QUEENS — Buoyed by the demand of the e-cigarettes craze, Vape New York is bringing its appletini- and dark chocolate-flavored vapor to Austin Street, its owners said Monday.
The store is closing down its current facility at the Unique Bazaar in Jamaica — where they shared space with a printing store — and opening up a bigger shop in Forest Hills at the end of the month, where it hopes to offer more products for its growing customer base.
“We ran out of space in Jamaica,” said Phil Roseman, 47, co-owner of Vape New York, adding that tens of thousands of people have come to buy e-cigarette devices and flavors of vapor at the 162-10 Jamaica Ave. store since it opened about 2 years ago. In addition to the chocolate and appletini, the store offers flavors including watermelon, berry and vanilla mint.
The new location is slated to open at 72-32 Austin Street — the former site of Aminence, a clothing boutique — on Nov. 29, Roseman said.
“We wanted a storefront and we wanted to move not too far from Jamaica to make sure that our customers from the neighborhood will still get taken care of,” Roseman noted.
The new shop will be open 7 days a week, up from the 6-day-a-week Jamaica shop, Roseman said, and will have a seating area for customers who wish to assemble their newly bought kits at the location.
Roseman claims that the number of customers who use e-cigarettes, which create a nicotine-infused vapor that users inhale, keeps growing, because "there is no smoke and no smell," and the device “takes out most of the harmful chemicals that you are getting from burning tobacco leaves,” according to Roseman.
But a number researchers and health advocates warn that e-cigarettes users may develop nicotine addiction.
The most basic kit, which includes a battery, a tank to hold liquid and a charging cable, costs about $38.
Roseman said the Forest Hills store will also carry handmade pipes, which can cost up to a couple of hundred dollars.
Vape New York opened another location at 40 Rivington St. on the Lower East Side in July.
