The new activity in today’s world is vaping. What is it and why do we do it? Vaping is a form of smoking, or an electric cigarette, if you will. You can purchase vaping kits at shops specializing in this product. Head shops have been around for years and are now in direct competition with smoke shops.
Challenges of Smoke Shops
Although vape shops and smoke shops sound alike, they’re vastly different. Vape shops specialize in vaping equipment, including refillable e-cigarettes, flavor cartridges, and other paraphernalia. Vape shops, with such a diversified product line, allow customers to taste an assortment of e-juice, as it’s called. These solutions come in an assortment of flavors and strengths. Vape shop owners and workers need to take precautions when handling these solutions, which could result in nicotine toxicity. However, the chance of health issues hasn’t slowed the vaping industry down, as many new vape shops are opening up every day.
How They Stay Competitive
In a controlled study, e-cigarettes were proven to be safer than tobacco cigarettes. The overabundance of tobacco tar in the specimen jar was alarming. That explains the popularity of vaping. People use e-cigarettes as an aid to quit smoking tobacco. In communities, smoke shops have become a popular place to find kratom. Kratom is a new and legal hallucinogen made from the leaves of the kratom tree. The kratom tree is a tropical plant found in Southeast Asia and has been popping up in vape shops. Kratom adds to the diversified product line these shops offer, which increases their appeal.
The Evolution of Smoke Shops
The 1960s is also known as “The Hippie Era.” It’s a time when there were protests of the Vietnam War. With the prolific use of marijuana and other hallucinogens, what started as small candle stores or poster shops in the Haight-Asbury district of San Francisco emerged as head shops. A head shop is a store carrying items related to tobacco and marijuana. Some carried specialized magazines relating to the cannabis culture and tattooing, music, psychedelic posters, T-shirts, and other drug paraphernalia. The head shops eventually waned as Baby Boomers aged. The existence of head shops was also found illegal in many places. The handful of smoke shops remaining, and the introduction of vaping, started a resurgence of the new and improved smoke shop. Now referred to as a vape shop, there’s a crossover of products. Tobacco is selling alongside vaping products.
It seems that vape shops are cropping up at a rapid pace. Within the last 10 years, their existence has jumped to more than 7,000 locations. Even though smoke shops carry some vaping products, few vape shops carry tobacco. With the push to legalize marijuana, there may be a revival of full-fledged head shops.
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