4 Vape Shops Within Walking Distance Of Me

I was wondering what people think of such stores. I know most of us are against the very thought of tobacco now that we are vapers and I have seen people slam such stores in a couple groups I belong to.

I personally don't mind them because the one I go to is actively trying to turn their tobacco customers into vaping customers. But I know other people who see them as nothing more then cancer merchants since they also profit from tobacco.

One thing I found really interesting is how certain vendors will not do business with them. For instance, on the B&M's Facebook page, they said they were getting Five Pawns juice. I went to the store to buy some and was told that it will only be in their couple vape only shops because Five Pawns refuses to sell their liquid where tobacco is sold. This is a bit disappointing to me because if it wasn't for the tobacco store getting me to switch, I might not be vaping.

Sent from my HTC One M8 Harman/Kardon edition  

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'm Philadelphia for about a week while my wife has surgery. Philadelphia hospitals have a reputation like Philadelphia Lawyers: The best. She had decompression surgery on her neck to relieve pressure on her spinal cord. She got through the surgery ok, and we'll hope for a good recovery. Since hospital visiting hours don't start until noon, I've had the opportunity to visit quite a few shops in and around the city.

The vast majority of the "shops" listed by google are smoke shops that sell tobacco, CBD, sometimes marijuana paraphernalia, and a modest selection of vaping stuff. Most of that is pods and e-liquid. There are a few dedicated to vaping, but again, pods reign supreme. The clerks shrug their shoulders and say, "that's what people want to buy." Two shops had a couple RDAs and RTAs, one had a couple mechanical mods on a dusty shelf, but the clerk knew nothing about them. I tried to tell him about constant contact switches, but all I got was a blank expression on his face. This store was the only one I found that actually had cotton and wire, although he had to go into the back room to bring out an old box of disorganized wire spools, some of which were unspooled. It was all plain wire too. One shop had a small number of premade coils.

A big disappointment was Vapordelphia, an iconic destination store back in the day. All pods, CBD, and e-liquid.

Another disappointment was Preferred Vapor, which did mail order business until the ban. Their web site still shows a vaping lounge and juice bar, which now are closed due to covid. The clerk said that the store probably won't survive much longer.

The other thing that really struck me was that while driving around the city, I did not see one, not one person vaping. Of course most people are walking down the sidewalks wearing masks, and people would probably flip out if you blow a cloud their way.

Over all, it's a pretty sad state of affairs. The used record shops are good though.  

With so many debates about public vaping raging here, I started to wonder how many people around us are stealthy vapers?

People who vape at home and in their cars, but not out in public.
People that vape with a stealthy setup indoors - around the corner, in the rest room.
People that go outside and vape with the smokers.
People that use small devices with less vapor.

It was common to see posts here about people never having seen another vaper out and about only a short time ago. Now that vaping is much more mainstream and available, I wonder how many people around us are stealth vapers, getting their nic fix right under our noses? Thousands of ego and evod setups are being sold every day, yet very rarely do I see another vaper, unless I'm in a vape shop.

My guess is that stealthy vapers make up more than 75% of all vapers. They just go unnoticed. They might be standing right next to you.

The Invisible Majority?  

So I heard that the ban in New York will take effect even after the small delay. I'm wondering how I will be able to cope soon. Vaping for me does great things as it keeps me off cigarettes. But one major thing it also does for me is that it lowers my stress level and it relaxes me. Being that I have vaping I have no need to try other things that can be complicated. Someone once told me that my vape is like my pacifier because I always have it in my mouth and I turn to it whenever I am stressed and have anxiety. Truthfully it's terrible that I will be forced to use my pods because Juul couldn't keep their products out of corner stores and leave them for vape shops. When these kids have health issues they blame it on vaping when their parents ask them how it happened and they wanted a high out of school. Even though there is something called deep breathing and vaping isn't done that way I know it cools me off. Many times I was stressed and sweating because, I started to vape and it had it that I was finally able to feel the temperature of the air outside. People need to understand that going with this ban is All Or Nothing thinking, things one is told in therapy to avoid. Now that "it affected a minority" people take it away completely from those who are benefiting from it. Those who are banning - please use common sense - vaping is a lot safer than cigarettes and people are constantly dying from smoke. Vaping was the best thing that has possibly happened in a really long time. Tobbaco plants had a misconception that it was supposed to be smoked until technology introduced a safe method. If it was vaped from the beginning of time people would have lived much longer lives and more people would be born. Those who are cracking down please take this into account.  

I was surprised by this chart that I recently came across.

It shows that the USA is the biggest market by far for vape products.

There are still over a billion, old fashioned tobacco smokers in the world. Vaping has been around for many years already, yet there are only slightly over 40 million vapers in the world, of which I am proud to call myself a part of that wise group.

With all of the anti-vape propaganda and nonsense taking place, it seems that there is a movement out there to keep those billion+ cig smokers hooked on their cigs and also to deny the 40+ million vapers out there the freedom and the choice to remain cig free.

I guess it's better that millions of people die from cancer, because vaping is just pure evil and the work of satan, or something like that. Oh, and think about the kids. Nevermind the kids who would previously just start smoking plain old regular cigarettes before vaping ever existed. That was never a big deal.

Here is the chart I found showing the top vape markets in the world.

And notice how there are no third world countries on the list? Isn't vaping banned in India? That's insane. That country has a huge population. How stupid of them. Their actions are contributing to the deaths and diseases of an awful lot of people.


And here is a link to the article which the chart came from:

How many people vape?  

I just felt the need to share a short version of my journey to date:

I had been vaping part time you about 2.5 years before my new (now ex-) girlfriend got me to walk into what was pretty much the only vape shop in town. After trying the V3 eGo setup, I bought a tank to replace my older eGo-T crap tanks and some juice. the next weekend, I bought an entire new eGo kit and gave her my old batteries so she too could start vaping. We both cut down on smoking by 50% in a couple of days. It took me a total of 12 days to decide I was done with cigarettes and by the 4th week, I was the owner of a Provari. This all started a year ago now. The Russian 91% followed quickly after that. Next wednesday will be my TRUE one year vapaversary. I since acquired a second Provari for a ridiculous price and 2 more Kayfun clones.

I will not hide that there have been temptations, even lately, to try an actual cigarette, but I have been keeping strong. I did smoke a small cigarillo at the company Christmas party last December and resisted the urge to ask for one or two more from my coworker.

I have not felt the need to stop and take a 5-10 minute "breather" for about a year now whenever I do just about anything physically demanding and I have to thank vaping for this. I also now have a great vape shop minutes away from where I live and have been into various vape shops halfway around the world (work related travels... I'm not that rich and I can get great juices 5 minutes from here) I still get one or two juices form that first vape shop I visited, which now has 4 locations, all of them at least a 30 minute drive from home.

Remembering last year, I do miss my ex (we left each other on good terms) and I really wonder how she's doing on her side with vaping. I know she's got a great shop near where she now lives and hope they have been able to help her. I have been to that shop, but was on a business trip and it was hard enough to know she had to go back to her hometown, so I didn't call her to let her know I was going to be in the area. It's probably better that way, although I still think about her.

It's been a great journey and I now can't wait to get on my old hybrid bicycle to see if I can now keep those racer owners behind me for good; during one of my last rides last summer, 2 of them took the better part of a mile before they finally passed me, and that was on the slope uphill on my way back from my 1 hour ride. I still weight over 250 pounds, BTW and will train hard to make those snobs eat my dust with a definitely inferior bike like I used to 10 years ago

Thank you ECF for helping to keep me on track and enjoying vaping so much!  

Tonight I took my Mom grocery shopping, and as we were walking down the cereal aisle of Meijer (large chain supermarket in michigan, a little more upscale that walmart) this guy, probably late 20's early 30's comes around the corner with his girlfriend/wife, holding a box mod of some sort in one hand and a bottle of juice in the other, then proceeds to take a huge hit and blow a huge cloud, fogging out part of the aisle for a few seconds. There were a couple other shoppers in the area and I didn't see their reaction, but I was a little disgusted- not at the vapor, which smelled like vanilla or something as we walked through it, but that he didn't even try to hide it. I mentioned to my Mom a few minutes later that "those" kind of people are going to ruin it for everybody. Not an appropriate place for blowing clouds- not that there are any rules against it, but still, have some courtesy for others. Not everyone likes walking through clouds while shopping. I didn't object, however I had left mine at home after taking a few hits, and was fine until we got back- about an hour and a half. If I had gone by myself, I would have vaped in the car, but left it above the sun visor in the locked car while I shopped. No need to take it inside, even though mine isn't capable of producing thick clouds. The whole time we were in the store he carried it around in plain sight, even when he wasn't hitting it. Just an observation. No, there is no secondhand smoke, no horrid smell, and no messy ash, but it looks like smoke. That's all it takes for some people to complain.  

I'm pretty disappointed with how this hysteria turns out. 3 months ago we just had a very good pro-vaping website from the government. And now the very same Ministry of Health is planning to propose legislation to ban all flavoured e-liquids except tobacco, mint and menthol

Currently, the vaping community and all vape stores in NZ are asking kiwi vapers to sign a petition to propose this plan. One example is this store
Oppose the flavour ban now! Keep your right to vape!

Unless there are some big guys in the government help us, I'm not sure if this petition really affects the outcome  

I was thinking the whole situation in many countries that vaping is straight up banned or illegal....and also countries like USA that is not that extreme but still many regulations going on and anyways we all know the big tobacco companies and what they try to do.

I am sure tho that vaping won't be stoped...u can't stop vaping and all the big tobacco do is to try buy some more time for them cause they know that cigarettes are in their end..

I don't know how long this will last but I am sure vaping will make cigarette smoking obselete and it will go very big...

Europe claims they have a plan to end tobacco use until 2032 or something like that for example....maybe that happens and it would be good cause it's for everyone's good.... but u can't just fight vaping and let smoking still exist...

Vaping will be back and for good....the people slowly start accept it and learn it cause honestly imagine how many smokers are out there and how many vapers...while vaping is much more enjoyable objectively...

We the people didn't support vaping enough...
ok maybe we the vapers did but I mean the majority out there don't......people are scared and they don't like to change their habits easy....even if it's for their own good.

I know politics are corrupted and all that....but some of us live in democracies maybe not perfect but still....if all people wanted to stop smoking and switch into vaping to make their life better then they couldn't stop us...
Worst case they would do it to get votes like they usually do with everything they do... not that they care for us...

So yeah vaping will go very big the next year's..