Got off work early and decided to cruise around. Noticed a new vape shop and went, "sweet, let's check it out!" First impressions were good: warm greeting by the two gentleman manning the place, nice clean shop, juice bar, big tv, etc.. etc..
Asked them about how long they've been in business and asked about their house juices...then asked if they carried any diy juice supplies. That's when their mood u-turned. They buried their face in their phones and gave little to no attention to questions I had about their juices or their opinion on the products they sold. It's as if the moment I mentioned I diy, they were thinking "oh god, one of these guys..."
I bought one bottle of juice (that I'll now try to clone) and walked out. I really wanted to like this well kept shop, but their attitude just made it awkward. Anyone else have this kind of experience?
DiY'ers don't make easy customers for a vape shop blowing money like most other vapers that are dropping a few hundred a month, you may stop in to pick up some kanthal, but even that is unlikely...
I've kinda gotten that vibe but I stick to the same two shops both of which get a lot of business from me cause I'm a mod junkey and hate buying online.
Retail vape shops make their profit by selling juice, not mods or anything else really. The rest is just to get people to come in to buy their juice @ 200-800% markup depending where they are getting it from. Mech mods, regulated mods, all typically less than 100% mark up and it's not a constant purchase item.
On the upside to this, I just got asked today if I would go into business with my local shop making juice for them, distributing along the west coast as well, within the next 6 months. I brought the 50 or so bottles I had sitting in my "later" box and they liked quite a few of them (including a few of your recipes I've tweaked wink). Not to suck your dick too much here, but I owe you a ton of thanks. You've probably been the biggest help to me, along with /u/abdada, /u/returnity, and /u/thirdworldorder.
I see you must be going in alphabetical order which is why I'm mentioned last. In all seriousness I hope you reap some sort of rewards for what you've given back to the community.
All the others you mentioned deserve an enormous amount of respect and I do hope that /u/abdada quits acting like a beta and starts posting here again like the sigma that he is.
I don't give back as much as I'd like. Work is constantly sucking all the free time from my life. I plan on posting a purty tasty recipe soon, if you guys are interested. I'll probably end up using that recipe for my line.
I had a nice chat with him earlier. He's got some big things in the works, it seems.
My local's the opposite - they have a DIY mixer in house and only sell their own line to my knowledge - prices are pretty decent, but they charge a fair (IMO) markup on hardware. An IPV2 mini, for example, goes about $90 there vs $75 online.
I spent about $16 on a 30mL last I was there, I think. It's good quality, though - I've gotta hand it to the mixer(s), they're good at it.
They do build and wick RBAs, teach newbies, all that sort of thing, without asking for cash though.
Most customers who tell me they DIY do so after tasting a bunch of flavors and all but scoffing at them.
Then they ask if I want to drip some of their juice. I don't want to be rude so I say sure. It tastes like a single flavor flavorwest mix or it has notes of dusty basement.
I tell them it's pretty decent but not really my speed.
After acting weird for a little bit they then leave without buying anything or saying bye..
Not saying this happens every time but more often than not. Same kinda thing goes on with dudes who build their own mods although not as bad or often.
Hahaha now you're making me self conscious about asking the owner of my favorite shop to test a mix I'm working on and seeing what he thinks.
Oh dude I've definitely tried some really amazing stuff. There's a local guy who's been working on a bunch of cereal flavors and they've all been really good and I wish he'd just launch his line already.
I don't understand how these stores can get away with charging the same prices for 30ml of juice as 1L of VG.
There's some unnecessary upcharge in my opinion but a lot of the cost of doing business has nothing to do with the cost of ingredients.
Labor is friggin' EXPENSIVE. To employ a $10/hr person it's going to cost a small business owner about $18/hr. I've done it, I've seen the costs mount.
Rent, electricity, insurance... it all adds up.
I decided awhile ago that I'd never get into the ecig game as a dedicated vendor. The margins are way too thin, the competition is cutthroat and entitlement is off the charts.
Now: the shops that are slamming FW into some base in the kitchenette in the back and charging $10/15ml? Fuck them. There's a shop here in Denver that does do this but they charge $3/30ml. That's more like it.
I've had the same thing happen to me recently mentioning DIY liquid, except it was at a shop that I spend a good amount of money at, and know the guys.
I also had a similar instance when I asked if a shop had nickel200 wire. They didn't even know what it was and when I started to explain they sort of shut down.
At all 4 of the local vape shops. They all featured young kids at the counter, most likely making minimum wage and not earning tips. I was getting tired of standing at the counter with no one else in the store and waiting for them to come out of the backroom so that I could buy some juice. Pay like that is just a recipe for horrible customer service, nothing against the kids.
I also ran into a different problem with another store where they were rebuilding and repackaging protank atomizers, trying to pass them off as new, and selling them for the same price as the new ones.
It's entirely for these reasons that I got into DIY.
Glad I have a diy shop down the road. They carry whole lines of capelLa. Fa. Fw and tfa. So nice being able to run out and grab a flavor I need instead of waiting a week. That said ive never had an enjoyable expierence in a b&m as the prices are so outrageous.
Happened to me recently. I am perfectly ok with supporting my local vape shop from time to time. I went in was courteous told him I was looking for some Alpha because I have not yet been able to clone it. He immediately ignored what I said about cloning it and tried to sell me a competition coil for my Aeolus. "competition" I was like you charge for that? Being that the last shop I frequented a lot just did it for free for customers who purchase juice regularly. He is like ya 20 bucks. I said I could by enough cotton and kanthal to last me a year for 20 bucks. I was nice and laughed a little at the situation he stopped talking to me and his mom I'm guessing came out older lady who it looked like they ran the store with. I explained what I was there for and she even offered to purchase some juice from me if it was good enough, that they were always looking for new juices.
It really depends on the person. I even told the guy that I understand he is a brick and mortar and needs to make his money but 20 bucks for a coil build? He had let me try out his "competition" build and it was good I open it up see what looks like dual 26g twisted and mention that I think that is what it is and say what is it .2 ohm? he said it was .15 but it wasn't not with how many wraps he had no way more like 2.5. Hey i could be wrong but I probably pissed him off more than anything lol
I don't understand why that's the people you, or anyone else for that matter, would go to to show progress. Granted it was an odd thing for them to do, but go to the DIY ejuice exchange and have someone there try it. Shop owners don't give a shit, so give it to someone who does.
Ouch, that sucks. There are so many shops near me that I haven't even been in them all - however, the one I go to the most is really supportive. None of my friends vape so I like to take a mix I've been working on there, see if other people get the same notes and flavors I'm picking up/see what I could add to it.
I also spend a decent amount of money there, but still. They're also hugely supportive of the DIY community in my area two - probably about half the juices they carry are made locally by small companies.