Please don't tell me how and what to sell in my shop...

[FuzzyKitten99]

Yes there is something to the taking of ideas from customers and using them if there is enough of a demand.

However in regards to the electronic cigarettes, we don't and won't carry them.

Reason number one is we cater to cigar and pipe tobacco smokers. There are actually quite a few of the younger crowd going to pipe tobacco because it is cheaper, and is seen as a bit more classy. Cigars are becoming a thing that kids 18-20 can hang out and do legally here after the bar/restaurants prohibit their presence after 9pm, and I enjoy talking with some of the college kids who frequent our shop.

Anyway, we keep getting calls for the e-cigs, and most of the people say 'ok, thanks anyway' when we tell them we don't sell them.

However this girl calls and after I tell her we don't carry them, she proceeds to complain and tell me no one sells them around here, and that we should totally sell them.

I tell her we do see a market for it but not with us, because of our customer base, etc.

"But you could totally make a ton of money at it"

Yeah, I am sure I could but it is not our market base.

She repeats the same phrase about making money, and adds that she's 'totally serious'.

Well, given her voice inflections and vocabulary choices, I am guessing she's under 25, and I ask her.

"Believe it or not, I am 25 ya know..."

Well, I wouldn't know because you talk like my 13yo step-daughter.

And your manners of calling up and proceeding to tell me how to run MY business, are that of someone who has no class and I shame your parents for allowing you to believe acting like this at age 25 is even remotely ok.

[MournBlade]

I'm super cerial you better like listen to her cause you could like make money and manbearpig won't eat you if you listen to her.
What a twit, maybe she was high?
I had a high friend once tell me eating onion rings and french fries together were the best tasting thing on earth.
Maybe I should like totally be cerial for a moment and patent that super idea? I'll be rich!

[Mr Hero]

I have to ask. What exactly are e-cigs. I can't picture these settling anyone's niccotine cravings. Then again, I don't smoke so I may be ignorant in this area.

[MiloMorai]

It's an electronic cig that has no smoke or smell to bother non-smokers. some have water vapor and/or nicotine inserts.

[Andara Bledin]

It's an electronic cig that has no smoke or smell to bother non-smokers. some have water vapor and/or nicotine inserts.

Well, that's the theory, anyway.

I, apparently, am particularly sensitive to nicotine vapor. Which I discovered the hard way the last time my mother and aunt, who have cut down their smoking by 1/2-2/3, visited and used their ecigs.

It was after they'd been here a week and I was doing a shopping run with my mom that it finally hit home. In the house, it was too diffuse for me to really figure out what the smell was and where it was coming from. But inside my car, with just the two of us, it was immediately apparent. >_<

^-.-^

[MoonCat]

The SC might want to rethink this request.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-57...in-mans-mouth/

[Slave to the Phone]

Most people use ecigs to quit smoking tobacco. The OP works in a shop that sells tobacco. How would it possibly make sense for a tobacco shop to sell ecigs and lose their customers?

[Evandril]

Ecigs give you the addicting part, without most of the 'bad' stuff...So, if a store wanted to get all the refills, flavors, ect, you'd have a decent chance for a good market base. However, that is up to the store to decide, and the only one 'pushing' for something of the sort should be a salesman who wants to get their product out Even then, if I was trying to sell 'em to the OP, I'd have stopped before the girl did, since pissing off a potential customer is never a good thing!

Btw, MoonCat? Ecigs have been around for almost a decade, and that's the first reported explosion...I'm thinking it's not *quite* a common occurance quite yet

[Sapphire Silk]

Ecigs give you the addicting part, without most of the 'bad' stuff...So, if a store wanted to get all the refills, flavors, ect, you'd have a decent chance for a good market base. However, that is up to the store to decide, and the only one 'pushing' for something of the sort should be a salesman who wants to get their product out Even then, if I was trying to sell 'em to the OP, I'd have stopped before the girl did, since pissing off a potential customer is never a good thing!

Btw, MoonCat? Ecigs have been around for almost a decade, and that's the first reported explosion...I'm thinking it's not *quite* a common occurance quite yet

A doctor I used to work for tried e-cigs in an attempt to quite smoking. It was actually a nicotine inhaler. He went back to smoking because he was using the e-cig even more than the number of cigarettes he was smoking, and cigarettes were cheaper (this was 1996).

The FDA has the ability to regulate flavors of cigarettes, so I have to assume they can do so in e-cigs as well, so I really don't think there will be much of a market base for a specialty tobacco shop. If anything, it's counter productive and will attract a crowd that will drive the real market base away.

[earl colby pottinger]

The real question

Is if she is so sure that this will make LOTS OF MONEY, why does she not go into business herself selling them?

I have been approached a number of times to start up businesses that will make LOTS OF MONEY, but I always noticed that they expect ME to put up the bulk of the start-up money, set-up work (website) or to do most of the day to day operations of the business while they collect from the profits. No Thanks.

[zenhashi]

E-cigs are trending up now as a way to stop smoking...or at least stop smoking "conventional" smokes. :P

I've been thinking quitting myself, just one poison (nicotine) is better than nicotine + a gazillion of other nasty stuffs.

Over here stores aren't allowed to sell nicotine products by mail (or technically, it's illegal to have a third party deliver nicotine products), but it IS legal to order them from countries in the ETA (=EU) region..

So you can imagine how many order from the UK e-cigs and liquids

Back on topic, I might suggest something if I really like the store and think it'd fit in their "style". But e-smokes to a cigar and tobacco shop?

Also, I might suggest something, but I don't get pushy about it

[EricKei]

Raps - In that case, I would just cut them off and begin with an estimate of the price increases ... After all, if they want you to reformat your entire business to suit them, they'd damn well be ready to foot the cost for all of the customers who don't particularly want the stuff they're looking for, and who would then take their business elsewhere.

I can see it now....

SC: Yes, you people would do SO much better if you carry X, Y, and especially organic Z from that little farm up the road...

Raps: Sure thing, ma'am...Let's see...Given the increased cost and lowered availability of getting your items due to the facts that almost nobody makes them and the ones that do are tiny, the extremely limited market for these products, and the business we will lose by diverting a chunk of our operations over to the new format...Let's see. I will need to get five million in cash from you up front to cover conversion costs alone (we'll get to the serious costs later), and we will have to implement a one thousand percent markup on all of the items you requested. Oh yes, and the minimum order size just went up because of this; now the minimum is one entire 18-wheeler trailer full of goods per order, payable 100% in advance, and we'll have to eliminate giving you refunds for any reason. And, of course, the fees to refrigerate any food items you order, as these companies often do not use preservatives...Now, all we need to do is get that startup cash from you and we'll be happy to begin ^_^

[earl colby pottinger]

Size of market vs present market

There are also those who think a Ma & Pop shop can't really be that big, the computer store I worked at made $10-35,000,000 a year in sales depending on the local governments buying patterns for the year.

People were always suggesting million dollars business ideas to my boss because they assumed the small store front meant small sales (a lot of our sales were direct shipments from source to client).

Of-course they wanted him to risk the locking in his government contracts for a business one tenth the size of what he was already getting.

Was not going to happen.

[blas]

I didn't like e-ciggs. I wasted $40 on a kit that had a carton's worth of refills and whatnot. I barely finished one tube or whatever. It wasn't the fancy kind or the kinds that are supposed to be like Marlboro or Camel or whatever, but it tasted horrid. Worse than a real cigarette.