Buying local (B&M) Vs the Internet

[MrsMac]

I went into the local shop here when I first decided to look into vaping. Its a new shop and he makes the juice himself. He was the most unhelpful person. He didn't even attempt to explain any of his products. He's basically just threw the prices at me. I ended up buying juice at Smokes for less(a cigarette/cigar shop). Doubt that new shop will be in business long.

 

[frankzuber]

No problem with my shop Cool Vapes in Pittsburgh. I couldn't imagine buying juice without trying it first

 

[four2109]

I stop in if I want to put my hands on something, or need something simple like heads. I'm usually turned off by the way they treat their customers. Most have never been to the forum and get sold an ego kit or expensive mod. They don't even list on the forum's locator. The staff tend to be clueless, never smoked, or cloud chasers with a motorhead mentality.

 

[Dfinch]

B&M always gets first shot at my money. This is true for vaping and my other hobbies (golf being the big one).

I expect a markup due to overhead. I also expect that markup to be reasonable. When it's not, and they won't deal, I buy online.

There are two shops I regularly visit. One is a "high end" shop. Markup is huge. Juice prices are reasonable and I used to buy quite a bit there. They have had supply issues for quite some time now, however, and I've since moved to DIY. On my last visit an employee asked what I've been vaping lately. When I said it was my own recipe he said "Oh, you're one of those guys".

The other shop always asks what the product I'm looking at is going for online and will say "how about..." and give a price with a reasonable markup. When common MVP2 prices were $40-$55 theirs was $75. They sold my wife one for $55. That's reasonable.

They sell kanthal by the foot. It's significantly more than buying a 100' spool online for $5, but significantly less than the $5 for 3' the other shop charges.

That said, I bought my Sigelei 100w and last three RDA's online because they didn't carry what I wanted.

 

[four2109]

Yeah, It always bugs me that they make labels and claim china liquid to be theirs. I don't have a problem with china liquid, and don't charge me more because you made a label. That said, if that's how they pay their expenses, OK, I DIY anyway. They are handy to have around.

 

[ProjektMayhem]

I rarely buy things online. The only time I shop online is when it's something that the local B&M doesn't carry yet. Like I had to go online to get the Sigelei 100 watt. But all my RDA's have come from B&M 3 out of my 4 mods, all my tanks, and most of my batteries. They have awesome flavors that are actually popular flavors and their in-house flavors aren't bad either. I do get Zamplebox now though so I haven't been buying juice there. But I haven't had an experience where they don't seem to want to talk to me. Just the other day I was in there hanging out for a while and we were building and trying eachothers mods/builds out. The 90% of the employees know what they're talking about and what they're selling you. There's just one guy in there I don't like talking to because he has no idea what's going on. I've seen other people post similar things to what you posted and that really sucks when you don't have a good B&M nearby

 

[BostonSean]

I shop for basically everything online except for clothes and I even do that from time to time - generally some novelty item or another. I even order my main groceries through Peapod, my coffee from specialty sites, etc. Surprisingly, living around Boston there are very few vape b&m's.

Last week I drove to Mansfield (15 miles) to visit one and it was alright. You can vape in there so they let you sample any juice they offer (77 at time of visit, Wicked Vaped btw) which is very cool. As much as I would like to support a true store trying to make it in a new(ish) market I just don't find the same satisfaction as I do when shopping online with a million choices, buyer reviews, finding the best deal for the product I want, etc etc.

Then there is the massive price difference. I started with buying electronics online-only like a little over a decade ago. I used to build all my computers from the ground up and the difference in price, service level, and sheer volume of products between Newegg and Best Buy is so huge it's a no brainer. Now the same holds true for pretty much any product. The only reason I'm not big on online clothes shopping is I'm a fanatic and try on everything to learn only about 1/10th of what I try on actually looks good

Anyway, that's just my

 

[Paul Williams]

I usually buy from b&m simply because I give them money they give me stuff, no waiting for the postman! Luckily my b&m is reasonable on price and always ready to advise.

 

[bigdaddybrink1]

Depending on what I'm buying I perfer to shop online. However for MOST juices, I do like to hit the shop. Unless the juice price online is super cheap, or someone has reviewed it. A few times. I see your in Texas, if your in the DFW area, there's more than a few shops. I will also shop online, to see the price of the device or tank or whatever is I'm lookin for.

 

[Wolfenstark]

I buy online because i want to buy USA made juice and the journey to a b&m store is long from where I am.
Some companies personally write on the invoice and that is nice.
I haven't had any issues and if i lived in the USA I would probably still order online unless a store close to me was one of my favs.

 

[Hulk]

The Place i go was very helpful when i bought all my stuff. They were very nice and i got to try all the eliquid i want and they have a point system so i can get free eliquid when i spend so much and he said any and what ever nicotine level. Only thing is they don't carry a lot of supplies other than eliquid, just some of certain things but they have stuff for every level of vaper.

Prices are like $10 to $20 more on mods and stuff but the coils are cheap there, same price on line as there.

 

[amoret]

I'm disabled and live in the middle of nowhere, so I buy everything but perishable groceries online. I didn't have much choice when I started vaping, and the one B&M I stopped in out of curiosity didn't quite seem to expect fat old grandmas as customers.

 

[Fattlestar]

The two B&M's near me are like that. Seems like they don't expect people outside of the "type" they are used to as far as customers go.

 

[FRSguy]

In my area there is not much of a selection of places that are really any good with the exception of one which I go to every Friday. The mark up on products varies wildly over internet prices like for instance the nautilus full size goes for $25 but then the evic I purchased was 103 which was way steep. It works like that with them and if you want to buy a provari they dont even publish pricing you have to ask and it changes all the time. I do love purchasing from them and they do have a large selection but the problem is that they seem a bit dated... they dont carry anything that is new. With the RDA's for example they only sell about 4 to 5 different models and for some reason tons of patriot stuff like caps and what not. For some reason they dont carry anything like the bid dipper which I want and even the kay fun is the original version and to top it off they are usually out of stock for what I want. The place is always packed with people trying out juices and shopping though and it has fantastic atmosphere and most are knowledgeable about the products (the ones that arnt are dangerous). Inspite of the fact that I want to give them my business it just does not change the fact that unless I want products from a few years ago its just not going to be there... its like they got in to vape and just dropped out when it came to which products are the most popular.