Shaking My Head At Mall Vendors

[twilightbloom]

I'm in a bind and all my clearomizers are dead. So before heading out research online where to buy electronic cigarette stuff in Knoxville, TN.

I am directed to a cigar shop at the mall. First place I see in the mall is a kiosk. I asked how much for a clearomizer and she says 9.99 and claims it's Vision. I say first of all that is too much Secondly, it's not Vision.. I get them all day long online for $4.99-5.99. She says ok I will give it to you for 6.99. I did it because I was in a pinch and I figured with shipping that's what it would equal to. She claims it will lasts a long time. I tell her no it won't they can last from a day or to a month. It just depends on how lucky you get. It's a disposable part. She wanted to argue different. I let her talk her s*#t and moved on. Than I ask how much for a 30ml bottle of e-liquid. She says 24.99. I say that is too much. You can get it online $7-$12. She claims it's premium it allows you clearomizer to last longer. Huh!

Than I find the cigar shop. They wanted 18.99 for rebuilder clearomizer. She says because you can rebuild it. I say you are nuts, you can get it for 6 or 7 bucks. And they wanted 29.99 for 30 ml E liquid.

I feel sorry for those that don't know any better and can come online to better merchandise and prices.

[mcquinn]

Part is ignorance I agree ,but brick and mortar stores especially in high rent commercial buildings have a higher cost of doing business than someone selling from home.As you noted what you save in shipping offsets some of the cost ,another thing to consider is convenience.They had what you wanted right now instead of 3 to 5 days out.A small brick and mortar store because of less volume than an online retailer will have a higher loss due to shelf life if they stock enough to always have what someone may want on hand.Due to the large amount of online retailers the profit margin is very slim as as you say it is easy to cost compare.

[soso]

I've got one for you. Last week I was getting hard up for juice. I'd been holding out on making a big order because I was waiting for Alien Visions to reopen their web orders (gotta have my Boba's). While Christmas shopping, I decided to pop by the e-cig kiosk in the mall to see if i could grab about 20 ml of something vapable to carry me over. I'd noticed before that this kiosk sells eGo gear so I figured they'd have more than just pre-filled cartridges for some weird proprietary starter kit junk. Promising, right? I walk up to encounter your clueless hourless employee. She'd obviously been trained on their products but was completely ignorant of the vaping world at large. Ok. What follows is our exchange. Me: Hi, I'm wondering if you guys sell bottles of e-liquid. Her: Yes, we do. Me: Okay, what kinds do you have? Her: We have everything (sure they do). What do you smoke? We have apple, peach, menthol, chocolate... Everything. Me: Uh, usually VG-based tobacco flavors with 18 mg nicotine.. Her: We have tobacco flavor. (At this point I'm expecting your typical Dekang 555 or something similar.) Me: Cool. What size bottles are you selling? (She opens a drawer and produces what looks like a 10ml bottle of unmarked e-liquid.) Her: This is the size of bottle that e-liquid comes in. This sells for $39.95 on it's own but is only $25.00 if you buy one of our starter kits. (FORTY BUCKS FOR 10 ML OF SOME RANDOM CHINESE JUICE ARE YOU ******* KIDDING ME) Me: Wow, ah, seriously? That price is for a 10 mil bottle? Her: I have no idea. They're this size. Me: Look, I know you're not setting these prices, but you should know that is outrageous. Her: Uh, yeah, I have no idea. (A trend emerges.) Me: I encourage you to Google this stuff since you're selling it to people. Just so you know - this (as I pick up the bottle) costs about five dollars. Not forty. That is an insane price. Your company is ripping people off who don't know any better. (She's looking kind of uncomfortable by now so I ease off.) I'm not going to buy this, but thanks for your time. ... And I leave. I nearly lost my **** when she dropped that price.

[soso]

That last post was formatted into paragraphs when I typed it but Tapatalk seems to prefer giant blocks of text. Sorry about that.

[kitsune]

Thank goodness for Vapor Talk.....keeps me away from over priced kiosks.

[Tam]

Even kiosk space in any mall costs an arm and a leg, hence the outrages prices to cover their overhead. There's a brick and mortar store where I got my first set up and bottles of juice. Although I don't care too much for his other flavors I still get his mojito. For a 10 ml bottle he charges $11.00, which isn't bad. It would probably be double that if he were in the mall instead of his own shop downtown.

[seaspine]

Never use the mall guys.

[SABOTEUR]

I find it's best for me to avoid those kiosks entirely because I can't stand seeing people being fleeced. What's really sad is...and this is just my opinion...those sales people really believe that what they're selling is the "real deal". Some are like robots, for lack of a better term. I visited a kiosk back when I was using an eGo. I'm standing there looking around and the guy made a pitch. I respectfully declined, showing him my eGo. Acted like he didn't see it! He then proceeded to try to sell me one of those $125.00 starter kits. It became apparent to me then that being there was rather pointless.

[Tam]

I, too, visited a kiosk at my local mall just to see what the difference was between my newly acquired eGo battery and T2 against what they were selling. I also wanted to compare the prices on their e-liquids. The salesman was rather intrigued with my set up and forgot all about trying to sell me his products. Their e-juice was running at $25 per 10 ml bottle. Needless to say I haven't been back...

[BillyJean]

They sure are expensive. But they're great when you're in a pinch. I got stuck working in LA for 2 weeks longer than expected and it was nice to find a vendor at a kiosk rather than resort to BLU's!

[BHam]

I love going to mall kiosks and asking as the "novice" vaper. It blows my mind how they try and push things on you and don't use it themselves. I asked on kiosk employee about their experience with ecigs and they replied "I don't use this stuff." I've learned more about ecigs from forums and usage than I would've ever imagined.