Vape Shops Lock Down Part Of The Grand Reset?

Here we go again with the vape shops lock down part two leading to UKVIA planning to lobby the UK Government to reclassify them in future as ‘essential‘.

The question I’m asking in this ‘opinion‘ piece, is this all part of a greater plan or what’s been coined the ‘Great Reset…’ More on that in a moment…

For a lock down skeptic like me it seems ominous UK industry groups such as the UK Vaping Industry Association is looking ahead to more of the same in the future…

I could also ask how come UKVIA hasn’t lobbied for ‘essential status‘ since the last lock down – maybe it has and I missed it.

That aside, the fact remains vape shops will be shut during lock down two, so that horse has bolted…

Back in March this year I wrote the piece: Vape Shops Are Essential During COVID-19 Lock Down, and in that article the talk was all about the UK vaping industry calling for ‘clarification‘ on vape shops status, so it’s not as if they haven’t had forewarning.

The UK Government steadfastly ignored the calls during the first lock down, but were more than willing to lean on the vaping industry for the recent annual Stoptober quit smoking campaign.

Over in France, Switzerland and Italy, vape shops are deemed essential and you’d think the UK Government would be among the first to allow them to remain open.

Vape Shops Lock Down – More Smokers?

Add to the mix the new lock down of local ‘mom and pop‘ vape shops, and you can see why there’s a danger of many vapers going back to smoking.

Especially due to the stress of yet more prolonged house arrest – let’s face it, that’s what it is…

And don’t forget many local vape shops held on by the skin of their teeth during and after lock down one…could this latest shut down be the knock out blow to them and the wider UK vaping industry?

More on my thoughts on that in a moment…

I guess given the current mass hysteria around COVID-19, a virus the majority of people get tested for without symptoms and with a ridiculously high survival rate, there’s more important matters to worry about…

And no matter how you look at the Covid-19 science, smoking, unlike vaping can, does and will damage the lungs.

I’ll publish the statement from UKVIA Director General John Dunne in a moment…however even he calls this latest vape shops lock down:

…strange – and illogical…

Those words resonated with me and took me down the rabbit hole…or if you like, led me to don my conspiracy theorist hat …or as I prefer to call it ‘critical thinker hat‘ but hey both caps fit lol…

Vape Shops Lock Down – Lack Of Choice

Back in March I made the point e-cigarettes and vape gear could still be bought on line – from supermarkets and through many local vape shops offering click and collect or even home deliveries.

However not everyone can or wants to order on line, and supermarkets and chemists have let’s shall we say not the best variety and certainly don’t cater for the specific needs of sub ohm vapers.

And of course not every local vape shop has or is offering deliveries, click and collect or indeed sales from its website.

Lock down one saw over 1 million smokers quit with the majority using e-cigarettes and vaping – great news indeed.

However, how many of those probably picked up a JUUL or a Big Tobacco branded starter kit from their newsagent, corner shop, chemist or supermarket?

And given we in the industry generally see the majority of those kits as not on par with those from the actual vaping industry, how many of those impulse buys were used once or twice and chucked away?

My point is, had bricks and mortar local vape shops been allowed to remain open, smokers scared to death of COVID-19 or those wanting to quit would have had a far greater chance of quitting with the right gear sold to them alongside expert advice and much needed support!

So why is a pro vaping government ignoring the obvious health benefits of local vape shops?

Vape Shops Lock Down – The Great Reset

OK, here’s where I go a bit political – some might say tin foil hat wearing – but hey it’s an opinion based on more than few years of looking at alternative news and opinions…the sort banned from YouTube and social media lol…

I instinctively know something is afoot when alternative views are censored lol…

OK, I’ve been reading a lot recently about the Great Reset, and the phrase ‘build back better‘…a mantra that has popped up out of nowhere and is being parroted by world leaders and politicians on a daily basis.

It comes from the World Economic Forum, headed up by Klaus Schwab, who looks straight out of central casting for a James Bond bad guy…no really lol.

This is a grand plan where we as the people will eventually – as soon as 2030 if the powers that be have their way :

own nothing and be happy…

Yes that’s exactly what global leaders and think tanks are leaning towards – add the rise of globalism, and the world is now pretty much governed by the huge corporations rather than politicians, and things become a lot clearer.

In the case of vaping, look at the both Big Tobacco and Big Pharma – the most infamous of all corporations.

Once both saw threats to their profits from e-cigarettes, both moved swiftly in an attempt to corner the market by bringing out their own vape products or buying up others.

The massive threat from China and the explosion of vaping across the globe has severely dented profits. Add to that the hundreds of thousands of smaller vape businesses including e-liquid manufacturers, and yeah even that little local vape shop, and you can see why the big two are nervous.

Kill Off the Opposition…

If they cut off the smaller retail shops and even websites selling none Big Tobacco or Pharma vape gear…where will the upstart China based companies sell their wares?

Bottom line is – get rid of the alternatives and all that will be left will be Big Tobacco and Pharma vape products sold in and produced by globalist multinationals…

A very simple yet highly effective plan to quite simply take control, remove choice, kill off the competition and boost profits…

Don’t take my word for it, here’s what Klaus Schwab had to say concerning small businesses and the Great Reset:

In the new world, it is not the big fish which eats the small fish, it’s the fast fish which eats the slow fish

The bigger the corporation the faster it can swoop in and ‘eat‘ the little fish…in this case he/they mean big business devouring smaller businesses…

And yeah that includes forcing shut downs due to COVID-19 on vape shops, smaller independently owned pubs, businesses and shops…

The Fourth Industrial Revolution

Look at the big UK supermarket chains…apart from Dinner Lady e-liquids, do you see many if any of the none Big Tobacco vape brands brands on sale?

Probably not…

So, and it might be a quantum leap for some lol, doesn’t that look like the beginnings of a monopoly between the huge corporations?

The Great Reset is all about that if you drill deeper into the flowery words.

It’s about using COVID-19 to bring in what they’re calling the Fourth Industrial Revolution…

In other words, from your local small business, a bakery and butchers to even that local family owned vape shop, the Great Reset would see them closed for good, the staff and owners thrown on the scrapheap – retrained into mundane mediocre jobs and all paid a universal rate.

It’s as if this New World Order [the Great Reset is just another name for that conspiratorial sounding big idea] is all about killing off entrepreneurship, and let’s face it, vaping is one of the most successfully led entrepreneurial industries we’ve seen for decades.

The big corporations detest competition and work hand over fist with governments to bring in enough red tape and regulations to put even the bravest entrepreneur off starting a business, whilst they sit back and enjoy tax breaks and obscene profits.

So forgive me if my old cynical brain wonders why on earth we and other countries are rushing helter-skelter into lock downs that will devastate small business and throw hundreds of thousands if not millions to the wall.

For me the answer is simple…

If we see wave after wave of COVID-19 lock downs not many smaller vape shops or businesses will survive – some may be lucky and get gobbled up by those ‘fast fish‘ but not all by a long way.

My heart bleeds for smaller vape shop owners clinging on with bloodied finger nails to stay afloat and especially how the UK Government in particular continues to use vaping as a blueprint for it’s grand plan of becoming a smoke free country by 2030.

Wait…haven’t I just mentioned 2030 as the key date for the Grand Reset to start kicking in?

Just a coincidence – nothing to see here…

Vape Shops Lock Down – UKVIA Says It’s “Strange and Illogical”

OK, and has I said at the start, it’s the words from UKVIA’s John Dunne that spurred me to write this opinion piece.

So, and as promised here’s his statement in full:

Whilst we recognize the predicament that the Government faces, with data highlighting the worsening coronavirus situation across the country, as an industry we feel extremely disappointed that the vaping sector has once again been overlooked as one providing essential goods and services.

Only earlier this year Public Health England acknowledged the contribution played by vaping in helping smokers quit and recent research has again highlighted that vape products are much more effective than NRTs in helping smokers give up.

It seems strange – and illogical – that the Government is happy for people to continue shopping for alcohol in off licences, which don’t appear to be on the non-essential shop closure list, but does not allow them to buy vape products or gain specialist advice in store that can help them to quit smoking, which according to PHE is at least 95% less harmful than smoking.

Vape retail stores are already well kitted out to be compliant with social distancing measures and do not deal with high volumes of traffic like other outlets. Only last month the Government-backed Stoptober campaign was encouraging smokers to quit, including through taking up vaping.

Those who took up the challenge during the month now do not have access to the same level of support and products from their local vape stores. We will be making these points strongly to government on behalf of the industry and asking them to reconsider their stance on vape stores and reclassify them as essential in future.

In the meantime we will be giving every support to our members to ensure that they understand and adhere strictly to the new guidelines. Also, in anticipation of a second national lockdown, the UKVIA will be launching an industry-wide campaign next week to promote the fact that whilst vape stores will not be open for the next few weeks, they will be offering online click and collect and home delivery services as per the government guidelines to ensure that smokers and vapers can continue to gain access to vape devices and e-liquids.

According to research some 1m smokers have already quit smoking during the pandemic and we want to use the next month in a positive way to encourage even more to do the same. The worse thing that we need to avoid happening is people being tempted back to smoking or not trying to quit as a result of the stress caused by this latest development.

These are undoubtedly tough times for any industry and the vaping sector is no exception.

The industry proved to be incredibly agile during the first lockdown and I am sure it will rise to the challenge again this time around.

As a FMCG sector it will be important for the vaping industry to reopen for business in early December, the target date for the end of the second lockdown, so it can maximize sales in the lead up to Xmas and safeguard the thousands of people it employs in the manufacture, wholesale, quality control and retail of vape products.

Powerful words for sure, however, in the grand scheme of things – or should that be the Grand Reset – those in charge are on a course that if left unchallenged will see the decimation or resetting of many industries including vaping, with all the misery that will bring.

It’s almost like there’s an agenda written by the big corporations and rubber stamped by the puppet politicians.

Vaping In America Doomed With Biden As President

Just take a look at the current shit show over in the USA where they can’t even organize an election without claims of fraud. And trust me there’s some dodgy stuff coming out right now and you should be concerned about the future of democracy whichever side of the political divide you’re on.

And as for vaping…given the Democrats are fervent anti-vapers with Biden infamously saying he’s going to ban e-cigarettes in the USA outright…it’s just another tick in the box that vaping in particular is a big target for the Grand Reset.

The simple fact is, Governments across the globe ARE using the so called COVID-19 pandemic to remove our freedoms and civil rights and are itching to press that Grand Reset button.

In my questioning cynical and suspicious way of thinking, the vape industry is high on the list of targets to take down.

And in the eyes of the UK Government in particular, not deeming vape shops as essential so enabling many to go under, is about as cynical as it gets.

Vaping saves lives…but only those sub standards kits and e-liquids from Big Tobacco and Pharma is how they’ll try and justify it…

Am I over thinking this?

Do you think I’m a conspiracy theorist?

Do you run a vape shop and are worried?

Should vape shops been deemed essential?

Any thoughts, comments or questions please leave them in the comments below.

BTW and has I said at the start…this is an opinion piece and doesn’t necessarily reflect the thoughts of all the EcigClick team 🙂