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Open Smoke Shop? 2626 Responses
Last post: 1 year, 7 months ago | Thread started: Oct 24, 11, 3:44 p.m.
- CanHasQBN
What are your views on smoke shops?
I want to one up in downtown Portland, OR. I have the capital to do it. My friend has one (not in Portland) and it's pretty lucrative. Attempting to buy an existing one is near impossible, since nobody wants to sell their shop. So I'd have to start a fresh one. Portland State University is close by, so there's a market there... plus with the smoking culture of Portland, I could sell pipes too.
Do you think a store like this would be welcome in Portland, or looked down on? It is unethical? Should I even care?
- Oct 24, 11, 3:44 p.m. – Permalink
- Kidswift
I live in Portland and do you really think of all the things Portland needs is another smoke shop? It would be as bad as opening another lap dancing venue or coffee shop. If your on this forum I take it your a creative of some sort - why not do something that uses those skills? Hey don't let me rain on your parade and if a life of listening to world music and inhaling nga chumpa is your ideal work environment, I wish you good luck sir!
- Dog-earOct 24, 11, 3:59 p.m. – Permalink
- CanHasQBN
I don't smoke cigarettes at all. Every once in a while I'll smoke some pot, just socially.
Does it matter that I don't smoke?
I don't plan on catering this place to cigar lovers, as that crowd expects the store owner to be a cigar buff and knowledgeable about cigars. I'm not gonna dive into that world.
So basically I'll sell cigarettes, a small selection of cigars, hookahs, glass pipes, soda/candy/gum/snacks, maybe put an ATM in there, condoms, T-Shirts, Portland souvenirs, yadda yadda...
- Dog-earOct 24, 11, 3:59 p.m. – Permalink
- CanHasQBN
Kid, thanks for your perspective...
I'm finished with the creative field. I quit my job of 5 years a few months ago. I couldn't take the back & forth, revisions, client bullshit day after day. It's too tedious, and the end result always turns to shit at the end.
As far as the actual store, I don't envision it as a pot-head's paradise. Just a quick place for people to buy cigarettes. No smoking allowed inside, a welcoming & clean environment.
I wouldn't work there on a daily basis. I have three cousins in Portland that need jobs, so they could work there. I don't intend on spending all of my days in this shop. It's not going to be a "lifestyle" for me. It's just for income.
- Dog-earOct 24, 11, 4:13 p.m. – Permalink
- NONEIS
Dont plan on making a killing at this in Portland – there are a decent amount of smokers here, but the bar culture is anti-smoking and getting people to track down your smoke shop for cigs instead of the closest gas station is unrealistic – you need to find a way to differentiate yourself somehow...
- Dog-earOct 24, 11, 5:20 p.m. – Permalink
- Handel
Get to know a little better the "ins and outs" of your friend's business - the good, the bad, the specific. Anyone who's launched a business like this can answer the question, "In getting started, what advice can you give to someone looking to get things off the ground smoothly?"
If you go forward, send me an e-mail for friendly architectural services.
- Dog-earOct 24, 11, 5:24 p.m. – Permalink
- cannonball1978
Why not design a new smoking device. Then patent it. Then sell it at your shop.
- Dog-earOct 24, 11, 7:59 p.m. – Permalink
- BabySnakes
Are there a lack of? If the demand is there then who cares if some think it is unethical?
- Dog-earOct 24, 11, 8:55 p.m. – Permalink
- boobs
You're going to open by a college? Bad choice, I think. The more educated someone is, the less likely they are to smoke.
And, since the real money in this business is the steady, repeat, long-term customer, you should probably set up by an elementary school. Start 'em young, eh?
- Dog-earOct 24, 11, 9:34 p.m. – Permalink
- mikotondria3
Here's a little illustration of smoking that occurred to me recently:
There are around 4 million deaths in the world, per annum, directly attributable to people smoking tobacco, and that's from around 6 million tons of annual global production.
Thus, if you see a 50 ton semi truck full of cigarettes, simply imagine 50 x (4/6) = 33 people stood in the back of the truck, all condemned to die from its contents. Or imagine 16 cars each with 2 people in lined up next to the truck and off down the road. Not much over a ton of tobacco kills somebody. Every ton of tobacco.
How much would you plan on selling ? One ton per year, 10 ?
Get a bit person shaped chart and gradually color it in from the ground up according to the amount of tobacco you've sold. Hooray ! You've reached the top; statistically one person has died from what you've sold.
That's the reality of the ethical decision you've got to make when you decide to sell people tobacco. I've taken care not to use any judgmental language in my illustration, and yes I know - I am a pompous ex-smoking prick who's also sat with people as cancer has slowly eaten their brain and caused them to shudder in agony hallucinating until death freed them from their yellowing boney prisons, but hey - if you don't sell it to these people someone else will, it's not like people stop smoking that easily. You'd all be adults operating within the law, making responsible, legal decisions about the transaction, and you wouldn't even be obliged to set up the coloring-in death outline thing where people could see it.
Or you could think of something else to do, Portland's a great place, very fertile, non-statistical slow-suicide enablement ideas should do well there too.- Dog-earOct 24, 11, 9:39 p.m. – Permalink
