I'd have to respectfully disagree. As a business owner myself, I can 100% see where he's coming from. At a $10-15 markup, he's probably losing money when you take other expenses into account such as payroll, rent/lease, other taxes, electricity, etc. Even if he is buying them tax free & charging his customers sales tax when he sells them, you can't count that as income - he doesn't get to keep that; that's just big brother taking our money & using him as the middle man.
One of the hardest things to do as a small business owner is own up to the fact that time is money. Even though it's highly unlikely that he owns the building, owns the land that the building is sitting on & works 100% solo (including those behind the scenes, such as accountants) his time is worth something. A lot of well intentioned business owners go belly up because of this simple fact. Taking the gamble that losing money on a product will draw customers in to buy other products is just that, a gamble - which doesn't work out more often than not.
I don't know this guy, nor his shop, nor his business plan so I could be completely off. However, it sounds to me that he's running a tight ship & just taking precautions to keep his own tail above water. I wouldn't fault him for that. It certainly doesn't lead me to believe he's price gouging on other items. I don't know ProVape's business model either. I think the most logical thing I've read was regarding him not being a 'certified dealer' (my own words, I didn't go back to see who wrote it or what it was, word for word). It's probable that they do have certified dealers who are able to buy their products at a reasonable discount to resale at a competitive market price, and if this particular guy isn't one I wouldn't see why he'd look into selling them either.
My $0.02. I expect change.
