If you live or work anyway in Gloucestershire, you’re likely to have come across one or two vape shops recently. In fact, if you regularly visit Gloucester city centre, you’ll have walked past many more than that.
It’s not often a totally new kind of shop pops up where you live. But we reckon a lot of you will live somewhere that has welcomed at least one vaping shop in the last year or so. This is a new industry that has a huge target audience – and since many people will probably try and quit smoking for the usual New Year’s Resolution, we think business might be booming early in 2017.
And that can only be good news for the vape shops in Gloucestershire and beyond. There is nearly a dozen of them in the city centre alone, with more to be found if you head out into the surrounding areas of the city. this can only be good news if you happen to be switching to vaping for the New Year, or you simply want to speak to someone or check out the goods before you buy.
How long will this explosion in vaping shops last?
Well, there must be a saturation point, but we’re not sure that has been reached countrywide yet. There’s a chance it could be getting close in Gloucester, but beyond that there’s a good chance many other shops will be popping up as we go deeper into 2017.
Vaping has become more popular recently, leading to rising sales in the industry. Until very recently, you had to go online to buy whatever you needed. There was no such thing as a vape shop. It was only a matter of time before that changed, and it’s changed with a vengeance in Gloucester.
Mind you, start looking somewhere like London and you’ll find many more than that. It’s not unusual for businesses to start popping up in areas where none exist – and where there is a demand for the product and service.
Will the Tobacco Products Directive reduce the number of shops?
It could do. The new rules were introduced in May 2016, and by May this year (2017) all products for sale must adhere to the new rules. This means all old stock must be sold or scrapped by that date.
While e-cigarettes with no nicotine in them won’t be covered by the directive, those containing up to 20mg per ml of nicotine will be. It remains to be seen whether any shops will cease to trade because of the rules, but this could happen due to competition too. There must be a limit to the number of vape shops that can trade successfully in any one place. We doubt Gloucester has reached that limit yet, or will do soon. But we will be watching to see whether it is this or the TPD that makes a real difference to how many vaping shops we see in our towns and cities this year.
