After New York state banned flavored vaping products earlier this month, the outlook for many vape store owners in New York City became tenuous. For others, it’s more certain.
“It’s over,” said Pete Foran, co-owner of Cloud 99 Vapes in the East Village. “It’s impossible to maintain our business.”
Foran, 46, is a former NYPD officer who started Cloud 99 with partners in 2014 after his retirement from the force. Electronic cigarettes had become a galloping trend, and a vape store seemed like a lucrative second act.
Sure enough: Offering dozens of flavored vaping products, the Second Avenue shop was a hit. Foran and his partners opened two more locations in Nanuet and Suffern. Revenue hit $2 million.
Then came what Foran calls “the panic.” Earlier this year, some vapers began reporting serious lung problems, including pneumonia. Some required hospitalization. As of this week, 800 cases of vaping-related lung disease have been reported in 46 states, with 12 deaths.
Meanwhile, critics charged that makers of flavored e-cigarettes and pods were targeting minors with varieties that evoked fruit and candy. On Sept. 17, the state passed an emergency ban on flavored vaping products. The FDA is said to be drafting a federal version.
Today, business at Cloud 99 is down 70 percent. Their $6,000-a-month East Village space is up for rent. It will close within 90 days, and the other locations soon after.
Foran and his partners are stuck with $300,000 of inventory, 95 percent of which is flavored. The manufacturers won’t take the product back, and Foran isn’t even sure how to dispose of highly concentrated nicotine, each bottle of “vape juice” the equivalent of packs if not cartons of cigarettes. “You can’t just throw it in a landfill,” he said. “It’s poison.”
In Foran’s view, officials didn’t approach the outbreak rationally. “They should have handled it like a homicide investigation,” tracing the potentially illness-causing cartridges to their sources, he said. “What’s coming out is that it’s black-market products that are causing these things.”
A single substance or toxin hasn’t been connected to the outbreak of vaping-related lung problems, but most have been reported by people who vaped THC, the active ingredient in marijuana. On Sept. 27, NBC News reported the results of an investigation in which they tested the contents of 18 THC cartridges purchased from licensed and unlicensed dealers. None of the cartridges purchased from licensed dealers had contaminants. But all 10 black-market cartridges tested contained a pesticide that turns into hydrogen cyanide when burned.
Foran believes officials confused the public, conflating the two controversies with the ban of flavored nicotine products. “There are two separate issues, and unfortunately we got caught up in the cross-hairs of it,” he said. “Flavored Juuls are not going to kill you.”
But public anxiety, followed by the statewide ban and the prospect of a federal equivalent, is cratering a field of small businesses. Cloud 99 has laid off some employees; ultimately 13 people will lose their jobs. Foran has spoken with other vape store owners who are in disarray. “The owner of Vape NY has been a big advocate, but the poor lady is in financial ruin,” said Foran. “I just talked to a friend of mine in the industry. His wife is pregnant, and he doesn’t know what he’s going to do.”
“There’s no vape stores after this,” he said. “There’s absolutely no market in selling tobacco flavors, as much as the politicians want to tell you that. We had variety. That was our niche in this market.”
And now Foran is left looking for a third act. “I’ve got my health benefits and everything like that, so maybe this won’t impact me as much as other people,” he said. “But we’re losing a $2 million business. My 23-year-old son is a partner. We built this together. I was going to leave it to him.”
