The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Business rolls up 3-in-1 smoke shop
Anyone looking for good variety at a smoke shop, should give The Boo-tique Smoke Shop & Vapor in Wellington a try.
“We’ve been here since February of 2011, so almost 10 years,” said Terry Jenkins, owner of the business at 676 N. Main St., who started it with his parents, David and Joy Jenkins. “The Boo-tique originally was a roll-your-own business.
“We had a machine in here where you could roll your own cartons. Well, the government changed the rules a little bit and those were no longer allowed.”
Jenkins said the store still has the same model without having the machine in-store.
“We just kept the rolly-our-own model,” he said. “Now, people buy a machine and take it into their home and save a lot of money on the backend.
“This town has been really supportive over the years. The people around here are just really good to the store. It’s a great little town.”
Jenkins said the business has adapted with the times.
“As everything changes, we’ve kind of changed our approach,” he said. “When they took the machine away, I had to focus on something else to try to bring in the business.
“So, that’s when it became a vape shop as well, and we changed the name to The Boo-tique, because it used to be Boo’s Make-and-Take for the first few years.”
Variety of products
The shop’s real appeal is in the variety of smoking products, Jenkins said.
“We just try to offer a cheaper alternative, and also, an option that helps them maybe give it up all together,” he said. “We’ve got the bag tobacco; we’ve got tubes, like cigarette rolling tubes.
“We have the vape liquid and coils, and we have the vape devices. We’ve got our own private label pop (soda). We have a pretty decent sized humidor; we carry about 100 different sticks (cigars). We carry a bunch of glass, and smoke odor- eliminating candles as well.”
Jenkins said the store also has added items over the years.
“I think folks should choose us because we offer a little bit of everything,” he said. “A lot of the stuff we have is based on the wants of customers. We’ve kind of let the inventory build as people have needed it.
“Some of the brands we have are Gamblers, The Good Stuff and Kentucky Select. We’ve also got five or six bargain brand actual packaged cigarettes.
“It was actually the big tobacco companies that forced us out with that machine. We no longer carry Marlboro or anything like that.”
Jenkins said the rolly-our-own model actually saves smokers money.
“If you roll your own, you are looking at savings of anywhere from 50 cents to $1.10 per pack or so,” he said. “You can’t do the rolling here, but the mainstay of the business for us is being able to provide all the supplies necessary for folks to roll it themselves.
“There was a rental fee for our machine when it was running; it was like a $10 rental. So, customers actually save even more money now when they roll it themselves.”
Jenkins said he also likes to hold events when possible
“On nice summer days we do events,” he said. “I’ll bring some of my buddies in that make glass and have them do some demos in the parking lot. That’s another thing that kind of sets us apart, that community engagement.”
Impact of COVID-19
Jenkins said his business, like so many others, was impacted by novel coronavirus pandemic.
“It was hard,” he said. “We had to close for the mandated two months. For the first month leading up to the pandemic, we all got a little weary. We switched to a curbside and take-out to your car.
“We then rolled that model for a week or two when we came back. It gave me time to rearrange things, so we could be six feet apart in here. We installed an all new countertop. The old countertop took up too much space, so we’ve definitely had to adapt.”
Jenkins also took time to thank his manager, Andrea Peterman, for the work she does.
“She does a lot of the dayto-day and leg work for me,” he said. “She’s really important to what we do, and does a great job running things.”
Peterman said the business is like three stores in one.
“The LD (Liggett Ducat) cigarettes are a big deal,” she said. “We sell tons of those. We run like three different stores. We got tobacco, a glass shop and vape shop all in one.
“We have three six-foot tall cases of vape devices. Right before COVID hit, we hit a vape scare and they changed the age on those so it took a hit. We went through a phase where vape fell off for a minute and now it kind of.is coming back.