Kent, I'm genuinely missing your angle here. It seems like, to Less' point in his first post in this exchange, that you're in defense-mode, and it's causing you to miss the point the other side is making.
It's not putting words in you mouth to counter a point being made with "no one is saying they are anti-business", when you keep bringing up anti-business sentiment. Just as it's not putting words in you mouth to make a point like "no one is saying that these experiences are representative of ALL vape shops", when you keep making a point that these experiences are "anecdotal" and don't account for the entire working day of any given shop. Whether it's what you mean or not, these are relevant counters to the points you appear to be making.
....
I travel for work and often visit dozens of unique shops in any given month. With only a few exceptions, my experience has been one of shop owners ignoring, down-playing, and even outright denying the peril of the regs.
That could be seen as a single anecdote, because it's coming from one subject, or it could be seen as dozens of anecdotes, because it's about several subjects, but, either way, trying to assess it terms of "the whole" is irrelevant.
The point, rather, is that, given where we are right now, and what we face in the next couple months/years, letting even a SINGLE customer out the door without some awareness of the dire need for advocacy (let alone encouraged to it), is a failure of the industry to mobilize to its potential.
I made the point earlier that SFATA should encourage their member-retailers to visit a gun shop and engage the owner in a discussion about legislation.
If there is a potential law/ban on the docket, which there almost always is in any given area, every shop owner, almost without exception, will try to educate the customer and work them up to advocacy. This is how battles are won; in the grass-roots.
The gun industry has a MUCH larger user-base, a MUCH bigger lobby group, more experienced lawyers, and even a dedicated constitutional amendment on their side, but they STILL don't miss an opportunity to drum up direct-consumer support and advocacy.
The vape industry, on the other hand, lacks many of those advantages, and even the maturity to realize that the individual customers are the most important weapon they have. In many cases, that are being anecdotally reported here, customers are being left in ignorant bliss for, ostensibly, a fear that they might panic and quit or start DIYing.
In places where ammunition availability is in peril, the gun shop owners will still not only make their customers aware of it, they'll sell them a reloading press, powder, and bullets and encourage them to "DIY".
This is how battles are won.
And the vape industry is in real danger of failing to realize it until after the tactic is no longer viable.