Vape Shop employee in the US

I spent some time today browsing around some local vape shops and overheard an employee at a local vape shop. The first time it was a customer that came in to buy some juice. I will forgive the movement of the decimal point causing a 10X increase of strength, as it happens sometimes, but a vape shop employee should know better.

Employee- What strength nicotine do you want?
Customer- I didn't know there was a difference. What does the strength mean?
Employee- The lower the nicotine the bigger the cloud.
Customer- I was wondering why I wasn't getting good clouds sometimes. I thought something was wrong with my atty.
Customer- If you want clouds, you have to buy the 3 percent.

I stayed in one area and they went off to the juice bar so I didn't get to hear the rest. A few minutes later a smoker came in and wanted to change to vaping. The shop was selling him an Ego One Mega. They were talking about e-liquid and the guy asked what strength he needed. Again the percent thing but still more concerned about the mg/ml they are suggesting.

Employee- How much do you smoke now?
Customer- I smoke a pack to a pack and a half a day.
Employee- We can start you out at 9 percent to help with the transition but you should change to 6 percent next week and 3 percent within 2 weeks.

Maybe I'm just too old school, but at first I couldn't believe what I was hearing. It didn't take long for my common sense to kick in and I realized that the shop makes their own house juice and that is probably the only reason they are open. I don't know if the employee was acting under the direction of management or on their own but they definitely were pushing the lower nicotine, which coincidentally is the majority of the cost of the juice. Nothing wrong with making money but I don't have to like the way they are doing it. I guess I need a lot of nicotine. I have been on 6 mg/ml (.6 percent) for a few months and haven't went down to 3 mg/ml (.3 percent). The only time I think I could get by on 3 mg/ml would be a hella build on the Noisy Cricket. I don't think I could of quit the stinkies with less than 18 mg/ml back in the day. Granted that was MTL at low wattages but that's what I expect a smoker to start at. Even a hard hitting DTL at 9 mg/ml seems extremely low to make a successful transition for a 1 pack+ a day smoker. IMHO.

 

I think I would puke on the first couple of hits.

 

I started on 24mg then after a month moved to 18mg then after 6 months moved to 12mg. For MTL I won't go lower I think for the forseable future but for dripping, sub ohming or using lower builds 1.2ohm and lower 6mg will do me fine.

I can happily be content with 3mg but I will just be using 4 times the amount of liquid I use now so don't see the point in doing that. I will just be inhaling more, still having the same amount of nicotine in my blood stream but it will end up costing me much more money due to going through more liquid.

 

I think this shop sees the point in having its customers do exactly that.

 

I've never needed more than 12mg, which I'm still on. I was finally on 40+ stinkies a day. I seem to be in a minority, so I'm probably less addicted to nicotine than I thought, and it was more of a nervous habit, like chewing pencils or fingernails. Of course, it helps that I vape pretty constantly and easily get through 5000 mAh of batteries a day.

 

Not after the first week or so when I decided I didn't like the only GLV flavours that were available here in 18mg. It's not every day that I manage two 18650's, only those when walking is particularly difficult, and I spend too much time on my a*se with the laptop or Kindle. Those days are getting fewer and fewer since I started vaping. That's why I get so angry at the cupidity of politicians who take fat brown envelopes to deny millions of people the benefits that I've got.
(Sorry, I do go on a bit).

 

I think nic level depends on individual, and how much vapour they're consuming, and MTL or DTL. I vary from 24mg to zero, now finding the longer I don't smoke, the less nicotine I need or want.

MTL will probably consume less juice than DTL in the course of a day, if they are still expecting to get similar nic levels, then MTL juice will need to be a stronger nic.

The other thing I noticed recently was a UK juice manufacturer who changes their PG/VG ratio based on nic content. 0mg having the highest VG content. VG produces the most vapour. So when I read the first conversation, seemed maybe why the assistant might be saying that, and genuinely offering "correct" advice. And perhaps not "just trying to sell more juice"

 

Well it's all conjecture and speculation, as I didn't witness the conversation myself, nor do I (or you) know all the facts ...

I didn't understand nic levels until I researched vaping ... 3, 6, 12, 24, 100 is meaningless without either understanding what they mean or personal experience. And even then Wtf does 3mg/ml or 36mg/ml mean exactly to the average smoker ...

You're MTL guy ... So I have that in mind ... But ...

I think if one is DTL on subohm, then the advice is probably about right. MTL probably not, as less vapour being consumed.

I do however concur you very strongly with "as needed" ... So finding that personal equation of balance is all that matters ...

 

Quite many smokers don't know and never heard about the strength of the cigarettes they smoke. And that answer

is senseless, as we still don't know what cigarettes was he smoking.
As an example I could mention my life in nineties where I was smoking 3 to 4 packs of red marlboro which at that time was 1,6mg nic per cigarette. That's briefly over 100mg nicotine per day. While someone (let's say hte customer above) is smoking white marlboro which is I guess about 0.6mg,to one and half pack per day, so 15-18mg totally. Btw, in this case starting with 9mg ejuice is very exact decision, as a starter vapes below 2ml his first week or so.

 

Well I must be weird then as I was vaping 4ml/day on a CE4 right from the word go. Noy east either I can tell you. lol