Local vape shops very unwelcoming? Online shopping from now on...

[DaniB]

As an "older" woman who has been vaping for almost 6 years, builds their own coils and owns more mods and tanks than I want to admit to, I have found that many vape shops make judgments the minute I walk in the door. So whenever I'm checking out a new shop I am really checking out how they treat me. I love the ones that immediately try to sell me a beginner setup without asking me one question. When that happens I move to the more "advanced" setups and start asking questions. 9 times out of 10 the response is "oh, you don't want that - it would be too difficult for you to use." At that point I usually pull the latest box mod and rda out of my pocket and start blowing clouds in their face ! Ok - I can be a cranky grandma when I want to be ! lol It usually freaks them out and they don't know how to respond !

With that being said, I have found one great vape shop 5 minutes from my house and another about a 1/2 hour from my son's house. They are both run by great people and they are doing it the right way. I stop into the one right near me probably about once a week and just talk with the owner about vaping. He is my son's age (and actually has the same name) and we can spend hours talking about the newest gear and juice flavors. I buy things occasionally (even though I can get them cheaper online) just because he is a great guy and I want to give him some business.

Unfortunately most of the shops I have been to have not been this way and for that reason they will not get my business.

 

[LittleBird]

There are several vape shops within a 15 mile radius of our house and only one fits the "I'm so cool and you must be an idiot because you aren't sub ohm'ing on a mech" profile. I found Yelp to be the perfect antidote to that shop . The others are very welcoming and have been quite helpful. In fact, the owner of one shop explained Ohms Law to me until I could recite it in my sleep,taught me to build coils, and charges exactly what online vendors charge for juice & attys. like any other business, there are good vape shops and bad ones. I'm sorry you had such a horrible experience!

 

[matrix961]

Wow i figured most shops would be more welcoming especially to newcomers. Thankfully the shop near me is really awesome. I was in there today and they were helping a newcomer trying to find her something she would be comfortable with. I hope i dont have to deal with a bad shop in the future. One thing i like is when i bought my aspire sub ohm setup the guy told me to come back in if i had any issues. That they support all the gear they sell. I dont mind giving them my business.

 

[hurricanegirl100]

As an "older" woman who has been vaping for almost 6 years, builds their own coils and owns more mods and tanks than I want to admit to, I have found that many vape shops make judgments the minute I walk in the door. So whenever I'm checking out a new shop I am really checking out how they treat me. I love the ones that immediately try to sell me a beginner setup without asking me one question. When that happens I move to the more "advanced" setups and start asking questions. 9 times out of 10 the response is "oh, you don't want that - it would be too difficult for you to use." At that point I usually pull the latest box mod and rda out of my pocket and start blowing clouds in their face ! Ok - I can be a cranky grandma when I want to be ! lol It usually freaks them out and they don't know how to respond !

With that being said, I have found one great vape shop 5 minutes from my house and another about a 1/2 hour from my son's house. They are both run by great people and they are doing it the right way. I stop into the one right near me probably about once a week and just talk with the owner about vaping. He is my son's age (and actually has the same name) and we can spend hours talking about the newest gear and juice flavors. I buy things occasionally (even though I can get them cheaper online) just because he is a great guy and I want to give him some business.

Unfortunately most of the shops I have been to have not been this way and for that reason they will not get my business.

As a fifty year old woman, I run into that exact, same problem. Most of the retails clerks I meet in vape shops are 20-something guys who first assume I know NOTHING about vaping. When they find out they're mistaken, they tend to get stand-offish. I'll keep looking for a good vape shop in my area where I don't run into this B.S., but so far, no luck.

Which is only a little bit of a bummer....the markup they put on everything is ridiculous. $100 for an IPV mini. $20.00 for a 30 ml. $35 for a cloned RDA. I think they're petrified we'll say, out loud, what a colossal rip off their prices are. That's why they shut the hell up.

 

[Robino1]

For new members, please read: http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/fo...ation/255864-why-we-dont-allow-drug-talk.html

Thank you

 

[BluzKing]

As a member of the "senior" group, I often stop in vape shops as I travel for business. I most often have on a tie and sport coat, and when I walk in some shops, I get the "uh-oh" look of semi-panic. It's like the want to jump up and run out the back door, lol. Or they mistake me as a vendor trying to sell them some products or e-liquid or something. I can usually put them at ease when I take out my box mod and blow a nice cloud. Then they are most welcoming, for the most part. But it's true that many are staffed by young vapers that often judge us just like we judge them. I

Most people, regardless of age or appearance, are ok when we get to know them. At least that's been my experience, and I've got a few years of it

 

[gelgoog]

sounds like he just wants to sell you an overprice rda. vape shops are a everywhere. at least in houston. alot of them are exactly like you describe. they just want to sell you some over price gear. they never list there price. you have to ask.

 

[gruvemunky]

My local vape shop nobody that works there even knows the difference between a Kanger and an aspire tank and don't know what an 18650 battery is, I will stick with online sites

 

[Murrit]

I found that most of the shops in my area are not very noob friendly. They make you feel kind of out at place.

 

[Wolfenstark]

70% vg is fine in a lemo single coil and a goblin dual coil. From my experience.

 

[iTiger]

I've been to almost every vape shop in my city and of the 10+ shops here there are only 3 I will deal with at all and of those only 1 I like to hang out at because they are cool with all vapers no matter what experience or gear they have. Interestingly enough they also have the lowest juice price in town.

I must say if I had to leave town for vape supplies I'd just get everything online.

 

[astronomicals]

Last store I went to tried to upsell me some juice and then claimed the 30 ml was the only size in the flavor I chose. No sale.

ETA:

They only carried proprietary blends and he was stressing how safe they were. All kinds of claims "ISO lab made by chemists", "clean room", ":hypoallergenic". I asked if they had any kind of reports for lab testing of their juices. That stopped him in his tracks. Rather than arguing I just let it go. I never asked. If hes gonna go on some rant about its purity he better have at least some falsely fabricated evidence.

 

[Natteulven]

Man, this thread really made me appreciate my local B&Ms. In fact I hardly ever shop online thanks to them, that and I've had some bad experiences with online purchases. The one I frequent doesn't exactly have the best prices, but I gladly give them my money anyway. The manager whom I've always dealt with is extremely knowledgeable in every single product they have. I've never seen a situation that was improperly handled by these guys. I also like the fact that they've pulled all their crappy juices off their menu, and their in house stuff is on par, if not better than a lot of the more expensive juices. I also really like how they sell mods. I've been to other shops where they'll sell a mech to any guy without making sure they know what they're doing. The guys at the shop I go to always go out of their way to explain everything and make sure you walk out educated, even if you don't buy anything.

They also don't give me dirty looks if I spend a good half out testing out all their juice [emoji14]

 

[Chnoubis]

My shop visits where very unpleasant. I shop online now and thank god I have because I find cheaper prices on everything and great deals! I will never go back to a vape shop now.

 

[CassiusCloud]

We have two vape shops in our town..
I was spreading my money pretty equally between them my first year..I totally felt good about the vaping movement and both places being pretty brand new,i was just glad to have them both there..

It really sucked to see one get caught on the ego train and start to bad mouth the other one,while the other one just went about it's own business..
After about a year,i ended up with just using the one that went about their own business..

Because the other one just turned into a political drama house of bad mouthing the competition. while the one i do business with,just goes about his own business,just chuggin along doing what he can do and getting better all the time..

The guy is always cutting me breaks and giving free juice to me to try out..and he really doesn't care for Roosters hanging around scaring away his customers..

 

[Javamon]

It's not just your area. It's all over the place.
The goods news is - in one to two years, all those places will be out of business, and the smarter, friendlier, non head shop looking alternatives will still be standing.

 

[beez0527]

Yesterday I stopped by my B&M i have been using since they opened almost 4 years ago, now i haven't been there for several months for the same reason as you mentioned all the roosters telling everyone else how great they are and they have the greatest mods ever known to mankind. I was literally the only person in there these people have destroyed a once great shop. I always had a great relationship with the owners but they got too big too fast and now its hurting them, they were in the process of opening 3 more shops and they are never in the shop anymore and its destroyed their client base as they were the main reason I shopped there the personal service they provided so i ask the kid if the owner was in and he went back and got him and we discussed the issues i had and he completely agreed and he is starting to put more time back in this shop to hopefully bring back the great shop he started. The moral of the story talk to management and voice you displeasure and hopefully they do something about it to make it a shop for all vapors not just the "cool" ones.

 

[TopCatJimi]

It didnt take me long to figure out that the local vape shops are charging $23.80 tax included for 30ml bottles which is $3,046.40 a gallon .. well .. I never will never buy anything at that price .. I make a gallon of ejuice for just a little bit under $150 .. thats Flavor,Vg,Pg & Nic. .. oh .. and tax included .. so unless there is some Hotass Blondes and a few Brunettes blowing me at the local vape stores when I buy their "premium ejuice" I will continue to enjoy my diy ejuice and buy my things online

 

[xtremes]

I have no shop in my town (small tobacco town) but 45 minutes from my house is my closest shop, I was worried the first time i went in. I was wrong, helpful, not stuck up, and down to earth. i will go back again!
2 hr drive to the only other shop i have been in, (MUCH bigger town) little worried here too, i said screw it lets try. They were the same way, I will go back agin!!

I have yet to make a purchase online but not against making one. I kinda like to spend the money local-ish if possible.

I will keep visiting local-ish shops when i can, and if they rub me the wrong way, on to the next one!

 

[Dumb]

I've had this happen a lot recently. I've just come in trying to upgrade from my Buck Naked POS Gas Station Ecig, to a new nicer setup. The guy sold me an iStick 30W WITHOUT telling me that the 50W was coming out the very next day, because he wanted to get rid of his 30W stock. That's the most recent. I've had people just glare at me, sort of make fun of me for being new to vaping. I just don't understand why people are such elitists about this. Oh, and yes, the people that talk SUPER LOUD so everyone can hear how awesome their mod is are incredibly annoying.

I've been to some good shops too, but they are few and far between.