Marlboro Representatives came into my store...

[schotzky]

I work at a gas station/smoke shop and we sell a TON of cigarettes and cigars. I'm in college, its OK I can be a smoke shop/gas station clerk. Our Marlboro rep came in (she's a nice lady) but all of her bosses came in with her. They were congratulating us on selling more cigarettes than anybody else in the area since our prices are lower and we offer discounts and what not.

They saw me vaping on my ProVari and were like "oh what is that!?" and I explained to them its an "e-cig" with a modded battery and a tank apparatus. They told me I should quit that and go back to smoking, kind of as a joke but not really. I responded with that I smoked camels, well, anything but Marlboros.

They were talking about our customers like numbers, just figures on paper. These are people I see every day and make jokes with, I like most of them. Talking about how we are doing a great job at keeping them smoking. They are the worst drug dealers on the planet. Legal drug dealers, selling addictive drugs and promoting to keeping people smoking. My normal rep is a good lady, but her bosses are scum bags.

They then told me they have a revolutionary "e-cig" in production right now. Yes, Marlboro is hopping in the e-cig market. They explained to me that they are going to have a revolutionary system where the "filter" is going to have 4 holes in it to better simulate smoking. She told me a bunch of other stuff about a microchip and that it is the first ecig to have one (just like RJ Reynolds said about the VUSE).

I kind of laughed at her. I told her that it is definitely not the first device with a microchip. I told her that people are already vastly disappointed with Blu and that most people that use these don't want BT to interfere with e-cigs and that I felt BT was lobbying to get e-cigs regulated so that they aren't losing money. I also told her that I felt that BT is just trying to make bad e-cigs to turn people off so they aren't losing customers. She didn't really have a response to anything I said.

My boss was looking at me like "dude shut the hell up what are you doing." BAH, my rant has gone on long enough, its not as organized as I would like it to be.

The moral of the story is that BT doesn't want people to use e-cigs and they are making crappy ones to turn people off to them and keep people smoking tobacco. The executives at BT are scumbags. Don't let them keep us from vaping, stock up on liquid nicotine for DIY, cartomizers, batteries, chargers, rebuildables, and plenty of back up mods. Winter is coming.

 

[schotzky]

So hard not to use inappropriate language.

 

[fourtytwo]

Soooo.... Good day at work then?

 

[Smokachino]

BT could make an ecig that replenished its own juice and did my laundry for me, but I still wouldn't buy it.

 

[samwest]

Oh, and make coffee too.

 

[ennagizer]

And start your car....

 

[kbjoran]

And start your car....

Yes...so first they steal your health and then can steal your car.

 

[SissySpike]

and puts money in my bank account every time I vape it. well If BT made one that did that I would use it;-) But Yes I agree BT is just one small part of how corporate America is ruining our way of life.

 

[gully]

Good on ya OP!,up close and personal so they can smell the vanilla.

 

[Talyon]

TY OP every little bit helps....

If u get a chance please join CASAA - The Consumer Advocates for Smoke-free Alternatives Association they do an awful lot for our right to Vape. Ty.

 

[volume control]

My ecig doesnt even have a filter, that beats one with 4 holes right?

 

[JR 137]

Phillip Morris and BT have some of the smartest people in the world on their payroll. They've got people contemplating every what if scenario. They most likely simultaneously have people working on killing vaping and people working on developing their vaping solution. They know every threat to their way of life, and that includes knowing every cig-alike, PV, APV, delivery dvice, juice, etc. They're way too smart and resourceful not to know. No way they'll get blind sided by anything; they'll know about possible legislation before anyone else does, as the people they successfully lobby won't withhold any information. With that being said...

There's no doubt in my mind that any BT company could develop a device that'll mop the floor with a ProVari and everything else out there. They know their cig-alikes are crap. They know their microchips aren't anything new. That's all marketing BS.

No doubt they've got bean counters calculating when the perfect financial time to enter the market will be. Once it's worth it to them, they'll go all in; and it won't be a second too soon or too late.

Unlike most people here, I'm not the least bit worried about their delivery devices once they fully commit. The delivery devices will have to work flawlessly. And they'll have to be dirt cheap. I wouldn't be surprised if they gave away the hardware. Then there's no initial startup cost. They'll easily make that money back with juice sales. Kind of like how Microsoft loses money on the XBox, but makes up for it with their games.

My concern is the juice. They'll add so much crap to them to make them far more addictive, and they'll quickly become just as bad as smoking, if not worse.

If you think BT doesn't know about that ProVari you were holding, you're naive at best. Maybe the guys that saw it didn't know, but there's no way the people who need to know don't know. If making a device that outperforms your ProVari is in their best interest, they'll put it to market at the perfect time financially. There's no way they'll get blind sided by anything.

All IMO of course.

 

[metrabolic]

I watched a video in YouTube that showed how big tobacco is moving in to poor nations and doing what they did here before regulations and restrictions started. Pretty sad. Big tobacco is truly evil.

 

[Baditude]

@JR:

I agree with you on some points. BT definitely plans to join into the e-cig market. Falling cigarettes sales everywhere but in 3rd world coutries necessitates that they try to recapture losses, and e-cigs are a natural side market for them to get into.

Although they certainly have the technological and financial resources to produce higher quality APVs like the Provari, they also realize that's not necessarily where the big money is. It's very expensive comparitively speaking to produce advanced PV's, but much cheaper and more productive financially to stick with the stick batteries and pre-filled cartridges. The vast majority of the world's vapors use cigalikes or eGo's. Only a minority use advanced PVs.

Their target customers will be the current smoker looking for a safer alternative to smoking, just as we once were. Should they be successful with this group, they may adventure into the realm of advanced vaping, but this would be years down the road.

 

[kjustinc]

In Japan, Marlboro's representatives are scantily-clad Japanese girls giving out free packs. I find myself taking free packs even though I don't smoke

 

[jclifford]

my son's girlfriend works for BT, she says she has attended seminars regarding e-cig's. their opinion is to standardize the ecig industry, eliminate all the mom and pop stores and to improve the product and make it safer for all of us... (I immediately said "BS").

a personal belief is that it is an incredible profit making opportunity, a service oriented business with luxury style profits. Perfect situation for anyone with funds available. (only for you non-business people out there, a service business depends on daily transactions and short profit, a luxury oriented business is occasional sales but large profits, not many businesses cross the line)

last: I really do not believe that BT cares about Provari, or ego, or smoktech, or anyone else. I just read that 5.5 TRILLION cigarettes are consumed per year. Do the math, (I could not, my calculator does not go that high) divide 5.5 trillion by 20 and multiply times (average) $6.00 per pack. read everyone's banner across the bottom, XXX analogs avoided.. I do not believe you are putting any serious dents in BT's figures... (yet!)

 

[Train2]

I agree with most of what you're saying about BT, but disagree with just a couple conclusions:

1) I do NOT think they'll launch with a fantastic platform - because I think they'll launch with a cig-alike platform that works pretty good. They'll launch to catch people who WANT to switch from smoking to vaping but not to GET people to switch. They won't want to cannibalize their own customer base like that (had an old boss that would say "we don't want to eat our young" lol) - just protect it.

2) You've got a VERY interesting point about the juice/device pricing. Even better model than XBox is the entire inkjet printer industry. They sell the hardware for manufacture cost, then have exorbitant pricing on the cartridges of liquid that you can't really refill yourself if you want optimum performance. Sound like a fit? So we'll likely see:
a) $1 batteries maybe? Or a new battery with each "pack" of cartos. And therefore, it's OK if the battery only lasts a month...
b) proprietary connections
c) cartos that aren't refillable

Phillip Morris and BT have some of the smartest people in the world on their payroll. They've got people contemplating every what if scenario. They most likely simultaneously have people working on killing vaping and people working on developing their vaping solution. They know every threat to their way of life, and that includes knowing every cig-alike, PV, APV, delivery dvice, juice, etc. They're way too smart and resourceful not to know. No way they'll get blind sided by anything; they'll know about possible legislation before anyone else does, as the people they successfully lobby won't withhold any information. With that being said...

There's no doubt in my mind that any BT company could develop a device that'll mop the floor with a ProVari and everything else out there. They know their cig-alikes are crap. They know their microchips aren't anything new. That's all marketing BS.

No doubt they've got bean counters calculating when the perfect financial time to enter the market will be. Once it's worth it to them, they'll go all in; and it won't be a second too soon or too late.

Unlike most people here, I'm not the least bit worried about their delivery devices once they fully commit. The delivery devices will have to work flawlessly. And they'll have to be dirt cheap. I wouldn't be surprised if they gave away the hardware. Then there's no initial startup cost. They'll easily make that money back with juice sales. Kind of like how Microsoft loses money on the XBox, but makes up for it with their games.

My concern is the juice. They'll add so much crap to them to make them far more addictive, and they'll quickly become just as bad as smoking, if not worse.

If you think BT doesn't know about that ProVari you were holding, you're naive at best. Maybe the guys that saw it didn't know, but there's no way the people who need to know don't know. If making a device that outperforms your ProVari is in their best interest, they'll put it to market at the perfect time financially. There's no way they'll get blind sided by anything.

All IMO of course.

 

[metrabolic]

=91,666,666,666.666 packs of cigarettes sold. But they also sell them in different sizes and even singles in some places.


Even if you averaged 6 dollars a pack which would be 550,000,000,000 that is divided between different companies and those companies are not getting all of that 6 dollars many of the states are getting a cut in taxes.
If you average that cig companies get half that they would be making =274,999,999,999.99 which is a lot of money.

my son's girlfriend works for BT, she says she has attended seminars regarding e-cig's. their opinion is to standardize the ecig industry, eliminate all the mom and pop stores and to improve the product and make it safer for all of us... (I immediately said "BS").

a personal belief is that it is an incredible profit making opportunity, a service oriented business with luxury style profits. Perfect situation for anyone with funds available. (only for you non-business people out there, a service business depends on daily transactions and short profit, a luxury oriented business is occasional sales but large profits, not many businesses cross the line)

last: I really do not believe that BT cares about Provari, or ego, or smoktech, or anyone else. I just read that 5.5 TRILLION cigarettes are consumed per year. Do the math, (I could not, my calculator does not go that high) divide 5.5 trillion by 20 and multiply times (average) $6.00 per pack. read everyone's banner across the bottom, XXX analogs avoided.. I do not believe you are putting any serious dents in BT's figures... (yet!)

 

[JR 137]

I didn't mean to imply that they'd launch something like a ProVari, I was saying they easily could if it mad financial sense to them.

Under my scenario, I'm confident that there'd be people making APVs that would fit BT's cartos. I'm also sure there'd be a way to refill them. People are refilling Blu cartos. They're modifying their hardware. None of that is ideal though.

In every industry, there's a cottage industry that the enthusiasts keep afloat. Stereos, bikes, shaving stuff, and so on. The only key to that puzzle would be liquid nicotine. Somehow, someway, I'm sure it'll be around. Probably not for the price we're getting it now though. Government has a way of putting in loopholes and saving very small businesses. Maybe a clause like they'll have to extract their own nicotine? Only time will tell.

One thing I'm certain of is BT will make vaping (above Blu type stuff) more difficult once they corner the market. Not if they corner it, but when. One thing I know is I won't buy their liquid in any form.

 

[JR 137]

my son's girlfriend works for BT, she says she has attended seminars regarding e-cig's. their opinion is to standardize the ecig industry, eliminate all the mom and pop stores and to improve the product and make it safer for all of us... (I immediately said "BS").

a personal belief is that it is an incredible profit making opportunity, a service oriented business with luxury style profits. Perfect situation for anyone with funds available. (only for you non-business people out there, a service business depends on daily transactions and short profit, a luxury oriented business is occasional sales but large profits, not many businesses cross the line)

last: I really do not believe that BT cares about Provari, or ego, or smoktech, or anyone else. I just read that 5.5 TRILLION cigarettes are consumed per year. Do the math, (I could not, my calculator does not go that high) divide 5.5 trillion by 20 and multiply times (average) $6.00 per pack. read everyone's banner across the bottom, XXX analogs avoided.. I do not believe you are putting any serious dents in BT's figures... (yet!)

They'll make vaping safer the same way they made tobacco more consistent. If the FDA wasn't a worthless shell of an organization and truly did what it was supposed to do, I wouldn't mind them regulating what went into ejuice. First they need to actually protect us and regulate the crap that goes into our food.

You're absolutely correct in stating they don't care about vaping because its not putting a realistic dent into their bottom line. But once it does, they'll go all in like it's Texas Hold 'Em. That's when all the discussion here will come to fruition.