I Think I Did A Good Thing.

I had to take my roomie to the hospital for a persistent problem he's been having, so, while I was waiting, I went downstairs to vape on the bench outside. A security guard spotted me and told me, "You can't smoke", so I responded, "It's not smoke; it's vapor." That's when I spotted a young lady leaving the hospital and pulling out her PV, so I asked her which B&M she gets her stuff from...we struck up a brief conversation and then parted ways.

A few hours later, I had to take the very same roomie back to the hospital, this time to the ER--again! It was so busy it took him 3 hours to be called in and another 4 to be released. Meanwhile, when I stepped outside for a vape, I spotted another vaper in the wild: an EMT puffing on a Blu cigalike. He saw my MVP and commented, "Ooh, a vaporizer!" He told me he was thinking about upgrading to a mod. I suggested he did so.

 

There are so many vape shops in my immediate area now that I can't even keep track of them all.

Even though I still qualify as a newbie vaper, since I've only been vaping for a few months, I now know enough about vaping to know a terrible vape store when I see one.

I was in a vape shop some weeks ago, and what I witnessed shocked me.

This vape store sold the typical premium juices and brands that you'll find everywhere and they also sold some hardware, like clones and mods.

They also had their own brand of cheap, in house juice which they sold and which they would also give out to customers as part of their rewards system, where customers who earn enough points will get a small, free bottle of juice.

While I was in the store looking around, another customer was there and they were getting a free bottle of that in house juice, and they were sampling different flavors, to see which one they wanted.

The sales person asked the customer what nicotine level they wanted, and after the customer told them, I saw the sales person walk towards the middle-back of the shop, and in less than 30 seconds, the juice was mixed and ready to go. The sales person was just eye balling the nicotine content! And it was being mixed right there in the open, in the middle of the shop!

I don't need to be an advanced vaper to know that this is not good at all, and I am shocked that somebody with such bad knowledge would even dare to open their own vape store. Needless to say, a vape store like that probably won't stay in business for long, when there are so many other better options around, with more knowledgeable people working in them.  

I was out of town visiting a friend who, like me, owns the provari P3. We were talking about the update they recently came out with for the P3 and was discussing perhaps sending them back to Provape for it.

He had a local shop nearby that was listed as a provari dealer. We gave them a call asking if they could download the update for us. They told us the guy who could do it would be in later the very same day.

We decided to go over and check them out, all the while keeping our expectations low.

We're two older guys, a little rough around the edges, weather beaten if you will. We walked into a store that was packed with vapers of various ages, and I do mean packed to the hilt.

I figured this will be a long wait if we get helped at all. They had a small group of people playing a video game on a large screen TV, vape was heavy in the air.... but I felt at home.

Within seconds of walking in the door we had an associate come to us. We told him what we were there for and he directed us to a guy in the back, who was talking with other customers. As soon as we approached he stopped talking and asked us if we needed help. We asked about the update, and he apologized saying he left the software at home, however, if we didn't mind waiting he could download it to his laptop within 10 minutes.

No prob.

Less than 20 minutes later we had our mods back in our hands with latest bells and whistles. We asked the guy how much, and he shook our hand and said, "have a nice day!".

I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried. So my friend and I bought $75 worth or juice instead.

My only issue with the place is I wish they were closer.

Skeebo  

My son told me his GF's daughter was telling everyone at school how "Gumpy" (me... my first grand daughter gave me that name) had all these wonderful tasting vape juices and even makes his own. He warned me not to talk about vape around her (she is 6) I feel like some kind of criminal and now have to be careful about saying anything vape related. Her mother (son's GF and mother of my other two grandchildren) was very upset with me. Anyone else have a similar story? How do you all feel about this? We are never going to beat this bad rap.  

I just returned from my biannual Doctor's visit. While there I told her that I was over 90 days cigarette free. She asked me if I had gone cold turkey. I told her about vaping and how it had allowed me to quit. She was very happy that I had quit. She did not mention anything about vaping, positive or negative. She just focused on my quitting and ask about food taste and smells. Continuing through the visit, while she was renewing my med prescriptions, she continued to reinforce my decision to quit and all of the positive things along quitting. As she left she was still smiling and happy. I also talked to one of her nurses about vaping and quitting and gave her my number and told her that I could set her up with a beginners kit from my gear that I don't use. Now I will sit back and see if I have recruited a new convert. Overall, I left the doctor's office with a smile on my face, too.  

Let me start off, I've seen numerous threads about vaping in public, mainly where smoking isn't allowed. This isn't really the topic about this thread, but a topic about the input of store management and their opinions on it!

So let's start off. To begin, I'll go ahead and let the cat out of the bag: the store managers input will be mine, the store I manage (a big box retailer, which I WON'T release the name of), and 2 others from my two good friends who also are on management teams.

So let's begin, shall we?

I'm very lenient on vaping in my store, obviously! I do it myself. I can understand why you would do it. I'll reveal one part of my job, and that's a pharmacy (doesn't really narrow anything down, most stores do!). We have a ton of older folks coming through and getting medicines and prescriptions, and other various groceries and items. Believe it or not, older folks are the majority of the vapers I see coming through!

But they are also ones more likely to complain, since a lot of them aren't aware of what it is.

So lets say you are walking around, shopping and checking items out. You're more than likely gonna be confronted by me for 2 reasons.

1. You are blowing decent sized clouds, not trying to be stealthy. A customer has seen this, and has complained.

Or

2. I happen to notice you doing it.

Now, both of these scenarios are gonna play out the same. I'll walk up to you, make sure your shopping experience is top notch, and then I'll ask you about your vape. I love seeing vapers in the wild! I'll ask about juice, your mod, ect. I may even mention this site but after we exchange friendlies, I'll let you know that you need to be stealthy to avoid bad attention. I'll pull out my gear, and show you I'm not your enemy, but in case you get enough complaints, I'll unfortunately have to ask you to stop completely. I've had some bad experiences with this, I'll tell later on.

So that person will be completely (hopefully) comfortable using their vape more discreetly. This is 99% of my encounters. However, there are some bad ones.

But as you can see, I'm not out to get anyone. And I've talked to a lot of other managers at my meetings from other stores, and they are the same way. They'd much more like if you asked a member of management before you start, but more than likely it won't be a problem. There are a few uptight managers, so watch out for those.

Now I mentioned my friends who are also managers. They work the same way as me! We are all different ages (22-38) and as long as you are nice, and respectable, they won't have a problem either.

So let's talk about my bad experience. This guy was definitely a rotten apple. He was chucking huge clouds straight up, and you can definitely see them over the isles. I had (I counted) 4 different complaints from different people. So I went over to him and gave him the usual talk, but he was negative about it completely. He told me he wasn't smoking, he was vaping, before I could even reveal I was one of him! He shrugged me off and walked away. I told him if I get enough complaints I'll have to ask him to leave. What did he do?

He walked back to be about 2 feet away, took a toot on his rda, (it looked like a doge, can't be sure!) and blew it straight into my face. It tasted like gummy bears.

This particularly irritated me, so I told him one last time to be more discreet, but before I could finish he cussed me out, and threw up some gestures that left a taste in my mouth worse than his gummy bears.

I told him if he doesn't leave, I'll call the police to escort him out. He basically shrugged it off, and continued shopping. So I called the police. Within a few minutes they were there, taking him out to write up an official banning from the property. I went out there to sign papers and he told the officer I kept telling him he was "smoking" and he had to stop.

Wwwwweeellll I pulled out my gear and basically started vaping quietly as I signed papers. I asked him if that's sure what I said, and help up my mod.

I'm hoping to share my experiences and my opinions with you guys and gals from a vaper, and retail manager. As well from some of my friends opinions, and they don't even vape! Most store workers (through these store chains) don't even mind as long as you aren't getting a ton of attention from other customers.  

I was out at the bar over the weekend, and went out to the smoking area to vape. I use and istick and nautilus mini, so there were no clouds at all. A couple of people were asking about e-cigs and if they work or not, no problem, I like to talk. Then the one guy starts telling me how he refuses to use them because they cause long term cardio and brain issues... what? I asked where he had heard this, of course he didn't know, he just knew they were bad, and more harmful than cigs. Crazy people, just thought I would share.  

I purchased my smok vct a1 at a local vape shop and was told the coils cannot be rebuilt another vape shop had the do it yourself kits for this specific sub ohm tank, the factory coil is a single, but the diy is a dual that tests at .41 my itaste mvp3 loves the diy, the flavor is amazing and so is the cloud, to the smoketek fans out there i highly recomend trying the diy, after watching the build video on youtube  

I've just been to a local vape shop poking around. The clerk told me something that I don't believe is true.

Is vaping a 3mg juice at 50 watts the same nic intake as 6mg at 25 watts?

The Math sounds reasonable, but I don't think it actually works that way, right?  

Is there anything more annoying than when people ask you if you're "smoking one of those fake things?"

I had 2 people today talking about the fakeness of vaping and how it's worse than smoking blah blah. I told them that the only real thing about cigarettes, is cancer. I also told them they smell like .....

End rant.