I have to jump in here, even though my experience is fairly limited in this subject, only because I've been meaning to rant about it for a very long time. I've only set foot in two B&M shops ever, and won't ever do it again. The first one is the only one I've visited more than once; a friend who had just gotten into vaping brought me there who bought everything there (all his equipment and liquid) so I was pretty excited. The idea of being able to get liquids and hardware that very day appealed to me, and the idea of actually physically being around other vapers did as well. Keep in mind this was about two years ago. So I walk in and immediately realize everyone in the place (including the guy behind the counter) was at least 10 years younger than me and are all taking turns tweaking something and trying to out do each other with how large of clouds they can make. I ask the attendant what kind of NETs they had and he had absolutely no idea what I was talking about. I explained, at which point he used some other term I had never heard (and haven't heard since) which apparently referred to what they do, which is basically use tobacco flavoring, which is not what I was looking for at all. He then explained, rather condescendingly, that what I called NETs were actually bad for you because there's bits of tobacco in them. Ok, whatever. I had my Vamo V2 at the time, and was asking him if he would be getting in the V3 when it came out when he got even more condescending and explained that they didn't carry "beginner APVs" (meanwhile 90% of their hardware was ego batteries and evod clearos). I didn't want to not buy anything and they had a sale on their house-made liquids so I bought a couple bottles of fruity tasting stuff for my fiancee, since their tobacco flavors didn't interest me at all. At this point he goes over to his teenage friends and joins them in tweaking their giant devices in order to produce more massive clouds of vapor (which I still don't understand, since when I vape portability and flavor are my main concern, and my "beginner APVs" work just fine for me). The liquids were awful. Even she didn't like them, and she's pretty forgiving. So my buddy calls me up about a week later and asks if I want to go with him again. Sure, I'll give them another shot, I needed some more IMR batteries anyway. This time I actually do get my batteries, but get talked into buying some of their liquids, which also turn out to be awful. I have thrown out every bottle I ever got from them, I cringe to think about the money down the toilet. The second store I set foot in was on my 31st birthday about a year and a half ago, and I'm downtown with my fiancee, my brothers, and some friends and I see a vape shop, which is great because I wanted to pick up another clearo while I was out so I could use it while we bar crawled. This place literally only sold their own brand hardware, none of which worked with anything else (you had to buy a whole system from them) and some liquids that I didn't even bother to try. Long story short, between the outrageous prices for hardware, the know-it-all attitude of basically clueless employees and downright terrible liquids, I have no reason to ever go to another. I love the stuff I get from places like HHV and goodejuice, and waiting a day or two for hardware at half the price is just fine with me. Again, I realize not everyone's experiences are the same as mine, but I'm done with B&Ms.
