The Times Herald (Norristown, PA)
Vaping fallout: Small stores suffer as vapers turn away
NEW YORK (AP) » The thousands of shops that sprang up in cities and towns across the country over the past decade to sell vaping products have seen a stunning reversal of fortune, with their sales plunging in just two months amid news reports that vaping has sickened nearly 1,300 people and killed 26.
People who turned to vaping products to help them quit smoking have been turning away, even teenagers who used the products illegally, although the U.S. Centers for Disease Control says most of the people who suffered lung injuries from vaping were using products containing THC, a component of marijuana.
One estimate says 200 vaping stores have closed, while some owners report the loss of nearly three-quarters of their revenue. Some vape shops have been forced to lay off staff. Many owners, former smokers themselves, fear customers will go back to smoking cigarettes.
Spike Babaian says business is down as much as 70% at her three New York vaping shops since reports about people being sickened by vaping products began appearing in August.
Babaian just closed a fourth store rather than take a chance on renewing her lease. She worries about not being able to recoup the lost revenue.
“We can never undo the government going on the news and saying it’s not safe to vape. The damage has been done,” says Babaian, who has been in business for eight years.
Federal health officials have yet to pinpoint the exact cause of the illnesses and deaths. While they search, they are advising Americans to refrain from using any vaping products.
Steve Nair has had to lay off five of the 40 employees at his eight vaping stores in four states; his sales are down by half.
“I had to meet with them a few weeks ago and say, ‘things aren’t looking good,’” Nair says.
The stories are similar at the es
timated 15,000 to 19,000 small businesses across the country that sell vaporizers and vaping fluids used as a substitute for smoking.
Sales dropped precipitously as customers were frightened away by the first government reports of people sickened or dying after vaping. The CDC has since said most of the nearly 1,300 illnesses reported were due to liquids containing THC, which gives users the high they’re seeking from marijuana. Those products are sold illegally on the black market, not in neighborhood stores.
Many people are still shying away from mainstream vaping products and the impact on the industry is pronounced. Greg Conley, a spokesman for the American Vaping Association, an industry group, says 200 stores closed since Aug. 1, a number he calls “a conservative estimate.”
Calls by government officials including President Donald Trump and the governors of states including Massachusetts, Michigan and New York for bans on sales of vaping products are increasing owners’ anxiety. A four-month ban on sales is in effect in Massachusetts. In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo wants to ban sales of flavored vaping liquids. Those products are targeted because of their appeal to youthful vapers, but they account for the majority of sales to all users, including adults.
“That would probably put us out of business pretty quickly. We sell only these products; there’s nothing else to fall back on,” says Nair, whose stores include one in Buffalo, New York.
The CDC reported in 2017 that nearly 7 million adults, or 2.8 percent of the country’s adult population, used vaping products. Last year, it counted 3.6 million middle and high school students who were using vaping products. Under Food and Drug Administration regulations, retailers cannot sell vaping products to people under 18, and more than a third of the states have higher minimum ages. Store owners are required to verify a customer’s age when they enter a store.
James Jarvis began seeing sales at his five Vapor Station stores in Central Ohio slow in early August and the drop accelerated into September.
“All you were hearing were headlines saying it was making people sick and killing them. It doesn’t do much for consumer confidence,” he says.
While the industry might not elicit much sympathy because of criticism that it sells nicotine products to minors, industry groups warn of the potential consequences of any ban for the many smokers who used vaping products to quit cigarettes.