I'm talking straight up Gas Station

[Downtown]

I've been wondering these days, now that e-cigs are starting to make a big ripple in a large sea, how easily it would be to get gas stations to start offering the QUALITY brands. Fair prices, decent sales, we all see that the internet right now has most of the e-cig market. I wanna start seeing brands like v2, v4l, joyetech, start hittin gas stations. Doesn't need to be huge at first, basic stuff, maybe a manual battery to people who are really curious. These cig-a-like brands are really pushing what buttons I have left. I wanna be able to lose a battery, stop at a local station and actually buy something RELIABLE, rather than a knock off njoy and have the battery implode into burnt juice and metal shrapnel.

Do you guys see this move happening?

Have you already seen people making this move?

If there was a time frame, how long would it take?

Could we convince companies to at least give it a try?

This is for the better of the people, and the economic value would be huge if vapers like us could locally get something if it broke, rather than waiting 3-5 business days for a new part to drop in our mailbox. Maybe a bit outlandish, but what do y'all think on this?

 

[nosaint]

There's just not enough repeat/steady business for it to be profitable for a convenience store. How many batteries do you buy a week? Assuming a battery only lasts you 6 months, there would have to be 1000's of people buying batteries. Then there's the question of which battery? Which thread style, which tank/clearo/carto etc. And don't even get started on juices, different nic levels, different flavors, multiple vendors.

This little cottage industry is perfect for the web, a national customer base, so you can have niche products and be successful.

The Blu's and Njoy's etc are severely limiting choices, which drives up volume. Their very design insures repeat business. I think there are many more users of Blu's etc. than the type of people who buy Ego's, Spinners, Provaris et. al. I say that because Blu sold for $135 million and Njoy is bigger. I don't think it would cost $135 million to buy every seller of batteries and juice in America.

 

[Downtown]

Well, that's the thing. Blu and Njoy are the kind of brands people try then HATE vaping for. I buy a few batteries, maybe 3 in the last 3 months, mostly because I have been replacing and updating and making it better. It's all about the journey, but some people get off the train as soon as they try those things. You give them a basic choice of auto or manual, same battery, same threading throughout. Don't make it complicated on flavors, tobacco, menthol, and coffee would do. Make sure they're cartos or clearos, put out the tiny bottles, 3-6ml refills of the same flavors. You LIMIT the market to what you see in a store, people will then go on the internet and see what else is out there. This small industry could bloom like crazy if people make the plunge with BETTER products at first. Some won't ever stop buying from the gas station, which keeps their income good, and some will go online, which will make their base industry blossom more.

 

[Scoop224]

Those "gas station" brands are intended (by the manufacturer) to be disposable. No way they'd want you to know the carts are refillable. Not when they can get 8-12 bucks for a three pack of carts.

My 808 batts I bought at the gas station would last anywhere from a week to a month before failing me, I must have bought 20 of them before I found ECF and got into a Mod.... 20 batts at 15 bucks a piece....and $45 a week in disposable carts....for six months.... They made a killing off of me. I just don't see them wanting to sell quality merch when the money is in the repeat customer buying junk. JMHO.

 

[Downtown]

Those "gas station" brands are intended (by the manufacturer) to be disposable. No way they'd want you to know the carts are refillable. Not when they can get 8-12 bucks for a three pack of carts.

My 808 batts I bought at the gas station would last anywhere from a week to a month before failing me, I must have bought 20 of them before I found ECF and got into a Mod.... 20 batts at 15 bucks a piece....and $45 a week in disposable carts....for six months.... They made a killing off of me. I just don't see them wanting to sell quality merch when the money is in the repeat customer buying junk. JMHO.

See, that's my other problem as well. Repeat customers tend to also come with repeat quality. You give them good or better, they will keep coming back. I'm really just saying, when people see disposable, people buy into it. When people find out otherwise, they become discouraged from buying again, from dang near everyone. It's kind of like buying chips. I walk into a store and find the doritos are almost always gone, yet the knock-offs are still packed full on the shelves. People WANT big time quality. You give it to them, then make it so they CAN refill, CAN understand a bit more, they'll be much more complacent to want to buy again from a gas station. All you need to do is give them LESS choices at better quality when it's so readily available, and people like I was would definitely keep buying from a gas station for cartos, or liquid in a tiny bottle, or buying a new battery every 2 months. It's just a thought though.

 

[patkin]

Grimmgreen likes Njoy. As more and more big tobacco gets involved you'll start seeing what you're asking for I suspect. But, then again, all of them could disappear if they go the route of not being allowed to sell a delivery system in the same place or with the juice. Everything hinges on the FDA corruption.

 

[Downtown]

And as more and more people see that they have to go online to get what they need, the sales will die out all in general, and people like us will be a stagnant minority rather than a rising one to TAKE the majority like we need to be. If big tobacco wants to get involved, fine, go ahead, I love the taste of GOOD tobacco, and they make a juice that imitates it better, I will be all too inclined to go to a gas station to buy a 3-6ml bottle of a GREAT tobacco flavor. But they need to start soon, otherwise we WILL become stagnant, and I truly do not want that.

 

[Scoop224]

I'd have to disagree.... If people wanted big time quality, stores like Wal-Mart would be out of business. People want convenience, not likely that the masses have the time or desire to spend hours browsing ECF to learn about the technology. They just want to get their fix and go on. Tobacco cigarettes are DEATH, yet they still sell by the ton... They are easy to get, and don't require any thought.

We are different than the masses, that's why we are here...educating ourselves.

 

[Downtown]

I'd have to disagree.... If people wanted big time quality, stores like Wal-Mart would be out of business. People want convenience, not likely that the masses have the time or desire to spend hours browsing ECF to learn about the technology. They just want to get their fix and go on. Tobacco cigarettes are DEATH, yet they still sell by the ton... They are easy to get, and don't require any thought.

We are different than the masses, that's why we are here...educating ourselves.

I tend to agree, cigs are what I knew was ruining me, but I bought them anyway, but I always wanted the better flavor. I'm just saying, maybe quality companies could dumb it down a bit, not a lot, and sell convience versions. Not terrible, not bad, rather good, but not what we do here. Make it simple for a buyer to get what they need. Like I said, one battery, auto or manual, 3 flavors, carto or clearo, prefilled or non, and 3-6ml bottles. This could start at every tobacco store which people often walk into, then slowly upgrade to the big time gas stations, like 7/11 or sheetz. It will catch on if we make it easy for quality and basic thinking to take over.

 

[the_vape_nerd]

Blu, njoy et al are right now trying to stop you from buying quality merchandise so they can corner the market and sell you tamper proof prefilled cartos.

Gas stations are in business with these people. They are part of the problem not the answer.

Like others have said above, those places are not places where people shop for quality items. They are just there to serve as a convenience.

 

[Downtown]

But is there just any way at all we could at the very least get some quality products more readily available to the public? Rather than just online where they would have to spend so much time to just know what they're buying? I just want this to take over, rather than still be a minority. I'd love to see us at least on par with the number of tobacco smokers.

 

[RVLT]

But is there just any way at all we could at the very least get some quality products more readily available to the public? Rather than just online where they would have to spend so much time to just know what they're buying? I just want this to take over, rather than still be a minority. I'd love to see us at least on par with the number of tobacco smokers.

More Brick and Mortars! There's only 1 in NYC 5 borougs, VapeNY and that's in Queens, IMO I don't even consider it NYC.
1 on long Island e-liquid planet and a few upstate. We need more people.

I'm not sure the gas station idea is a good one, too complicated for someone who may just be stopping in to grab a quick pack of smokes or a soda or some gas. I'm never in the gas station more than 2 minutes, doesn't really seem like the place to browse batteries, cartos bottles of juice etc. If someone picks up a disposable at a gas station and theres a B&M close by they might stop in to learn more when they have the time. It surprises me how many new people stop into VapeNY in a hard to find sh...ty queens mall and leave with an eGo kit (every time I'm there), Awesome place, hard to find. A gas station disposable is a great entry point and not everyone feels comfortable with an eGo or bigger battery.

 

[the_vape_nerd]

i dont know...most smokers i know dont really care much about vaping and wont spend any time learning how to do these things

refilling cartos, tanks etc....doing battery and other maintenance...while pretty easy ...is not something your average smoker wants to fool with

 

[Eblyth00]

There is a gas station in my town stocking ego kits now.

 

[RVLT]

There is a gas station in my town stocking ego kits now.

Someone who works there must be a vaper.

 

[Tail11]

My old smoke shop owner has started selling ecigs. He's selling mostly disposables and he says it has more profit than cigarettes. He's slowly getting into some mods and is selling some really horrible juice. I've tried to talk him into better stuff. I showed him how mods work. It's overwhelming to him, but he's starting to learn.

 

[RVLT]

There is a gas station in my town stocking ego kits now.

You know what that might actually be a good idea as e-cigs grow in popularity, lol. eGo kit with 2 small 5ml sample bottles of tobacco and menthol, a stock of tobacco and menthol bottles in store to sell and a card with a list of a few vendors to buy flavors. Could work...

All the stores near me have signs for Blu disposables and kits but none sell the kits, only disposables. My guess is they don't sell in store so they stopped supplying them. These are brooklyn bodegas though, where I can walk in and buy a loosey easily, hard to compete with the convenience of single cigarettes.

 

[Ken_A]

I'm gonna jump on the e-cig bandwagon here. NJoy and Blu are enjoyed by a great many people. There is nothing wrong with them if they are what you LIKE. Most people here like the PV, myself included, but don't dis the disposables... a great many people love them until they try a PV. What ever keeps you off tobacco is a good thing IMO.
If Blu, Njoy or another BT company started coming out with various flavors of e-Cigs, then sales would skyrocket. THAT is what we should encourage. tobacco is a bad thing. Nic, not so much. Get people interested in switching and the profits will go up for both the BT and the way-station stores. the e-cig is not a gateway to smoking, it's a gateway to PV use.

 

[mostlyclassics]

Downtown, have you ever seen a gas station carry premium cigarettes, like Davidoffs, Dunhills, State Express 555s, Rothmans, du Mauriers, or Nat Shermans? (I'm talking the good, American- or European-made ones, not the Asian Rim crap knockoffs.) Any of those would retail at almost twice what the common domestic brands sell for. And those are just cigarettes, functionally exactly like the usual brands. You haven't, of course: they don't sell, at least not in gas stations.

A decent vaping "starter" kit, with included e-liquid, would have to retail for three or four times what a disposable does. And the gas station owner would have to do some educating as to how to use and care for what came in the kit.

I don't think you'll find vaping starter kits in gas stations, unless the gas station owner is a dedicated vaper himself or herself.

For what it's worth, I know three vapers who have been vaping for quite some time who are perfectly happy with Blu disposables. There are a lot of folks out there for whom the concept of pressing a button to get vapor is literally an unfathomable mystery.

 

[HMCSTO]

Soon we'll all be buying juice from some subsidiary of Pepsi Co., paying $5 a bottle.