Owners Chris Chin and Min Park of Gone With The Smoke Vapor Shop at 569 Geary St. have dominated the sale of e-cigarette hardware and juices in the Tenderloin since November 2013. Originally they shared just a quarter of their current space with the dildo shop Glass Kandi, but soon business was booming, and Gone With The Smoke took over the entire location.
The shop has a hefty customer base—60 percent of whom are from San Francisco and at least 25 percent from the Tenderloin and Union Square area—and a great track record of adapting their inventory to the times.
We recently chatted with Chris about his business, why he chose the Tenderloin, and what he sees on the horizon for vaping technology.
Hoodline: Why did you choose to open an e-cig store in the Tenderloin?
Chris Chin: "I knew of Glass Kandi and the owner, and I also knew that she wasn't in the shop much. Most of the time the store was closed. At the first opportunity of her store being opened, I ran in and presented my idea and that we'd pay rent, of course. She was more than happy to help out the neighborhood. That's how we started: put out a sandwich board, bought some inventory and the rest is history.
"I was ready to get out of the industry I was in; I was a programmer, and I wanted to do something for myself... I could have opened up a bar, or a deli or something, but I wanted to do something different that the neighborhood didn’t have and this was one of those things. We really filled the hole and I am glad that I did. Gone With The Smoke has really become the de facto standard of the Tenderloin because we are a 100% true dedicated vape shop and not a hybrid head shop/vape shop. We take our business seriously."
Chris Chin (right) with employee Mark.
What motivated you to take on a new business venture in this industry?
"We saw a huge potential in the market and I wanted to help my dad, a long time smoker, get off of cigs. He is so old-school, no matter what I throw at him—it’s not working. He’s not the type of guy who is willing to futz around with a type of juice, with a type of tank, the type of coil; he is too old-school for that. I think he’s probably, more or less, doing the disposables because he is a dual user (people who smoke and vape), and I am gearing him more towards the vape side. I think he is enjoying it enough to do less of the smoking side.
How do you feel about the advertisements against e-cigs and how vaping may contribute to a culture of young smokers?
"No one is allowed in the shop that looks under 18, and we card almost everyone that comes through the door. There are some juice brands, e-juice, e-liquid, the liquid that you vape, they do have marketing on there; some characters that are kinda on the cartoonish side. Those are some of the brands that we kind of shy away from ourselves even though it's a good juice, it's really popular, and people ask for it. We feel like if it gets into the wrong hands, or the kids in the house, they see it—they want to grab it. So if someone does get it, at least we aren’t responsible for that. So that’s one of the things we try to do.
"A lot of people are coming off of cigarettes and they are hearing the misinformation that’s been given out from the government and the news outlets saying that e-cigarettes are just as bad as cigarettes, but we have to set the record straight with them. We always tell [our customers], there are only four ingredients in the liquids that you vape and all of them are FDA approved. In combination, it doesn’t make them worse; it makes them work well together and it gives you the satisfaction you are looking for from a cigarette. How many chemicals are in a cigarette that we know of today? It's like thousands, 60-something of which we know are carcinogenic and yet they are still sold. We are selling stuff that doesn’t have carcinogens in it and people want to get off of that bad stuff. They are a little leery; they’re curious; but they want to get the information straight from the horse’s mouth. And once they try it, they understand.
"As with any industry, especially the e-cig industry, it's just beginning: there haven’t been any real long-term studies. So yeah, I can't say for sure everything that we are doing is 100 percent safe, but we know for damn sure that it's safer than a cigarette. For people that have been doing it for six, seven years, almost no reports of anyone gong to the hospital and saying, “Hey this thing is killing me.” We hear that all the time about cigarettes, but nothing from the e-cig industry. I don’t see any major health issues coming along. I’m not going to write that in stone of course, but so far from what I know, I can’t really envision that at this moment."
Have you experienced underage youth trying to purchase e-cigarette products?
"Oh, yes, absolutely. And sometimes we even tell them, “You’re 18, but your friends aren’t, and they can’t be in here.” But we have set the standard: if you are under 18 you can’t be in the store."
If a customer comes to you trying to transition from smoking cigarettes to vaping, what is your end goal for them?
"Getting people off cigarettes is the first and foremost thing we want to do, and after that we try to gear them towards lowering their nicotine levels so they are not puffing as much. We ask them, “Is this working for you, do you feel like you could step down?” We kind of put that little seed in their head and then they’ll think about it.
"Eventually [some] people will get down to a zero, and most people want to stay at a zero because they like that hand-to-mouth motion—that habit. If they quit vaping, we lost a customer. But guess what? We saved a life!
"We see a lot of converts that never go back to a cigarette. They might stick with the e-cig just to get the nicotine, but they won’t go back to a cigarette."
The e-cig industry has been advancing really quickly. Can you make any predictions on the future of new technologies?
"This industry is moving so fast, what is it going to look like two years from now? Considering the technology we have now, I am sure there is some crazy guy out there right now experimenting, making prototypes of something wild that no one has ever seen before; and it will just revolutionize the industry again. So honestly, I don’t know where it’s going to go; but I know it’s moving as fast as electronics are moving. The e-cig industry is very similar to the cell phone industry: the latest hardware comes out, it’s a better experience, you get better flavor, you get more vapor, it might cost less, or the battery might last longer. Something is always changing and something is always better. That’s what makes it interesting for us. I always have to research and I always have to tell people, 'oh this is coming on the horizon,' and their eyebrows peak. It’s one of those things. This is an industry that’s always changing and whenever you come into the shop there is always something new."
Do you worry that San Francisco, or other municipalities might make the sale of e-cigs illegal?
"In many states across the US, and the globe I should say, they’re really trying to cut down on the e-cig industry. The main reason behind it is always the money. Look at the advertisements around Muni and the BART that say e-cigs are just as bad as cigarettes. If you look at who funded that and where the money came from to do that, you’d be surprised it came from big tobacco and big pharma and those people don’t want you to stop smoking cigarettes. For one thing, big tobacco is a multi-million dollar industry, if you don’t sell cigarettes, you also don’t get cigarette taxes, uh oh, no taxes—how are we going to fund everything? They want you sick and there’s no money in healthy people; there is no money in dead people; there is only money in somewhere in-between with the sick and barely walking around.
I do believe San Francisco or other municipalities in the area may crack down on it to the point where they’re not going to eliminate the industry, but make it a little more expensive. Washington D.C. has passed a bill that taxes all hardware and e-juice at 70 percent at wholesale. Arkansas just recently enacted a bill where no online sales can be done at all within Arkansas. They are trying to create the retailers to sell more stuff at the retail level so they get more sales tax. The problem with that is, people are going to go across the border, grab the stuff and come back. So they are kind of shooting themselves in the foot.
What is some final advice for someone that might be considering opting for vaping over smoking?
"You really should go to a vape shop first if you are looking to switch from cigarettes to e-cigs. 'Cause there is a lot to learn and a lot to know—little bits of information that will make your experience better. If you buy something online, you won’t get the training and questions answered; you’ll be left to futz with a product you don’t know how to use. If you go to a local shop, these guys know all about [vaping] and will answer all the questions you have. It's the best place to get all the information you need, because there is a lot of misinformation out there. The vape shops know the truth about it all."
Gone With The Smoke at 569 Geary St. is open Mon. to Sat. 11am to 7pm, and Sundays from 12pm to 5pm.
