Hollywood 22 Vape

 Hollywood 22 Vape has expanded to a second location. It has taken over 618 Vape, which was located in the Wall & Grand Center at the corner of, well, Wall and Grand. By my count, that puts three vape shops in Carbondale, about half what the city had about 10 years ago but still shows there is a significant demand for the product.

Vape Shops

 Two more vape shops have opened on South Illinois. Hollywood 22 opened in the old Pag's location a few months ago and Vegas Vape opened last week in the old El Greco location.. Appears the proprietors hope to make them attractive by hanging the "Hollywood" and "Vegas" names on them instead of names referencing their southern Illinois location,  such as 618 Vape does.

At one time, we had about half a dozen dedicated vape shops in Carbondale  but most closed after 1-2 years. Rather suprising the pair opened up across the street from each other but maybe they figure the customer base is there.

Vape Stores

 With the opening of Epic 360 in the 618 Vape location, the last vaping shop in Carbondale has closed down. At one time, the city had 6 if I remember rightly and now none. According to the owener of Epic 360, he felt too many regulations of vapes and juice were on the way from the FDA and it would be too difficult to remain profitable while complying with them so looked for a new trend and glomed onto Virtual Reality. 

And Then There Was One

Looks as if Vape, Inc, which was located in Eastgate Shopping Center, has closed down or moved, leaving only one vape shop, of which I know, in Carbondale. At their peak, abut 3-4 years ago, Carbondale boasted half a dozen vape shops, 2 in downtown, Vape Inc. in East Gate, 618 Vape on East Grand and two on the west side. Now, only 618 Vape remains.

Chuckin' Clouds Opens

The newest addition to Carbondale's collection of vape shops just opened on the ground floor of the Island Building at 715 S. University, about half a block south of Bully Juice Vapor. Chuckin' Clouds is a franchise operation with franchisees currently operating in Cape, Paducah, Poplar Bluff and at least 3 stores in Arkansas. The operation does not appear tightly controlled though, as each of the stores, from the pictures on the website, uses the franchisee's own design of the store logo, rather than a consistent logo design ala McDonald's

Smoking Ban Effect

Illinois imposed a ban on interior smoking in public buildings, including businesses, back in 2008, accompanied by much hue and cry and lamentations of disaster, proclamations of economic disaster and massive closings.  Since then, Carbondale has seen one bar, Gatsby's II close, for reasons other than the cigarette ban, and one new store devoted to cigarettes and cigars, as well as four vape shops. Doesn't sound as if the ban has had that much effect on bar business or cigarette demand.