Vaping Will Be Starbucks...if we're lucky.

When Vaping Becomes Starbucks

(I Don't Deserve to Vape at Starbucks: part 2)

  "Our mission to inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup, and one neighborhood at a time."- Starbucks mission statement

I spent ten years in the wireless industry. It takes two things to be a talented salesperson: 

1) The ability to reshape a person's preference to that of your own while allowing them to take credit...and

2) Unemployment 

  

In June of 2000 I had both. I had what older sales people called "The Gift." I could back a customer into a position of hate and make them crawl themselves out by convincing me to let them buy. By the way; In the year 2000 it was no easy task to sling phones. The number one objection thrown at cell phone sales people was,

"I don't need that ...it's just an extra bill."

Spoiler Alert: 14 Years later- Everyone has cell phones. 

I didn't work for AT&T. I didn't work for Sprint or Verizon. I didn't work for any major wireless company at all, in fact. 

I worked for Jim. 

The wireless industry was the story of small business; Mom and Pop shops with little old ladies telling you about the hot new technology. But the owners got smarter and the sales people got slicker; before you knew it there were comprehensive systems and training manuals (complete with sales tricks- most of which I wrote- for three of the largest National indirect companies in Wireless). 

Our hottest seller? This guy:

Suddenly the wireless "industry" was everywhere. Shady buildings with beaten carpets and suits eager to make a deal. The "Jims" of the world were ready to open two, three, maybe five locations.  They were the front line of cell phone sales...they didn't actually work for the wireless company, but they had an agreement to sell their product. 

And although we didn't know it at the time; we were teaching the Corporate Wireless companies how to pitch their merchandise. Then...suddenly... they did. 

Then there were less Mom and Pop stores. 

Then there was Best Buy, Circuit City and Costco...

Then there was Walmart.

...and then... it was over. 

The small business had grown too much too soon. 

My wife is actually getting her upgrade, today, at Best Buy...remember...I gave Ten years to that business...now you can buy it with a laptop and a blu ray player.

This should all sound familiar. In North Carolina we're a little behind the eight ball in the Vaping industry- but this is a good thing. We're -only now-watching the explosion of the Brick and Mortar location. We're unifying our events with other states ; And lest we forget, we  are in the heart of Smoking USA; there is no higher potential for new consumers.

Within the past six months the concept of vaping stores has gone from innovative to industry in North Carolina. We also have the luxury of observing the other state's pitfalls thereby creating a completely unique set of circumstances. 

Will we learn? Probably not.

We are probably ushering in the first wave of e-cig awareness. Then the sharks will smell blood. 

To some; the measurement of success will always be excess. To others, conquering one concept proceeds launching another. Somewhere in the middle you can find success. 

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I've been considering the parallels of the small businesses destined to live exclusively at Walmart. What happens to these inventions? When does the soul die out of their concept? The cell phone, the vacuum, the washing machine...items that created 1000's of jobs for qualified sales people. How did Starbucks make a cultural movement out of coffee?

The reason is identity. 

Starbucks- for better or worse- creates a community. That may very well be the salvation of Vaping. 

Mammoth business of the E-Cig caliber can only become Starbucks or be sold off to Walmart. Your neighborhood bar will either be "Vapor Ale" or within five years we'll be buying mods at Target. That's it- those are our choices. 

Nice packaging and complete kits are first. 

Then they will replace your store with "convenience" and low prices.  

It's time for us- as some have-  to answer the question, "Now what?"

Because a definitive winner will emerge. A business of community or a business that just happens to include our bullshit. 

...
So I sit at Starbucks and receive nasty looks when I walk in with my mod. I don't vape there, as their rules suggest. I find my old place outside and vape in the same area I used to smoke...and I wait. I wait for someone to build a business that acts as a vaping agenda rather than a store.
Where customers engage in activities not couches. This persons agenda will become Starbucks for us.
The vaping lounge is a good idea but it doesn't inspire the same level of inclusiveness I'm referring to.
So what will it look like? Barnes and Vapers? Vapes and Busters? Borders Books, Music and E Cigs?
Vapebucks?

Or will we all end up at walmart...with our eggs, cell phone, movies and itaste?

I don't deserve to vape at Starbucks. I don't deserve to vape anywhere ,technically. But I would love a brand new set of businesses that rely on me (and people like me) to fuel them.