The other day, I had to do a few things in a neighboring town. Before returning home, I took a stroll along its main street. My eyes caught a new, nice little shop ( since Covid, there seem to be more empty/closed shops then active or new ones ).
When I approached it, I got rather surprised . It was a shop selling... smoking accessories. After all, smoking is no longer a popular habit because of its negative impact on health . So, what's the 'profit' logic behind it?!
I don't remember a similar physical 'specialized' shop even in those "jolly" days with people heavy on smoking and no ban on smoking in public. As I 've never been a smoker myself, I don't have the proper background to go into details, but I'll admit there is a rich variety of nice items in this shop with great potential of attracting customers.
'So, smoking is back in town'? I asked the guy in the shop. 'It never quit town', he replied with a smile. He had russian accent; that made me suspect people of russian origin could be the basis of his customers. It is said that many "russians", especially middle-aged and elderly are quite addicted to smoking.
I suppose it was not easy for the owner to get a licence for opening the store. There are many rules and regulations ( such as age-restriction) controlling this kind of business.
The location of the shop is optimal: on the main street, no competition in this area, as far as I could see . It will be interesting to notice at a later stage, if it does well, considering that tobacco is the cause of major lung diseases.
Anyway, I believe this kind of business should not be encouraged neither by the authorities nor by the population.
We have smoke shops as I call them pretty much in every shopping center here in Phoenix and also when we lived in the San Diego area. I do agree that they should be discouraged but people who want to smoke have to buy their cigarettes somewhere, so I'm guessing that's the impetus for some to start such a business. It is an expensive habit so I wonder how long in the times of inflation we are facing people will be able to pay for such a habit.
ReplyDeletebetty
Right; expensive. The thing is, those who are addicted might get the money through stealing (or even, God Forbid, killing), just as it happens with those addicted to drugs.
DeleteAlthough I don't care what other adults do on moral grounds, I would hate to see smokers near children, the elderly, pregnant women or sick people. Thus if a smokers' shop wants to open, it cannot be in the main street or near public transport, schools or churches. A nice remote green space behind bushes would be excellent.
ReplyDeleteThis shop is just 'right in the eye' of everyone. The solution , nowadays, would be Online. I've checked, and there are quite a few tobacco spots on the Web.
DeleteWe used to see tobacco farms all over the place here in the American South. Not anymore. My husband even worked on a tobacco farm in his teens. So I am suprised too. There are a lot of Russian people who have moved to Israel, aren't there? Like you said, maybe they are the customers. I flew on a Russian airline years ago, Aeroflot, and everyone was smoking. 😂
ReplyDeleteYes, there are quite a lot of Russia-born people who'd moved to Israel in several waves of emmigration. Many of them are used both to smoking and alcohol.
DeleteInteresting wonder if it will do well.
ReplyDeleteWe usually wish good luck to a new business, but with this kind of shop, people (me included) have mixed feelings about it.
DeleteI have never heard of a specialty shop like that one.
ReplyDeleteYou are right, not to be encouraged.
I guess there are such shops in various parts of the country, cities, but I've also never seen one until now.
DeleteMy city of 102,000 lies in Central Oregon .... Cannabis is legal, therefore many "pot accessory" shops. We also have a parlor dedicated to high end cigars. Haven't seen a strictly "smoking accessory" shop.
ReplyDeleteThanks Helen for the information. I have no knowledge of the situation in other places. It's an important topic, always mentioned because of COPD and other lung diseases.
DeleteCBD seems to be taking on everywhere here. Also, lots of marijuana smoke shops in Iowa. Both are so expensive. I wouldn't step in either shop. Oh, and the VAPE shops..appointment only. Supposedly, we are supposed to get a grocery store on Main Street. They are trying to upscale the area with new apartments, but I wonder if the old buildings will be coming down.
ReplyDeleteYoung people should be warned - damage is done in the first stages of smoking. There are people aged 70 and 80 connected to an oxygen balloon who have stopped smoking 20-30 years ago. It was too late. The damage was already in the lungs.
DeleteIf it's your area, you should be notified by demolishing intention. You've got the right to object to the plans.
This is an interesting post, DUTA. I agree with you, "this kind of business should not be encouraged by the authorities nor by the population." You made a good point!
ReplyDeleteThank you. I wish people would realize the health risk they take when embarking on this bad habit of smoking.
DeleteSmoking is still popular in some spots. Not so much in the cities. I saw a pregnant woman smoking while at the beach. Just crazy.
ReplyDeleteSadly, there are people who can't resist temptation whatever the consequences. The pregnant woman might endanger not only herself but also the fetus.
DeleteI certainly wouldn't encourage anyone to smoke, but I believe it truly is an addiction and people have to WANT to quit.
ReplyDeleteYou're right about addiction, Kathy.
DeleteThe ideal would be to not even start smoking as the damage to lungs might in some cases occur quite at the beginning.
I agree, I hate to see a place like this. As a nurse, I know how addictive smoking is. I've had people with tracheostomies trying to smoke, I took care of a quadriplegic who had to have someone hold his cigarette... So having a place that seems to glorify it is sad.
ReplyDeleteAs a nurse, you have to see and deal with the sad consequences of smoking. It must be very hard for you.
DeleteHere smoking is discouraged but not banned. Packets of cigarettes are sold in coffee shops and many other shops but not allowed to be sold to minors. I noticed quite a number of new shops selling e-cigarettes or Vape in town.
ReplyDeleteThat seems to be more or less like in our country: " discouraged but not banned".
DeleteIthere is a specialist shop next to one of our supermarkets just down the road it's been there for years. Smoking is frowned upon down here and those that smoke do so away from others who do not smoke.
ReplyDeleteUsually, cigarettes are sold here at the supermarkets, but not freely. One has to ask the cashier for the packet.
DeleteThere is a smoke shop here too which surprised me when I first saw it. Smoking has been driven underground in a way with all the rules about where one can and cannot smoke.
ReplyDeleteI have the feeling there might be a 'comeback' of some sort. The smoke shop I saw, and the one you saw are, perhaps, a sign that smoking is becoming again a popular trend.
DeleteI hate smoking... My unce smokes a lot and he just stinks
ReplyDeleteI suppose you don't dare say your opinion on his smoking in front of him, or do you?
DeleteSmoking went way down here but more and more young people are doing it, which is quite disturbing. As one who grew up with parents who smoked, and one who died with lung disease -- and as one who NEVER smoked but with lung disease -- it is quite likely that some of this might be genetic; much may be in part because of second hand smoke for the first 18 years of my life when I lived at home. Now we have no smoking in restaurants, on campus, etc., but one can only hope that sticks around!
ReplyDeleteGenetics plays a role in everything. I know a few smokers aged about 80 who seem to do well despite the notorious habit. Go figure!
DeleteNevertheless, they shouldn't be taken as an example.
Yes, it is so sad that with all the knowledge we have of how bad it is that people are still choosing to smoke.
ReplyDeleteIt's sometimes in the nature of people to ignore facts that contradict their addictions. That's indeed a sad reality.
DeleteThere are so many smoke shops in my town. Marijuana is legal here in Vegas and the smoke shops sell more than just cigarettes. You can now buy bongs, and glass pipes to smoke the marijuana and other drugs out of in the smoke shops here.
ReplyDelete
DeleteI see. Well, we are a small country with small cities - not comparable to Vegas. However, whatever the size of the territory and the way of ruling, I'm for discouraging smoking of tobacco and drugs.
I've never smoked. I don't see the appeal at all. But I don't see it going away anytime soon. The tobacco industry at least is making too much money to ever let it stop.
DeleteRight. The tobacco industry as well as the other money-making industries - rule the government and not vice-versa.
DeleteThey just raised the age for folks to purchase tobacco. When I was a kid I thought it would be cool to start smoking. When I got my first job, I purchased a pack of cigarettes, took a puff of one and threw the rest away. So glad I did that now. Janice
ReplyDeleteAs far as I know, the federal law in The USA is minimum age 21 for tobacco use since 2019.
DeleteYou did the very right thing throwing away the pack of cigarettes.
So strange...out of odds with the beliefs and laws of today. I used to be a smoker, but I gave it up a number of years ago...cold turkey...I just stopped buying them. Too expensive to do so nowadays, too...along with the health sides of the habit.
ReplyDeleteI thought so too, but I found out smoking was still a real thing.
DeleteIt was sensible of you to give it up - 'better late than never'.
When you said this was a new smoke shop, Duta, I wondered if it sold “vaping” items or actual tobacco in the form of cigarettes. There are a couple of these vape shops as they seem to be called here. I also tried an actual tobacco cigarette in my teenage years, thought it was terrible and have never smoked. My late father was a life-long smoker and I suspect it was what eventually took his life.
ReplyDeleteI think it has all kinds of smoking equipment/ accessories, but I can be sure only of the more known ones: cigars, cigarettes, pipes, not of 'vaping' items.
DeleteBoa tarde de sexta-feira. Aproveito para desejar um bom final de semana.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Luiz. Wishing you a good weekend as well!
DeleteWe have recently had vaping shops opening locally.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure how they will do, but I was quite surprised (and concerned) to see them.
All the best Jan
Vaping is considered a less harmful alternative than smoking, but still not safe.
DeleteBoa tarde e um ótimo sábado com muita paz e saúde. Graças a Deus eu não fumo, mas respeito às pessoas que fazem isso. Aqui no Brasil muitas lojas fecharam por causa da pandemia.
ReplyDeleteGood for you that you don't smoke! Hopefully, those who do smoke don't do that in public.
DeleteVery harmful for health
ReplyDeleteYou mean smoking. Yes, it causes major lung disease such as COPD. We've got two famous people: a politician female, and a musician/guitarist - both connected to oxygen.
DeleteMy village of Veenendaal had a flourishing cigar industry at the end of the 19th century and in the 20th century, which has completely disappeared.
ReplyDeleteWe had the Ritmeester factory and De Panter factory. Tobacco was grown in our area for several centuries. It was processed into chewing tobacco, snuff and pipe tobacco. When my hubby was a little boy, he went to get cigar bands from the factory. They were exchanged at school, just like postage stamps. He was collecting them.
But if has changed. We have now a city history museum about tobacco. Tobacco is not good. But the smell of pipe tobacco gives me positive memories. And I am sharing them with you :-)
Thanks for sharing, Aritha. It should be very interesting to visit the tobacco history museum in your area.
DeleteMy mother died from smoking, and sister is currently dying of COPD from cigarettes. Here in the US, smoke shops still exist, and tobacco products are still sold in many other places, but the "right" to smoke whenever is wherever no longer exists.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry ,Snowy, for the loss of your mother, and for the condition of your sister. Hopefully, your sister will make it through.
DeleteThis is more or less the situation everywhere: tobacco products still sold, but the 'right' to smoke in public is banned.