The study titled, “‘I Felt Welcomed in Like They’re a Little Family in There, I Felt Like I Was Joining a Team or Something’: Vape Shop Customers’ Experiences of E-Cigarette Use, Vape Shops and the Vaping Community,” aimed to understand customers’ experiences of vaping and vape shops, and the extent to which smoking cessation advice is and should be provided in these shops.
The researchers conducted telephone interviews with 22 customers recruited in vape shops in the East Midlands region of England, exploring the participants’ smoking histories, reasons for using e-cigarettes, the role of vape shops in their e-cigarette use, and whether smoking cessation was discussed in vape shops.
Vape shops provide smoking cessation support and information
Vape shops play an important role in tobacco harm reduction.
The compiled responses indicated that respondents regarded e-cigarettes as a quitting tool and reported very positive experiences of vaping. The participants found vape shops critical to their positive experiences, in that they provided access to a wide variety of high-quality products and reliable product information and advice.
“The shop staff engendered a sense of loyalty in customers which, together with the community of other vapers, created a network that helped to support e-cigarette use. Vape shops were not regarded as a setting in which cessation advice was generally provided but were acknowledged as potentially appropriate places to provide quitting support,” read the study abstract.
This study concluded that vape shops play an important role in tobacco harm reduction, and their potential could be increased “if their service model were to extend to help smokers to quit.”
