Juul opened a brick and mortar shop

August 12, 2019

in Toronto's west-end.  Toronto’s first Juul store has opened it's doors to customers last week, marking the manufacturer’s first steps into the standalone brick and mortar arena.  Everyone entering the store will be asked for identification before passing through a door that hides all of the stores products offerings from the view of the public, in order to ensure that anyone that has access to the products is 19 and above.

In Canada vaping was formally legalized in 2018 in and Juul has taken over 78% of Canada’s vaping and eLiquid market, with its products available in over 13,000 stores across the entire country.  General manager of Juul Labs in Canada, Michael Nederhoff, said that the store was designed in a way as to be an “educational venue” for adult smokers who wish to learn more about vaping.

Juul has emerged to be Canada’s leading vaping brand, which coincides with the majority of countries in the rest of the world.  However right across the border in the good old US of A, lawmakers have accused Juul Labs once more of fueling the current teen vaping “epidemic”, which according to the screed that was going around in Washington DC a last month, that the manufacturer’s tactics are “right out of the tobacco playbook” among other trite ideological accusations. 

During a two-part hearing which took place last month, a subcommittee of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform’s Economic and Consumer Policy, said it will be examining Juul’s marketing and health claims. The committee’s chairman, Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, said that the aim is to understand what exactly makes Juul “so attractive to teens."

“In fact, I’ve had one in my hand during this entire statement,” said Krishnamoorthi pointing to a Juul device. “It is my sincere hope that our hearings today and tomorrow will help us better understand Juul’s role in this terrible epidemic and point us toward solutions to prevent teen vaping addiction,” he added.

In response to these claims, a Juul spokesman said that the company shares the committee’s “concerns about youth vaping and welcomes the opportunity to appear and share information about our commitment to eliminate combustible cigarettes and our aggressive, industry leading actions to combat youth usage.”

Apparently the hearing went so well for Juul that they decided to go ahead with the opening of the brick and mortar store, but it is also in Canada so they are relatively safe from our backward views on vaping down here in the states. What's most curious about this store opening is the simple question of why?

Why would they open a store when they already have access to big tobaccos vast distribution network and retail locations?  It seems to me either a backward for sure not going to turn a profit move, or some kind of moral posturing and attempt to appear as if they are really just a mom and pop operation.  In either case it just seems odd, even though there was at one time a catalog you could mail into and redeem your proof of purchase of smokes for, there never was a big shiny Apple-esque store for Marlboros. 

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