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TOBACCO BUSINESS INTERNATIONAL
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2015
Terry Schmitz, zone leader. His stores
mostly sell “Big Tobacco” e-cigs, and
mostly through coupons. “We just this
last year got into the vape business, so
I can’t say we are losing business to the
vape shops,” Schmitz admits. “We are
learning, and this is the hard part of
the business—there are so many new
products and so many new terms to
learn.”
On the “Challenging” Side:
The
e-vapor focus at Klafter’s in New
Castle, Pennsylvania has been about
trying to grow the category within
the story in a “manageable fashion,”
says Randy Silverman, president.
“The challenges are to determine the
brands and items we carry, to ensure
that we have adequate stock and to
educate our salesforce,” he tells
TBI
.
“We believe that we can be extremely
competitive with vape-only shops
both on price point and selection.”
It is hard for Klafter’s to quantify
whether it is losing volume to vape
shops since the category continues
to grow, Silverman reports. He
observes that “Due to the newness
of the category, it is still evolving,
and the customer base seems to shop
in multiple stores looking for new
products.”
On the “If You Can’t Beat ’Em,
Join ’Em” Side:
After watching closely,
Klafter’s saw some logic in joining the
vapor shop competition with a store of
its own: last April it opened a vapor-
only store next to one of its existing
stores in Erie, Pennsylvania. The new
shop is bannered as “vapor friendly.”
“Our goal was to see whether we
could create a standalone business,”
says Silverman. He reports a “steady
growth” in the store since it opened.
Nevertheless, there are challenges,
and they are not too different from
those faced by traditional tobacco
stores: keeping up with the constantly
changing
technology,
managing
the diverse brands of juices and
maintaining a knowledgeable staff, he
explains.
“Like the premium cigar category,
vapor consumers are very passionate
about vaping and expect more from
the sales staff than they may get from
a typical tobacco outlet,” Silverman
reports. “However, tobacco outlets still
have great opportunity for sales in the
vapor category.”
And so, during the new year,Klafter’s
will continue to look for other locations
for standalone vapor stores, while also
expanding the vapor category in its
existing tobacco outlet stores.
On the “Joining From a Different
Angle” Side:
Puff Super Value in
Mill Hall, Pennsylvania is another
traditional tobacco store that has
already made the leap into vape-only,
albeit from a more conservative stance.
“We have one shop set up partially
as a vape-only shop; it is attached to
our tobacco shop in another room,”
explains Brad Mahoney, partner in the
business alongside his father, Paul. “We
wanted to experiment with the idea
but we will not go vape-only entirely
because you never know what may
happen with government regulation,”
he says. “Besides, diversity brings in
more consumers.”
On the “Customer Base” Side:
While Mahoney believes his
traditional stores compete against
vape-only shops, he is confident that
the customer base is distinct. “I think
we mostly get customers that want to
convert or supplement their cigarette
habit,” he says. “We don’t cater to the
people looking to build their own
mods and the ones that have a really
advanced knowledge of vapor. We
have so many more products than
a vape shop, so we are more for the
beginner vaper.”
TBI
electric
ALLEY