wow..i found a store nearby...

[J.R. Bob Dobbs]

I simply cannot believe what happened to me today. I found a local store, and a smile crested my face...until i walked in.

I sat there 10 minutes, no one was there. As i went to walk out the guy arrived. Then the downward spiral began. The "owner" was wearing flip flops dirty shorts and a t shirt advertising sexual positions. Yeah...

The store barely had one small display case, mostly filled with glass pipes for "other things." tons of incense sticks and several displays for tapestries.
the worst part...
his entire stock was 4 vision spinners and 1 v max and 5 or 6 assorted kanger t3's
he sells 30mg liquid and does not warn customers about 30mg.
he has several bottles of "base" vg/pg that he just adds flavor drops to. WHich is fine normally. However in two different 10ml bottles he added 6 drops in one and 4 in another then shook it and handed it to the customer. Saying nothing about steeping etc.

The guy basically blew me off as if i had no idea what i was talking about. treated all the customers that came in as if they were his servants and said"hey i need to go eat, i have to close" to one of his customers.

Now, me being who i am i went in there looking for a job and possibly become an investor with him. I have a ton of experience in retail mgmt and vaping so i thought where better to share my skills? But it is hard to try and take the high road here and help him out when he has zero experience vaping, zero experience in retail and no desire to learn. How do you guys suggest i approach this? let him give vaping a bad name and see his business fail or try to help him succeed?

i love the fact there is a vape shop a mile from my house, but this so far is almost as bad as a gas station ecig.

i am in no way trying to advertise for myself or this shop. I am merely looking for ways to help, or not help a new vendor in my area who lacks the knowledge of vaping.

 

[DC2]

How do you guys suggest i approach this? let him give vaping a bad name and see his business fail or try to help him succeed?

Judging from the sound of things, the guy has everything working just about exactly the way he wants them to be working.
I doubt he would be very interested in any of the changes you would be suggesting.

 

[tyancey00]

open up next door and put him out of business....

 

[Deacon Aegis]

Stay away from this type of vendor. You'll get nothing positive out of it and you don't want your reputation involved. If dude owns the place, he owns it and throwing your money and time towards something like this is not a good thing. Just my two cents...

 

[ScottP]

open up next door and put him out of business....

^ This .

 

[JR 137]

If you truly think you can help him run a great vape shop, then you can run your own vape shop IMO. Easier said than done due to start up money, but it can be done.

One other thing to consider - if he's the owner, would you really want to work for this guy? If you went in as a partner, don't you think you'll constantly .... heads with him?

I definitely empathize with you. I've been looking for a local vape shop. Found two shops within somewhat reasonable driving distance through the Vapor Search USA website. Both are online only and won't let me come pick stuff up for some reason, even if I order it online.

I saw an ad for a 3 store chain smoke shop/vape shop during the Maury show. Went to one, and it was almost all "water pipes" and "hand pipes." For vape gear, they had a single 5 pack of Vision clearos. No batteries. They had a bunch of Vermont Vapor 30ml bottles, but only in 1 nic strength; I think it was 12mg. The guy seemed like an alright guy when taken into context. He admitted he had no knowledge of the stuff, and the owner didn't know much more. He said a ton of people have come in asking about their vape stuff and walked out. Kicker is vape is part of their name (I won't mention their name because I don't want to promote them in any way).

I've been seriously contemplating opening up a vape shop of some sort. I think my only realistic shot is a mall kiosk, due to severely limited funds. Not some shady mall kiosk (lack of) quality gear, but some real gear and juices. I really like the Halo line of gear and juices, so a Halo kiosk makes a ton of sense. If it does well, move into a small store in the mall.

There's more to it than that, but like what I think your circumstances are - there's a potential market, and the only competition is a bunch of incompetent people. An honest vape shop that's not slinging smoking paraphernalia should clean house.

 

[zapped]

I agree and sympathize with everything you said except for needing to warn customers about 30mg juice. Its only 3 percent by volume. 36mg used to be sold by vendors all of the time and was intended for use by heavy smokers. Even if someone came into the shop and was dumb enough to purchase 36mg having never smoked before I doubt it would do more than make them mildly sick.

To break it down for you:

Ultra Lights: 6mg
Lights: 12mg
Mediums 18mg
Full flavor : 24mg
Filterless and Heavy Smokers (1 or more packs a day) 36mg

 

[transmothra]

Perhaps... there is such a thing as TOO much Slack?

 

[J.R. Bob Dobbs]

Perhaps... there is such a thing as TOO much Slack?

One can never have too much "slack" though one can over use their available slack. And enter the realm of what we call "bieber"