On October 14, 2019, US Pacific Daylight Time, let’s focus on the days before the Oregon e-cigarette ban will take effect, and take a look at all kinds of behaviors of American smokers.
In the Portland area, many e-cigarette stores have already reaped large revenue before closing on Monday night, but shopkeepers are still complaining – it’s not enough.
Marcus Nettles, owner of an electronic cigarette store called Rose City, said: “This is definitely my busiest weekend so far.”
In recent days, nettles says, 80% of his business has come from e-cigarettes. “It’s really hard, because I’m glad that e-cigarettes sell so well, but from tomorrow, they will all disappear, no matter how big my previous sales are.”
According to some e-cigarette store owners, many customers even came from Washington, where the ban had been imposed, just to stock up on more e-cigarettes.
“I try to buy as much as I can, as long as I can afford it, that’s my goal,” said Makayla Sether, who uses e-cigarettes. “I’ve been smoking it for five years and it doesn’t have any medical side effects or problems.”
“The whole ban has blindly shut people out, those people have no idea what it’s like to fight against addiction,” said Molly Bourke, who has been vaping for 15 years. She stocked 10 bottles of oil on Monday. She was also worried about what would happen to her if she ran out of these stocks before the ban was lifted and was unable to give up smoking completely.
Similar to Portland, Springfield, the owner of many e-cigarette stores, has just had the best sales weekend ever, none of which can save their future business.
Eric pinnell, the boss of an e-cigarette store, like many of his peers, was desperately cleaning up inventory before the ban came.
“This weekend, we’ve been selling everything at cost.” said pinnell “At this point in the price of the sale, we completed a full week of business in one day” .
“We have to change the way we think, and we will learn how to make our own products,” said Rachel goyette, an e-cigarette user. At the end of last week, she stocked about two months of vape juice.
The electronic cigarette stores in Springfield basically offer a discount of more than 30%. The sudden arrival of the ban has caught many e-cigarette owners off guard, unable to make an effective response.
“Although sales have increased by about 300% over the weekend, the government still hasn’t given us enough time to clean up our inventory.” “It’s going to close a lot of e-cigarette stores,” Ridley said.
Pinnell fired his only employee Sunday in preparation for a sudden drop in sales. He will also meet with a bankruptcy lawyer on Tuesday. “When I lose $9000 to $12000 a month in sales, I have to think carefully about how to pay $5000 a month in operating expenses.”
