First off im going to say that I am a relatively new vaper and I don't claim to know a lot by any means. But I have recently experienced my first carto tank and I love it! So I decided to go the the local vapor store to see what they had in stock so I didn't have to wait for shipping to buy another, and I asked if they had any good carto tanks in stock. I was promptly told that they don't carry carto tanks because they are dead and that the only reason anyone would use one is because that's just what they are used to and don't want to switch to a clearo. He also added in that clearos are much more consistent and produce better flavor, which from my own opinion and many other opinions on this forum isn't true. So either he doesn't want me to keep progressing and buy their stuff instead, or he is not very experienced as to what he is selling. Anybody else have similar problems in your area? Lol maybe im just ranting.
Uneducated vapor shops
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I had a similar experience at my local shop. Went in to check on changing to tanks from CE2 for my epower. Was told they never heard of epower or CE2 and advised me to switch to the more expensive mods but I wasn't interested and so they seemed to lose interest in me. Tried to talk to them about this website and online vape community but actually had two of the people walk away from me. Maybe they thought I was trying to sale something. Went in a second time because a battery and charger I bought did not work and got the same treatment. The word that comes to mind is snobs. Guess I wasn't hardcore enough for them to bother with.
Mmmm. Can my answer be... both? ;-)
Seriously though... neither of these fall under the heading of an uncommon complaint - but in this instance, I'd lean towards a combination. I'll explain...
He can make money selling cartos and nice tanks just as easily as clearos, glassos and replacement heads. If anything, more money - because while you can rebuild a clearo coil head, you can't rebuild a carto.
He demonstrates a lack of knowledge, which undermines his sales abilities. Unless he's got deep pockets and/or can't identify his weaknesses, he'll be out of business soon.
I learned how to vape from the great people here on ECF. I went into my first B&M and I was the smartest vaper in the room. Or so it seemed. And I don't even own a mod! They were not bad. I will say that. very nice college students or such. But they could not solve problems, as I listened to the conversations going on . I guess every one has to start somewhere.
Agree....and a side note to Flux.... (While I like the new Avatar...You will always be that Penguin with cymbols and Polar Bear to me)
You mean... Walter and Bob - these guys?
AHHHHHH !!!! HECK YEAH !! Thats one of my favorite Avatars...like EVER.
(Two more posts and your at 3K....)
Well, I don't have many, but had a good experience in one yesterday...
Got a bad batch of cartos, and have to travel, so I NEEDED some - I actually GOT an order I placed in 2 days to cover me, but didn't know that, so with about an hour open in the middle of my day yesterday, I just googled for a vape shop, and found one within a mile of where I happened to be.
It was in a "back room" of a really nice bar/restaurant - and clearly used to be a second bar. 2 guys behind the bar, and instead of liquor bottles, it was displays of juice.
About 100 flavors loaded up in little removable-tip clearos out on the bar, so you could pop on our own drip tip and taste.
Including 5Pawns, which I was eager to taste (I actually didn't like it much).
There were a few guys sitting on barstools, chatting about equipment and vaping, and helping one choose his first setup.
One guy was showing the noob how you'd rebuild the coil for a ProTank if he bought one.
They immediately asked if they could help me.
And while it took them a minute to FIND them, as it's not their main product recommendation, they did indeed have what I wanted: EXACTLY what I wanted. (Prepunched, SR 35mm cartos). $10 for the box of 5, not even a gouge price.
Since it's attached to a bar, with a menu and everything, my guess is that in the evenings the place is probably hopping. I might want to go back. They said on certain nights they have a "Build Class" and teach people to recoil. That there are a few real wizards that hang out and do advanced builds on high end drippers and such who are usually happy to work with folks who have questions or need help.
Overall, it seemed a VERY cool place - I may try to stop back at night and see it when it's busy.
Maybe impress some of the kids with my ProVari. Hmm. No, maybe I'll pop a Hypertank on my SVD instead.
Got a bad batch of cartos, and have to travel, so I NEEDED some - I actually GOT an order I placed in 2 days to cover me, but didn't know that, so with about an hour open in the middle of my day yesterday, I just googled for a vape shop, and found one within a mile of where I happened to be.
It was in a "back room" of a really nice bar/restaurant - and clearly used to be a second bar. 2 guys behind the bar, and instead of liquor bottles, it was displays of juice.
About 100 flavors loaded up in little removable-tip clearos out on the bar, so you could pop on our own drip tip and taste.
Including 5Pawns, which I was eager to taste (I actually didn't like it much).
There were a few guys sitting on barstools, chatting about equipment and vaping, and helping one choose his first setup.
One guy was showing the noob how you'd rebuild the coil for a ProTank if he bought one.
They immediately asked if they could help me.
And while it took them a minute to FIND them, as it's not their main product recommendation, they did indeed have what I wanted: EXACTLY what I wanted. (Prepunched, SR 35mm cartos). $10 for the box of 5, not even a gouge price.
Since it's attached to a bar, with a menu and everything, my guess is that in the evenings the place is probably hopping. I might want to go back. They said on certain nights they have a "Build Class" and teach people to recoil. That there are a few real wizards that hang out and do advanced builds on high end drippers and such who are usually happy to work with folks who have questions or need help.
Overall, it seemed a VERY cool place - I may try to stop back at night and see it when it's busy.
Maybe impress some of the kids with my ProVari. Hmm. No, maybe I'll pop a Hypertank on my SVD instead.
"AHHHHHH !!!! HECK YEAH !!"
So... just a few more, and they deliver the Lamborghini, ah... right?
I live in Los Angeles. You can't spit without hitting a Vape Shop. I have been in about 15 of them. I chat them up. As far as I know, none of them are participants on ECF. none of them are involved with the political actions we take on here to protect Vaping.
As a result, they don't stock the newest gear, except the newest clone mech mods. E-pipes seem to be the big thing.
I have never seen an Aspire device in any of them.
It's weird. It's a technical business, but they don't seem to be interested in anything except what they already know. They all seem to be eLiquid centered. I don't know how they stay open making a buck or 2 on a bottle of juice.
Tapatalking with my thumbs.
Join the CASAA.
Protect your Vaping Rights!
As a result, they don't stock the newest gear, except the newest clone mech mods. E-pipes seem to be the big thing.
I have never seen an Aspire device in any of them.
It's weird. It's a technical business, but they don't seem to be interested in anything except what they already know. They all seem to be eLiquid centered. I don't know how they stay open making a buck or 2 on a bottle of juice.
Tapatalking with my thumbs.
Join the CASAA.
Protect your Vaping Rights!
It is weird. When I worked in the motorcycle and gun (not at the same location mind you) business' - most everyone was into the latest stuff - reading magazines, looking at the interweb (after PCs were in wide general circulation that is) and talking with clients, customers, associates and so on, about what was new, what was crap and what seemed to be the "next big thing".
So yes... weird it is Bernie, that those you've encountered show no enthusiast nature. Could it be that, like McDonalds employees, although they
There's shops and there's shops.
And like any other 'industry/commerce' that's experiencing fast growth, it'll inevitably attract its share of folks who are getting on the bandwagon for the profits first and the business second. And there will always be a share of unsuspecting vapers and vaper-to-be that will get gouged.
And the money is in the liquids. Vaping hardware sold - you won't see that customer for a while except for coil replacements for quite a while. Even a lowly ego can be recharged very often before it ends up in the recycling bin. 18650 and other batteris, heck, with a bit of care, decent mods will last you for years but won't do you much good without - you guessed it - juices to vape in.
Is a bit like printers and razors. They're sold cheap. But you're in deep when buying spare blades or ink cartridges. I'm fairly surprised that snobs haven't taken up drinking printer ink. Prices for that beat the most epxensive champagne hands down
Hence, forums like ECF are important. They will help sorting the wheat from the chaff - online and offline.
As a shopkeeper ( which I ain't ) I'd make it a daily routine to read up quickly on whats going on in the forums. Vaping hardware is evolving rapidly, so it could well be a question of continued existence by stocking up on the 'right' gear as vapers 'in-the-know' aren't gonna buy into some ho-hum sales gibberish.
Never hurts to heed the old saying:
A satisified customer tells about it another person
A dissatisfied customer tells about it ten other persons...
And like any other 'industry/commerce' that's experiencing fast growth, it'll inevitably attract its share of folks who are getting on the bandwagon for the profits first and the business second. And there will always be a share of unsuspecting vapers and vaper-to-be that will get gouged.
And the money is in the liquids. Vaping hardware sold - you won't see that customer for a while except for coil replacements for quite a while. Even a lowly ego can be recharged very often before it ends up in the recycling bin. 18650 and other batteris, heck, with a bit of care, decent mods will last you for years but won't do you much good without - you guessed it - juices to vape in.
Is a bit like printers and razors. They're sold cheap. But you're in deep when buying spare blades or ink cartridges. I'm fairly surprised that snobs haven't taken up drinking printer ink. Prices for that beat the most epxensive champagne hands down
Hence, forums like ECF are important. They will help sorting the wheat from the chaff - online and offline.
As a shopkeeper ( which I ain't ) I'd make it a daily routine to read up quickly on whats going on in the forums. Vaping hardware is evolving rapidly, so it could well be a question of continued existence by stocking up on the 'right' gear as vapers 'in-the-know' aren't gonna buy into some ho-hum sales gibberish.
Never hurts to heed the old saying:
A satisified customer tells about it another person
A dissatisfied customer tells about it ten other persons...
Consumables are where it's at. It's a solid business model. You worked in Firearms, flux. How much did you deal in ammo just talking number of purchases vs actual gun sales?
Not that I'm suggesting any business owner should be ignorant of the core of his field, but ultimately they can realistically expect you to buy the biggest chunk of hardware you can afford, then return to them weekly/daily for juice and heads.
Not that I'm suggesting any business owner should be ignorant of the core of his field, but ultimately they can realistically expect you to buy the biggest chunk of hardware you can afford, then return to them weekly/daily for juice and heads.
As Bernievidio stated, There are vape shops on almost every corner here in southern CA. Along with that I've noticed that every smoke shop and head shop also is trying to jump on the e-cig bandwagon. Around my neighborhood I see banners hanging at every smoke shop pushing their ecig stuff.
The owners of these shops know next to nothing about the stuff their suppliers deliver to them. I went into one smoke shop near me because their banner out front read, "your E Cig Headquarters". Looking around I see the usual Ego stuff, Pink spot juice, Vivi's etc. At that time I was using carto's, so I ask the nice Asian lady if she had any cartos and show her my carto tank on my Ego twist.
She says "Oh no, we won't sell those. Those bad for you, they unhealthy". I ask her what's "unhealthy" about them, she picks up a vivi nova and points to the wicks inside and says "See the strings? Thats the filters!. Yours don't have filters so they unhealthy!"
I just shake my head and say whatever.
Edit to add. That is now a standard joke among my vaping friends now. Every time we see something with a wick it's " see the filters"?! LOL
The owners of these shops know next to nothing about the stuff their suppliers deliver to them. I went into one smoke shop near me because their banner out front read, "your E Cig Headquarters". Looking around I see the usual Ego stuff, Pink spot juice, Vivi's etc. At that time I was using carto's, so I ask the nice Asian lady if she had any cartos and show her my carto tank on my Ego twist.
She says "Oh no, we won't sell those. Those bad for you, they unhealthy". I ask her what's "unhealthy" about them, she picks up a vivi nova and points to the wicks inside and says "See the strings? Thats the filters!. Yours don't have filters so they unhealthy!"
I just shake my head and say whatever.
Edit to add. That is now a standard joke among my vaping friends now. Every time we see something with a wick it's " see the filters"?! LOL
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Only little place close enough to me is a little kiosk/sampler bar at one local mall, but kids working there know their stuff. They have to charge ~$15 more than market price on hardware, but that's understandable. Else lots of nice mods and tons of Protanks and inokkin gear in stock. The sampler bar was probably the best part, although some juices they had cost WAAAY too much.
Actually, the juice is where they HAVE to focus!
1 - the markup makes it feasible. The hardware can't be marked up too much, other than crap starter kits, because when you get to $100 mods, the buyer is probably more knowledgeable and will shop...
2 - it's consumable! If someone buys a decent mech mod, well, they're done, right? No repeat business. And maybe you make $10 or $40 off them. But if they buy 30 mls. of juice every week from you for $15-$20, and you're making it for $1.50 plus $1 for the bottle...then that customer is worth $600-$800 a year in profit.
STILL - in order to get and keep those customers, they SHOULD have all the latest gear. They should have expert builders and juicemakers. And they should provide service - including educating their customers. Or the customers will go somewhere else, or just go online.
1 - the markup makes it feasible. The hardware can't be marked up too much, other than crap starter kits, because when you get to $100 mods, the buyer is probably more knowledgeable and will shop...
2 - it's consumable! If someone buys a decent mech mod, well, they're done, right? No repeat business. And maybe you make $10 or $40 off them. But if they buy 30 mls. of juice every week from you for $15-$20, and you're making it for $1.50 plus $1 for the bottle...then that customer is worth $600-$800 a year in profit.
STILL - in order to get and keep those customers, they SHOULD have all the latest gear. They should have expert builders and juicemakers. And they should provide service - including educating their customers. Or the customers will go somewhere else, or just go online.
I have a good one near my work, I like to get out of the shop and go over at lunch. Good kids, knowledgeable, carry most every type of everything. They explain the pros and cons and let me choose. Great customer service. Definitely more expensive than online but they are young Americans getting off their butts and running a business so I give them some. If they were acting like the OP stated I would be gone.
All done with them. Gave them an honest shot at my money. I know they are not all alike but I have tried enough now.
Used to try to patronize the locals but not anymore, just not any good. No need for them as long as I plan well and buy online. If it isn't the price, it's the lack of knowledge, if not that then the bad-salesman Saul Goodman know-it-all superior attitude. Cheaper online, rely on my own knowledge with help from this site and others, and avoid the attitude altogether. I'm a nice patient guy with good social skills (despite what you may have seen of me in this forum), and too many shop owners are not any of that. Having to deal with a bunch of idiots all day is no excuse, that's the retail business, Bub -- if you can't handle the noobs and customer questions, move your stone online. Buy where you like, what and when you want, but my advice to everyone is skip it and buy online if you live in the USA.
Would be nice if they did, but retailers don't necessarily need to care or know anything about their products in order to sell them, and nowhere is that more evident than in the vaping world.
Used to try to patronize the locals but not anymore, just not any good. No need for them as long as I plan well and buy online. If it isn't the price, it's the lack of knowledge, if not that then the bad-salesman Saul Goodman know-it-all superior attitude. Cheaper online, rely on my own knowledge with help from this site and others, and avoid the attitude altogether. I'm a nice patient guy with good social skills (despite what you may have seen of me in this forum), and too many shop owners are not any of that. Having to deal with a bunch of idiots all day is no excuse, that's the retail business, Bub -- if you can't handle the noobs and customer questions, move your stone online. Buy where you like, what and when you want, but my advice to everyone is skip it and buy online if you live in the USA.
Would be nice if they did, but retailers don't necessarily need to care or know anything about their products in order to sell them, and nowhere is that more evident than in the vaping world.
Cartos are dead??? That shop owner should try telling that to Vash, Fluid, MAP, SMOK, Boge, etc I have a small assortment of clearos in my collection and have yet to find one that is capable of the flavor production of a good carto/tank setup. While cartos are not my regular adv I still revisit mine on occasion which is more than can be said for my collection of clearos. As always JMO
We have two (well, three or four if you count the ahem, "smoke" shops) in town. One is a glorified mall kiosk ("our product #1 best quality, you buy now" type quality of employee) selling "off-branded" starter sets or $200 high-mechanical mods (and totally unsafe batteries to go in them, SMH). Either you get the cold shoulder, or the grandiose, pompous sales tactic from someone that knows nothing about the product.
My go-to B&M is a completely different animal. At first, I thought they were okay, not sensational. But as I've visited regularly, I've seen them grow with both the variety and scope of their product offerings, as well as the general positive attitude and knowledge of the owners and employees. They're certainly mom & pop (husband/wife owners), who are learning about the vaping journey just like all of us. As they've continued in their business, they've listened to customers, learned about the diverse needs of vapers, and actually know how their products work.
I really was impressed with how they've redesigned their store--different cases/stations for different vape gears: ego's, VV/VW mods, mech/rebuilding section. Along with that, everyone behind the counter has their own "specialty"--"New to vaping" salesperson, "VV/VW mod" specialist, and "Mech mod/Rebuilder." It's really a great idea to be able to have diverse knowledge on staff to meet every customer's need. Refreshing and inviting for a vaper of any experience/need level. Now, their juices still suck (IMO), but they've subscribed to a different business model--superior customer service warrants the 10-20% markup over online prices, they'll never match that with juice prices/availability--too many variables in the juice dept. to meet the needs of a small community.
My go-to B&M is a completely different animal. At first, I thought they were okay, not sensational. But as I've visited regularly, I've seen them grow with both the variety and scope of their product offerings, as well as the general positive attitude and knowledge of the owners and employees. They're certainly mom & pop (husband/wife owners), who are learning about the vaping journey just like all of us. As they've continued in their business, they've listened to customers, learned about the diverse needs of vapers, and actually know how their products work.
I really was impressed with how they've redesigned their store--different cases/stations for different vape gears: ego's, VV/VW mods, mech/rebuilding section. Along with that, everyone behind the counter has their own "specialty"--"New to vaping" salesperson, "VV/VW mod" specialist, and "Mech mod/Rebuilder." It's really a great idea to be able to have diverse knowledge on staff to meet every customer's need. Refreshing and inviting for a vaper of any experience/need level. Now, their juices still suck (IMO), but they've subscribed to a different business model--superior customer service warrants the 10-20% markup over online prices, they'll never match that with juice prices/availability--too many variables in the juice dept. to meet the needs of a small community.
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