When you ask Tammy McCraney about her new business, Vapors Heaven, the smile that lights up her face says it all.
Just in case there’s any ambiguity, though, she’ll readily answer.
“We absolutely love what we’re doing. That’s the biggest part of it,” McCraney said. “With my last job, it got to where I dreaded going to work. Life is hard enough without dreading somewhere you spend 8-10 hours a day. We just love what we’re doing here.”
McCraney and her boyfriend, Keith Slaton, opened Vapors Heaven in August. Their convenient location at the intersection of Hwy. 43 and Lawrence Street serves as a full-service vape shop, as well as an enjoyable place for customers and friends to socialize, relax or have some fun playing pool, X-box or cheering for their favorite team on television.
Vape is another term for an electronic cigarette. E-cigarettes deliver a nicotine containing aerosol, commonly called vapor, to users by (usually) heating a solution typically made up of propylene glycol or glycerol, nicotine and flavoring agents. The vaping industry is booming. More than 8,500 vape shops generated more than $1.2 billion last year, according to www.wsj.com.
Seen by some as a safer alternative to smoking, millions of Americans look to vaping as an effective cigarette cessation method. Vape juices can be made with varying amounts of nicotine. For the first-time user, nicotine levels are usually higher when one begins weaning off cigarettes, Slaton explained. As the smoker transitions to vaping, Slaton reduces the nicotine level at his customer’s request.
“The amount of nicotine depends on the amount of cigarettes they’re smoking,” Slaton said. “We may start with an 18-milligram level for a one-and-a-half-pack-a-day smoker, or 12 milligrams for a pack-a-day smoker. The customers change the levels themselves when they start saying it’s too strong and they want to back down.”
Slaton doesn’t advocate any health benefits from vaping, but his own experience exemplifies that vaping over smoking changed the way he felt.
“I have people tell me how they feel since they quit smoking, and they say how much better winded they are and how they feel better overall,” Slaton said.
Slaton quit cigarettes three years ago but returned to the habit as a result of some stressful personal trials, he said. After working back to nearly two packs of cigarettes daily, Slaton turned to vaping, and this time he’s not reverted to cigarette smoking.
“You can get a vape starter kit and juice for as little as $30 or $35,” Slaton said. “When you consider a two-pack-a-day smoker is spending $12 each day, $10 in juice each week is a significant savings.”
At Vapors Heaven, it’s all about the juice. Slaton makes his own juices for sale and has more than 60 flavors available most days. Additionally, he adds a new flavor or two each week and, based on customer feedback, decides whether to continue making it.
“We’re constantly getting customer feedback on new flavors. And I always try new flavors myself before putting them out for our regulars to try,” Slaton said. “Then if it’s to their and my liking, I put it out as a new flavor.”
Flavor combinations are limitless. Made from a combination of vegetable gluten, propylene glycol, liquid nicotine and natural flavoring, vape juices can be made to taste like anything, even cigars or cigarettes.
“I have tobacco-flavored juices, bold, menthol. I can make a tropical tobacco with a coconut taste. Really, the possibilities are endless,” Slaton said.
Two of his recent creations include blood fusion (a combination of coconut twist, sweet strawberry and pineapple) and graham cake custard (a sweet-flavored creation Slaton uses in his personal vaporizer). While most vape stores sell commercially manufactured juices, Slaton’s homemade juices are what draw customers from north Alabama, Mississippi and even Tennessee.
Vapors Heaven juices come in 15 ml ($5.95), 30 ml ($10.95) and 120 ml ($25).
In just two months, Slaton and McCraney have been blessed with customers who, in increasing number, are becoming regulars.
“Every week we’re seeing new faces and new returning faces. It’s been so awesome,” Slaton said. “I think we’re doing rather well considering we’re asking a customer to come out of his comfort zone when he or she has a vape store they were used to.”
For McCraney, Vapors Heaven is more than a business. She and Slaton spend more time at their store than their home. While revenue keeps the door open, her satisfaction comes from something else.
“We hear the word hospitality used by our customers a lot,” McCraney said. “We want people to feel welcome. We’ve been in plenty of places where they want you to come in and buy and get out. Here, we want people to come in, hang out, enjoy themselves and know that when they talk, we really want to hear what they have to say.”
There’s a growing competitive aspect to the national vaping trend as well. Vape competitions take place across the country, with sponsors offering prizes for winners who are able to blow the biggest, densest vapor cloud. Cash prizes of up to $2,500 in larger competitions await winners.
“We will have competitions here in the near future,” Slaton said. “As our inventory grows, we’ll likely do a competition one day soon. It’s a promotional part of the business, too.”
With Slaton a recovering alcohol and drug addict, and McCraney familiar with addiction within her own family, the couple willingly share their personal testimonies to those people they see heading down the wrong road in life.
“I can tell when someone comes in the door whether they’re starting down that direction,” Slaton said. “I went down that road entirely too long myself, so it’s easy to spot people in similar situations. I feel blessed this is the road God led me down to share my experience and help keep others from going down that road. I honestly believe this is where He placed us to share that message.”
Vapors Heaven is located at 14391 Hwy. 43, across from Auto Zone. For more information, call 256-398-8188.
