Turning My Dream into Reality - Seeking Supplier Recommendations

[VapeSociety]

Howzit guys!

I hope you're all doing well.

Vaping has become more than just a hobby for me; it's a lifestyle. So I decided to open my one shop.

As I embark on this exciting journey, I find myself in need of reliable suppliers who can provide a diverse range of high-quality vaping products. That's where you come in! I would greatly appreciate it if you could share your recommendations for trustworthy and reputable suppliers in the industry.

Whether it's e-liquids, hardware, accessories, or anything else related to vaping, I'm open to suggestions. It would be fantastic if you could provide the names of suppliers you've had positive experiences with or have heard great things about. I value your insights and expertise, and I trust the recommendations from this knowledgeable community.

Thank you in advance for your support and guidance.

Let's make this dream a reality together!

Best regards,

 

[Philip Dunkley]

Hey Bud,

I'm going to give you some very serious advice, and please don't take this the wrong way, I'm not a person who generally tries to dump on peoples dreams, but I feel I really need to step in here before you go and throw a crap ton of money at something that I can almost guarantee is going to be a very large uphill battle and has a 95% chance of ending up a failure for you. I'm not judging you, I'm not telling you that you don't know what you are doing (Actually, I kind of am, but I don't mean it in a horrible way), but I'm just giving you some friendly advice. I was part of this industry for a long time as a manufacturer, and whilst it was very good to me, COVID killed my business.

Firstly, I cannot remember a worse time to start a Vape Store in South Africa. Ever. Period!!!
Legislative Taxes come into effect on 1 June 2023, and this tax will effectively make Sub-Ohm Vaping dead in SA, due to the prohibitive cost of E-liquid in a low nicotine, High volume format. Disposables and MTL Based vaping will survive, but these products already have razor thin margins, and the sales models on these are changing rapidly.

Secondly, South Africa saw a massive surge in Vape Shops opening in the last 10 years, literally to saturation point. There are some really good stores in the industry, and these shops have been doing this for a long time and know exactly what they are doing, an have a very loyal customer base.
These are the guys that are more than likely going to survive this crushing blow to vaping, due to their experience, service and customers, but even that is not a given.
Guys like Sir Vape, Vape King, Vaperite, Vape Cartel, Shipwreck Vapes, Vuse etc (There are plenty of others I'm forgetting), have massive coverage, exceptionally talented teams and supplier agreements in place that have been managed for years, and these guys really know what they are doing. Go and speak to the smaller Vape Shops and find out how they are faring at the moment, and I promise you, you will change your mind very fast!!!
So many people in the industry are getting out of it right now, I see it daily and have so much sympathy for these guys because of the massive effort and hard work these people have put in, but the SA Government has gone and literally made surviving in this industry very very difficult.

Thirdly, The SA public are struggling to afford luxuries at the moment, and Vaping is a luxury! People do not have disposable income anymore. A market that was potentially 10% of SA's population 10 years ago, is now 1% or less. The first things that people stop in hard times is luxuries. Just take a look at the amount of people who are selling off all their gear on the forum, at prices that were unheard of 5 years ago, because they are stopping vaping.

Lastly, with the rapid rise in the disposable market, the sales model is quickly changing from an Enthusiast, Specialist model to a Consumer based model, and Vape products are becoming more and more available in places like supermarkets and convenience stores. Trying to compete with the massive buying power that these companies have and you are seriously starting at a massive disadvantage. Most SA vapers are finding themselves switching from the Enthusiast Avid Vaper model to a much more Consumer based model, and you just need to look at the number of people moving to disposables to understand how very difficult it is going to be to start a Specialized Vape store in this environment.

I really really don't want to ruin your dreams, but I implore you to really go out there and do your due diligence thoroughly.

Unless you have a venue that is situated in an absolutely untapped market, have a product that is completely going to change the industry, and have solid, reliable numbers on just how strong the appetite is for another store in the area you are looking at, I can promise you, your money will be gone before you know it, and you'll be sitting back wishing someone had told you this before you started. Now is the very very very wrong time to be opening a Vape Store, and I fear that there will never be good time ever again, unless the SA Government does a complete U-Turn on their stance on Vaping.

One of my skills before going into the Vaping Industry was Sales, and specifically looking after extremely High Risk Problem Customers, and Risk Analysis was one of the areas I was highly trained in, trust me, I've done so much research into this, I'm not talking from an opinion point here, I'm talking from a whole lot of data and research done.

I don't think anyone on here is truthfully going to disagree with me on this mate, and if it was me who posted the Original post above, I would truly hope someone would have given me this advice before I dove in!!

I'm sorry if I've just ruined a dream for you, that was not my intention, but I would much rather snub out a dream that I'm almost 100% confident will turn into a nightmare for you. Please continue to follow your inner entrepreneur and continue looking into your own thing, but my honest, earnest advice, is don't do it this way!!

 

[VapeSociety]

Hey Bud,

I'm going to give you some very serious advice, and please don't take this the wrong way, I'm not a person who generally tries to dump on peoples dreams, but I feel I really need to step in here before you go and throw a crap ton of money at something that I can almost guarantee is going to be a very large uphill battle and has a 95% chance of ending up a failure for you. I'm not judging you, I'm not telling you that you don't know what you are doing (Actually, I kind of am, but I don't mean it in a horrible way), but I'm just giving you some friendly advice. I was part of this industry for a long time as a manufacturer, and whilst it was very good to me, COVID killed my business.

Firstly, I cannot remember a worse time to start a Vape Store in South Africa. Ever. Period!!!
Legislative Taxes come into effect on 1 June 2023, and this tax will effectively make Sub-Ohm Vaping dead in SA, due to the prohibitive cost of E-liquid in a low nicotine, High volume format. Disposables and MTL Based vaping will survive, but these products already have razor thin margins, and the sales models on these are changing rapidly.

Secondly, South Africa saw a massive surge in Vape Shops opening in the last 10 years, literally to saturation point. There are some really good stores in the industry, and these shops have been doing this for a long time and know exactly what they are doing, an have a very loyal customer base.
These are the guys that are more than likely going to survive this crushing blow to vaping, due to their experience, service and customers, but even that is not a given.
Guys like Sir Vape, Vape King, Vaperite, Vape Cartel, Shipwreck Vapes, Vuse etc (There are plenty of others I'm forgetting), have massive coverage, exceptionally talented teams and supplier agreements in place that have been managed for years, and these guys really know what they are doing. Go and speak to the smaller Vape Shops and find out how they are faring at the moment, and I promise you, you will change your mind very fast!!!
So many people in the industry are getting out of it right now, I see it daily and have so much sympathy for these guys because of the massive effort and hard work these people have put in, but the SA Government has gone and literally made surviving in this industry very very difficult.

Thirdly, The SA public are struggling to afford luxuries at the moment, and Vaping is a luxury! People do not have disposable income anymore. A market that was potentially 10% of SA's population 10 years ago, is now 1% or less. The first things that people stop in hard times is luxuries. Just take a look at the amount of people who are selling off all their gear on the forum, at prices that were unheard of 5 years ago, because they are stopping vaping.

Lastly, with the rapid rise in the disposable market, the sales model is quickly changing from an Enthusiast, Specialist model to a Consumer based model, and Vape products are becoming more and more available in places like supermarkets and convenience stores. Trying to compete with the massive buying power that these companies have and you are seriously starting at a massive disadvantage. Most SA vapers are finding themselves switching from the Enthusiast Avid Vaper model to a much more Consumer based model, and you just need to look at the number of people moving to disposables to understand how very difficult it is going to be to start a Specialized Vape store in this environment.

I really really don't want to ruin your dreams, but I implore you to really go out there and do your due diligence thoroughly.

Unless you have a venue that is situated in an absolutely untapped market, have a product that is completely going to change the industry, and have solid, reliable numbers on just how strong the appetite is for another store in the area you are looking at, I can promise you, your money will be gone before you know it, and you'll be sitting back wishing someone had told you this before you started. Now is the very very very wrong time to be opening a Vape Store, and I fear that there will never be good time ever again, unless the SA Government does a complete U-Turn on their stance on Vaping.

One of my skills before going into the Vaping Industry was Sales, and specifically looking after extremely High Risk Problem Customers, and Risk Analysis was one of the areas I was highly trained in, trust me, I've done so much research into this, I'm not talking from an opinion point here, I'm talking from a whole lot of data and research done.

I don't think anyone on here is truthfully going to disagree with me on this mate, and if it was me who posted the Original post above, I would truly hope someone would have given me this advice before I dove in!!

I'm sorry if I've just ruined a dream for you, that was not my intention, but I would much rather snub out a dream that I'm almost 100% confident will turn into a nightmare for you. Please continue to follow your inner entrepreneur and continue looking into your own thing, but my honest, earnest advice, is don't do it this way!!

Thank Philip. I totally appreciate your words. Maybe I need to re-evaluate my dream. Like you said sometimes we don't see past the dream. Thank you once again brother .

 

[Munro31]

A few years back I had the same idea, I went to go work at Royalty Vape Distro to learn the ins and outs of the market, the owner hired me know that I'm looking at my own store in the future.

They are a great bunch of people and I got to see the working of both distro and retail store. The first thing I learnt was that retail was slowing down dramatically with anything other than pods and disposables, we would be lucky to sell one pack of cotton a month!!! Juice sales where slowing, device sales down but disposables were just coming on the market and immediately all other sales went down.
Distro side was the same thing, as soon as disposables come in, they where snatched up, all other items slowed down dramatically.

With the disposables you will need a massive amount of money and customers to make it viable, then it's the shipping from suppliers, which takes months and costs a pretty penny as well.
Then to get your money back you need a big customer base to sell it as soon as possible so you can afford the next big order.

I then did rep work for a up and coming vape company based in China, after about a year of trying to get in the SA market and they seem to have gone bust, probably because most people have found there brand and stick to it, never venturing to try new products simply because they didn't have the money to try even 1 new disposable an maybe not like it.
I have been through the whole system and eventually gave up on the idea, the new taxes are also not helping at all.
For me it was a massive shock, I thought most people enjoy the hobby and everything that goes with it. But in reality most people hate it and just want something they can vape and don't care about what we do.

Even juice prices have been a major complaint at the stores, but the customer would buy 2 disposables for the price of a 100ml juice and be happy even though in reality they spent that money for 20ml of juice tops!
Supermarkets will soon take a massive chunk of the disposable market as well as its more convenient to buy at one place than drive to a store and get it there.
If vaping is still alive in SA next year it will be in supermarkets and the stores that have loyal customers that can still cater for the enthusiasts that haven't given up vaping.

 

[Philip Dunkley]

Thank Philip. I totally appreciate your words. Maybe I need to re-evaluate my dream. Like you said sometimes we don't see past the dream. Thank you once again brother .

Pleasure my bud. Hate to see a dream destroyed, but hate it more to see a fellow human crash and burn.