doglips Posted October 9, 2009 Share Posted October 9, 2009 Why do retail stores only seem to carry the higher priced e-cigarettes? I came across E-cigarettes at a truck stop. Seen them but a "kit" was almost $90 so decided to look online. Found Awesome Vapor and Vapor Kings and decided to go with the DSE801. The other day I was low on juice so hit a tobacco shop. They had e-cigs for $129, but no juice or spare batteries. Long story short...and back to the original question. Why is it that you only find high priced (over priced) e-cigarettes and no supplies in retail stores? I really feel that these retail places, would do better, and help others to learn the joy of vaping vs analogs if they carried the 901, 801 510 and other type of e-cigarettes and of course the juice. Lets face it a bottle of juice equals a whole lot of analogs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sinikal Posted October 9, 2009 Share Posted October 9, 2009 Why do retail stores only seem to carry the higher priced e-cigarettes? I came across E-cigarettes at a truck stop. Seen them but a "kit" was almost $90 so decided to look online. Found Awesome Vapor and Vapor Kings and decided to go with the DSE801. The other day I was low on juice so hit a tobacco shop. They had e-cigs for $129, but no juice or spare batteries. Long story short...and back to the original question. Why is it that you only find high priced (over priced) e-cigarettes and no supplies in retail stores? I really feel that these retail places, would do better, and help others to learn the joy of vaping vs analogs if they carried the 901, 801 510 and other type of e-cigarettes and of course the juice. Lets face it a bottle of juice equals a whole lot of analogs. Well, you know how businesses love a mark-up :rofl: But i suppose they overprice it because the average person that would buy e-cigs at a truck stop have probably never heard/seen e-cigs before, therefore not knowing how cheap you can get better models for online. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keenan Posted October 9, 2009 Share Posted October 9, 2009 Simple answer - capitalism run amock and oozing with greed . TheSmokingMan 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher Posted October 9, 2009 Share Posted October 9, 2009 Probably because the truck stand isn't buying direct. I would assume that another middle man is selling it to them for X amount and they raise that amount to make it worth their time. (Or the middle man told them that's a good set price) They also probably have no idea that the 510's etc exist. I'm sure if the ecig ever becomes FDA approved that you will see all kinda of models out their. The price however, will not drop. I also doubt you will ever see liquid for sale. It will always be carts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StringDancer Posted October 9, 2009 Share Posted October 9, 2009 Pilot Truck Stops sell a penstyle for what... $69? From my own searching of wholesale deals, the cost of a penstyle kit is typically somewhere between 20-30 bucks (assuming small to average buy numbers, and before shipping charges from China), thus a price tag of around $70 is essentially a 100% markup. So the many online distributors we all know and love selling penstyles at $50-55 are making very little money per unit, actually, and depend on volume business to turn any real profit. Passed on to outfits like Pilots at "low-retail", and you can see why the average cost of a penstyle is nearer a C-note than not. I might disagree with Chris on the price of kits not dropping if the FDA ever signs off on e-cigs. Economies of scale and all that. Were e-cigs to get the FDA nod (for all that's really worth in terms of credibility), there would be massive campaigns develop to promote them, and I think the price could well drop... but probably not by much. Tobacco stores will be the first to stock them, and I would think we'd see massive numbers of smokers converting in just the first few months. What concerns me if e-cigs ever become "sanctioned" is the government coming along wanting to tax the living daylights out of them. Now, a modest tax is appropriate, maybe, but if they try to apply our massive tobacco taxes on a product that neither contains tobacco nor has the litany of health threats associated with it, I'm gonna cry foul. Tobacco tax monies that actually go to moderating the social costs of smoking is one thing, but to dump exorbitant tax burdens on e-cigs (especially if further studies substantiate our belief that e-cigs are more or less health-neutral) would be totally inappropriate... sin taxing taken to an extreme. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheGreen Posted October 9, 2009 Share Posted October 9, 2009 My guess, overhead. It cost more to have a pysical storefront. And convienence. No waiting for it to be shipped. But still overpriced for a cartomizer. Which was my first e-cig. 1 batt, 1 charger, and 5 carts for $60. 2 weeks later, I bought a 510 from Arno. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher Posted October 10, 2009 Share Posted October 10, 2009 I suppose I should have gone a little more into my statement, I just woke up so I don't feel like typing an entire statement but I assume that the ecig WILL get taxed. A sin tax no doubt. I also get the feeling it will eventually be controlled by a select few and your only options will be cartomizers. Just my thoughts on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheSmokingMan Posted October 14, 2009 Share Posted October 14, 2009 (edited) I suppose I should have gone a little more into my statement, I just woke up so I don't feel like typing an entire statement but I assume that the ecig WILL get taxed. A sin tax no doubt. I also get the feeling it will eventually be controlled by a select few and your only options will be cartomizers. Just my thoughts on it. What is it that makes you say that? Have you heard of something coming down the pipe or is that your analysis from the past and other products? I personally think that the reason e-Cigs are overpriced in the retail locations is because the people selling them (store owners and managers) are just ignorant as to what it is and how much information there is on-line about it. They don't carry replacement parts or refills because they actually believe the advertisements and the wholesale salesman's claims that say the carts in the package are equal to a carton of analogues. Truck stops don't rely too much on repeat business from day to day as most of their patrons are just passing through and won't return back that way for maybe months or a year. The mall kiosks will be folded up and gone by the time you return for extras and they have a high rent to pay to the mall for the space. The tobacco shops don't really want to carry this product because it could eventually cut into their main products of tobaccos and cigars and they think that it is a passing fad. Therefore, they don't take the time to look into the rising popularity of the product. If a person or establishment is serious about selling a product they are going to find out as much as they can about that product so they can better market it and service their return customers and build a customer base. Like Arno at AwesomeVapor, Parked at dietSMOKES, VaporKings and you guys here at Vapor Talk. Y'all have done the research, made efforts to change the design of various models to the manufacture, have actively helped knock down legislation against the product that y'all so heartily believe in. You guys are in on a ground floor opportunity and you know it and by building a good reputation you will always have a good customer base and return business. The retail locations haven't been convicted about this product yet and will not get very much of the market share until they are sold on this product. Besides all that, they're just greedy! Edited October 14, 2009 by TheSmokingMan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher Posted October 14, 2009 Share Posted October 14, 2009 No I say that for watching the market and my own personal opinion. Let's say the ecig is given the stamp of approval, they are going to want it in the safest possible form. Selling 30ml bottles of juice filled with nicotine isn't going to be one of them. We can't be trusted with that kind of responsibility. (Sarcasm) Cartomizers give more "cigarettes" per cartridges than traditional cartridges do. I just see these being sold at your local gas station over liquid. That's not to say perhaps there will be way to purchase liquid online, it just won't be mainstream. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheSmokingMan Posted October 14, 2009 Share Posted October 14, 2009 No I say that for watching the market and my own personal opinion. Let's say the ecig is given the stamp of approval, they are going to want it in the safest possible form. Selling 30ml bottles of juice filled with nicotine isn't going to be one of them. We can't be trusted with that kind of responsibility. (Sarcasm) Cartomizers give more "cigarettes" per cartridges than traditional cartridges do. I just see these being sold at your local gas station over liquid. That's not to say perhaps there will be way to purchase liquid online, it just won't be mainstream. That makes perfect sense, good thought process there Chris! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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