The facility has opened within the group’s flagship Newbridge store and plans are now in place to roll out the service across the entire retail estate in the coming months.
Bosses said the clinic concept had been introduced to meet the growing demand for smoking cessation help as access to local services and vaping retailers massively reduced during lockdown.
Plans for the vape clinics to help more smokers quit were first outlined in May.
Director Doug Mutter said: “VPZ is the UK’s leading vaping specialist and we are spearheading the fight against the nation’s number one killer – smoking.
“We are proud to be launching the very first vape clinic here in Edinburgh and will soon be rolling the service out across our entire retail estate to give smokers the support they need to quit and help the country regain its momentum toward becoming a tobacco free nation by 2030.
“Smoking statistics are continuing to rise as the pandemic has triggered an increase in smoking rates and the public health problem has been compounded by funding cuts for NHS stop smoking services and local support groups.”
He added: “Our new concept is an investment to fill the void left by the loss of local NHS stop smoking services. We are so confident in the success of our new service that we are offering our customers a money back guarantee if they are unable to make the switch entirely.”
