Nice to meet you too.
I understand all that but I'm sure there has to be a balance that could be reached. My problem is that, as a consumer I have very little choice in what is available locally. As far as outlay and profits go the cost difference between ordering say a vamo v2 etc from somewhere like vapor break or fast tech and the cost of ordering from a uk ebay shop is about £10 ($25 VB vs £25 ebay), in a retail outlet you expect to pay a little more, maybe £30 or more. So that example, $25 is about £15, to retail those at £30 is 100% profit, and that is without any bulk buy discounts. Outlay for consumables like kanthal, silica wick, mesh etc is small considering the mark up that companies put on when selling them in small quantities.
I think that these shops don't want people to know what is out there in terms of cost or quality. If someone is making 1000% profit on their e liquid for instance, why would they start selling stuff for DIYers like me?
Another problem I have with these shops is the staff are so woefully uninformed about the products they are selling. Ask them the chemistry of the batteries in their egos, ask them about impurities in their liquid, they'll have no idea or spout nonsense at you. ie when you are told " this liquid has no impurities" you know this is nonsense, an impossibility. Ask them what happens to any gases if a battery starts to vent, I doubt they'll even understand what you are on about. Ask them about RBAs and you'll receive blank expressions.
I've been vaping for around 18 moths and in that time I have seen vaping go from unusual to very common. Every time I leave the house these days I see someone vaping. When i first started I would be the only vaper in the pub, now there are always others vaping. I believe there is a market locally for APVs RBAs etc but people only know about the 'standard' kit available from these shops.
For instance, I have an acquaintance who saw me vaping on my SD MKII and was interested. A couple of weeks later he's got an ego/ce4 combo and I was using an unnamed mechanical mod with a vivi nova. I explained about being able to replace the coils and choices in ohms etc. The next time I saw him he had a vivi nova and was very happy with it. I was using my vamo v2 with a ud agi on top, which I had told him about previously and, he thought that level of control was great. He is using vaping to kick the nic habit so I think the whole rebuildable, vv/vw route might be a bit much but you never know, next time i see him he might have taken that step. My point in this story is that he was furnished with none of this information at the vape shop, had they had different mods and different attys in store as well as better informed staff he may have gone straight to a vivi nova and a mechanical or vv mod, and I think a lot of people would.
Sorry for the rant, it's lunch time and a hungry man is an angry man as Bob Marley said.
