Major cities across the country have passed sweeping regulations against e-cigarette use over the past few months, but e-cigarette shop owners aren't too concerned about losing customers.
Los Angeles just banned e-cigarette use in virtually all public areas on March 3, and they were just following suit with similar legislation that's been passed in Boston, New York City, Chicago and other smaller cities. Shop owners are a bit nervous about what to expect when the new regulations go into effect over the coming months, but they don't think a few new rules are going to halt business.
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“I don’t feel like it’s really affected sales, at least initially," Matt Levinson, manager of MoVapes in New York City, told Mashable. “People are going to [use e-cigarettes] whether or not it’s allowed by city law."
That's a sentiment reflected by store owners throughout the country. Vaping, as using an e-cigarette is called, is hard to detect because the vapor produced by an e-cigarette quickly vanishes and leaves only a faint scent.
“Who’s going to enforce it?" asked Jared Yucht, the owner of Smoque Vapours in Chicago. "I’m not telling people to go out and vape indoors, but that’s what my customers are saying [they will do]."
But store owners are concerned that e-cigarette users will now have little incentive not to switch back to smoking. In New York City, for example, vaping will soon be restricted to smoking areas. The thought is that any vapers who used to light up will now be forced to stand around smoke and they might return to an old habit.
"It’s taking somebody and putting them in the path of their own trigger," Spike Babaian, co-owner of e-cigarette retailer Vape NY, told Mashable. "The smell of cigarette smoke, the look of cigarettes, is going to drive them back to cigarettes.”
But other store owners have faith that customers who are former smokers won't turn back.
“As far as losing business, most of my customer base is built on people who used to smoke and don’t want to smoke anymore," John Hartigan, owner of Vapeology Los Angeles, told Mashable. Later, he added, "I don’t actually think we’re gonna see any [losses], outside of the people who were already on the fence.”
When Hartigan mentions people who were "on the fence," he's talking about anyone who thought about switching to e-cigarettes for the freedom it afforded, but now might not because of the regulations. He's not the only shop owner who's thought about that.
"I would say maybe it discourages new users who wanted to use it for the sake of being able to vape everywhere, if that was what was attracting them," Levinson said.
Still, none of the shop owners Mashable spoke with said any customers told them they would no longer vape because of the new rules. Some asked questions about the regulations, but no one came into a store adamant about switching to smoking or dropping the habit altogether.
A few shop owners even think the rules will help drive sales. If any of the stores also have a vape lounge, suddenly that lounge is one of the few places people will be allowed to use e-cigarettes outside their own homes. If they're around the shop more because of that, it can't be bad for business.
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