When last decade's economic mess stalled the local construction industry, Pierre Cugini started looking for another line of work. He was also trying to quit smoking.
He found a solution for both problems in the form of Cloud City Vapors, located today in a bright blue storefront in the gas station at the northwest corner at Castro and Market.
The shop sells a variety of electronic cigarettes (nicotine vaporizers) and over 30 different flavors of organic “juices” used with them, that the company makes itself. "Vaping," as partakers call it, helps people to reduce the intake of nicotine and also eliminates the harmful chemicals that are ingested when cigarettes are smoked.
Cugini started vaping around four years ago to help himself successfully quit his lifelong smoking habit and “immediately decided I wanted to help others” to do the same, he tells us. “I had never worked in sales but I found I really enjoyed talking to people and helping them with improving their health."
He also wanted to get out of his lifelong career as a construction worker. Jobs in the industry had become scarce after the real estate crash of last decade, and he felt there was an opportunity to help people with this new technique that seemed to be catching on. A friend of Cugini’s owned the gas station and told him that if he remodeled the unused storage shed, he’d give him a greatly reduced rent.
“I grabbed the opportunity,” Cugini says, adding that he spent “a lot of money upfront” on permits and construction. Cugini’s wife, a chemical engineer, helped him develop the “recipes” for the flavored juices.
When he opened on gay pride weekend in 2013, there was only one other vape shop in San Francisco, so it seemed there might be an opportunity to capture a “good share” of the market.
Cugini at work, via Cloud City Vapors.
But vaping was getting popular, fast, and lots of other shops started carrying similar products. After a year of growing, he says business slowed down.
Still, Cugini is optimistic that Cloud City has two advantages that other shops lack.
First, it offers a wide variety of organic flavors of the homemade juices, including cardamom, blueberry, chai tea, sassafras, cherry cola, and bergamot. In addition to the organic flavoring, the juice contains propylene glycol, vegetable glycerine, nicotine and various flavors.
Cugini also says he offers the “personal touch” of advising customers on the best way to succeed in their quest to stop smoking. “A lot of people tell me they like giving a mom and pop shop their business,” he adds.
Last year, San Francisco passed an ordinance that banned vaping in the same places where smoking was banned, leading to speculation that the vaping might lose popularity.
Cugini concedes that there are no long term studies proving the efficacy and safety of vaping, but he's personally found it a better alternative to inhaling tobacco smoke.
And he's positive about the overall trend despite the ban, noting that in bars, where people are used to “stepping outside” to have a cigarette, ”you now see many people also going outdoors to vape."
He acknowledges that for Cloud City to succeed with so many competitors, he will have to develop another income stream. And he thinks he's onto something. Because so many of his customers are tourists, a number of them encouraged him to market his organic juices in their hometowns, where they can't find similar products. “Thats what I’m going to do next,” he says.
So if you’re in the neighborhood and want to talk about quitting smoking, stop in to meet Pierre. He offers free “whiffs” of his custom flavored juices and enjoys explaining the joys of “vaping.”
Cloud City is open Monday through Friday,from noon-7pm.
You can reach Pierre at (415) 484-8827 or at PierreCugini (at) gmail (dot) com, and you can follow them on Facebook and Twitter.
