free samples" are two separate words that while they commonly occur together, can be used alone and in that case, a "sampling fee" is.... well, it kind of sucks, but it's their call. Just like it would be the customer's call to say "well, I actually WAS curious about this particular liquid, but without tasting it, I'll keep my money".
In the few B&M's that I've visited, they've had a "menu" of samples, clearos/carto-tanks filled with each, and disposable tips. I wouldn't imagine taking more than 3-4 drags on something that I was tasting/testing in order to fully make up my mind. If it was a "no", then a swig of water, wait a few minutes, and try the next candidate. My tests never involved more than 4 or 5 flavors, so I don't believe that I was abusing their hospitality.
Perhaps this particular vendor had personal experience of customers who chain-vaped their way through an entire sample and then moved on to another? Or do they have a membership that they are attempting to leverage/encourage customers to join for the benefit of "no cost sampling"?
I understand and respect a business owner's desire to maintain profitability and to contain costs/loss, but samples, especially complimentary samples could/should pay for themselves if their offerings are any good.
I think this could be somewhat discouraged by using 0mg samples. Many of us vape at least in part because we're looking to satisfy a nicotine craving. If the samples don't do that, then the sampler has to either purchase or use his/her own juice to satisfy the craving. (If grocery stores could give out flavor samples that lacked calories and nutrition, allowing customers flavor without hunger satisfaction, you can bet good money they would.)
I also suspect that the percentage of people who would sample vape juice all day without buying anything tends to be lower than the percentage of people who might impulse buy something they enjoyed while sampling.
You know, I can understand that logic (sampling but never buying).
Back in the late 90's, I worked at Media Play (closest thing comparable today would be Best Buy). I was in the music department. We had a plastic shrink wrap machine, so we'd let people open CDs and listen to them at our music kiosk. We had a four discman (hah!) "testing" center.
This was during the No Limit record label era. We'd have people come up with a No Limit album and listen to the entire single thing, then leave without buying anything. This happened repeatedly on a daily basis. So we had to stop that feature. All because of No Limit.
Back in the late 90's, I worked at Media Play (closest thing comparable today would be Best Buy). I was in the music department. We had a plastic shrink wrap machine, so we'd let people open CDs and listen to them at our music kiosk. We had a four discman (hah!) "testing" center.
This was during the No Limit record label era. We'd have people come up with a No Limit album and listen to the entire single thing, then leave without buying anything. This happened repeatedly on a daily basis. So we had to stop that feature. All because of No Limit.
Okay, so does this change anything.
Out of curiosity I did a search thinking an Atlanta area vape shop charging for sampling would be something I'd find info on since so many stores here DON'T do it.
What I found was Vape Rite has a bar (as I mentioned earlier) with many flavors, strengths and pg/vg ratios. You can mix your own, as in combining multiple flavors. They charge $1 for a cartomizer to test your mix without filling one of your own.
Information under the second section called "The Vape Bar". VAPERITE ATLANTA | Organic Flavored E-Liquid and Atlanta's Original Vape Bar!
So two questions come to mind. Does this make a difference in your opinion?
Second - these people sell liquid online. If you heard an online retailer charged for samples in their B&M location (in both the initial way discussed here and the way they advertise on their site) would you choose not to order?
Out of curiosity I did a search thinking an Atlanta area vape shop charging for sampling would be something I'd find info on since so many stores here DON'T do it.
What I found was Vape Rite has a bar (as I mentioned earlier) with many flavors, strengths and pg/vg ratios. You can mix your own, as in combining multiple flavors. They charge $1 for a cartomizer to test your mix without filling one of your own.
Information under the second section called "The Vape Bar". VAPERITE ATLANTA | Organic Flavored E-Liquid and Atlanta's Original Vape Bar!
So two questions come to mind. Does this make a difference in your opinion?
Second - these people sell liquid online. If you heard an online retailer charged for samples in their B&M location (in both the initial way discussed here and the way they advertise on their site) would you choose not to order?
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