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JULY/AUGUST 2015
trench marketing
a wide array of smokeless tobacco.
His vaping store, the appropriately
named Vapeology, will be focused solely
on vaping. It will feature a 12-foot juice
bar appointed with lounge chairs and
TVs.Fancy cabinets and 34 feet of display
cases will house authentic mods, RDAs
and an assortment of other devices and
supplies, including major and premium
juice lines on the market like 5 Pawns,
Space Jam, Cereal Killer, Suicide Bunny,
Midnight Oil and many more.
While the balance between tobacco
and vaping products may continue
to shift in one direction or the other,
Lindquist seems content no matter
where it is at any given moment. “There’s
a demand for tobacco that’s never going
to go away,” says Lindquist. “Where
there’s demand, there will be retailers
to meet that demand. There are always
going to be people smoking no matter
what alternatives there are, even if the
government keeps taxing tobacco. And
keep in mind, they’re going to tax vaping,
too.
“The government wants to tax both
tobacco and vaping, and they don’t want
people to quit either of them because
there’s a lot of money to be made taxing
them. It hasn’t happened yet with vaping,
but it will, because everyone sees how
popular it is,” he says.
“I don’t do any advertising at all other
than by using Facebook,” he adds. I don’t
spend a single cent on it, and people
keep coming in. I don’t have a rewards
program, but people keep coming in.
The older customers still want their
cigarettes, and the vapers want all of it.
It’s not a habit to them, it’s a hobby, and
I have to work hard to keep pace. I just
buy and sell the products, so I have guys
that are gurus—the nerds of vaping—
who know the ins and outs. Without my
guys and the Internet I’d be lost; they’re
the only way I can keep up with what the
customers know.”
TBI