How to Support Your Local Vape Store in 2020 (and Why You Should!)

As of 2020, the vaping industry in New Zealand is now fully government regulated. If you haven’t been paying close attention, the changes may have been almost too subtle to notice. If you buy your vape gear from a regular retailer like a dairy, you may have noticed that some of the flavours that you used to buy seem to no longer be available. That’s because the new regulations prevent stores that aren’t vape shops from selling e-liquids and e-cigarette cartridges in flavours other than tobacco, mint and menthol.

For vape shops, though, it probably looks like business as usual from the outside since vape shops are still allowed to sell all vaping products and e-liquid flavours. What you may not realize, though, is that the new environment for New Zealand vape shops is anything but business as usual because, under the new regulations, vaping companies in New Zealand are no longer allowed to advertise. With that restriction in place, maintaining growth and reaching New Zealand’s smokers is going to be harder than ever.

Do you want to help your local New Zealand vape shops survive and thrive in 2020? Here’s how you can help – and why you should.

Tell Your Local Vape Shops What You Want to See

The biggest reason why you should support your local vape shops is because doing so keeps your money in your community. Even if you don’t buy vape gear locally – but you do buy from an online vape shop based in New Zealand – you’re still keeping your money close to home.

Do you buy your vape gear from an online store based outside New Zealand because you’re unable to find what you want locally? Your local vape shops can only carry the products you want if you tell them what they’re missing. Take the time to talk to local business owners and tell them about the products you’d like to see.

Be Adventurous and Try Something New

Vaping is all about enjoying new experiences and discovering the amazing new flavours that the world’s best mixologists have developed. Although you almost certainly have a few e-liquids that you consider your all-time favourites, you shouldn’t allow yourself to get stuck in a rut – especially if that means you end up only buying vape juices made outside New Zealand.

With New Zealand’s vaping regulations in place, entrepreneurs no longer have to be nervous about investing in new vaping-related ventures in our country. The vaping industry has a clear set of rules by which it must abide, and vaping is here to stay in New Zealand. New e-liquid brands like Little Beast have heralded the beginning of a new age of New Zealand-made vape juice, and you’re doing a great thing for the local vaping industry if you try some of the amazing new flavours that are coming out.

Review Your Favourite Local Vape Shops

The fact that vaping businesses in New Zealand are no longer allowed to advertise means that they can’t gain new customers by reaching out to the public. Instead, their opportunities to earn new business will arise when people search for local vape shops online. People will use Google – or business directories like Yelp – to search for vape shops near them, and they’ll have a variety of local results from which to choose.

What does that mean for you as a vaper? It means that, in New Zealand, you have a unique opportunity to influence how the vaping industry develops by telling others about your experiences. Do you have a favourite local vape shop, and would you like to give that shop a chance to earn more business? Take the time to review that shop on Google, Yelp and other business directories. That’s going to help other vapers in your community decide where they should spend their money.

Become an Ambassador for Vaping

Supporting the vaping industry in New Zealand isn’t just about helping small businesses survive and thrive. It’s also not just about keeping money in your local community and giving e-liquid brands in New Zealand an incentive to keep developing amazing new flavours. It’s also a matter of doing the right thing for public health and helping New Zealand meet its goal of becoming tobacco-free by 2025.

The reason why the entrepreneurs in the vaping industry are so passionate about what they do is because there are very few industries in the world in which someone can earn a living while making a positive difference in the lives of thousands of people. There are still thousands of other smokers in New Zealand, though, who haven’t switched to vaping and haven’t even tried vaping yet.

If you’re a former smoker who has quit with the help of vaping, your story is your greatest asset – not just for helping your local vape shops, but also for making a difference in New Zealand’s public health.

Tell the smokers you know about the positive impact that vaping has had on your life. If you help even one person quit smoking successfully, you’ll make a tremendous difference in that person’s life, and you’ll also reach him or her in a way that New Zealand’s vape shops can’t. Every time you tell people about your journey from smoking to vaping, you’re playing a major role in ensuring that tobacco use has no future in our country.