Fast-growing e-cigarette market adds 2 more new retailers

Two new retailers — one in Huber Heights, one in Springfield — are entering the region’s fast-growing e-cigarette and vapor retail market, and both are planning additional locations.

Vapourous has opened at 5078 Brandt Pike in Huber Heights, and Vapor Royals is scheduled to open Saturday at 1128 N. Plum St. in Springfield, according to the owners of each business.

The two latest entries join at least half a dozen retailers in the e-cigarette-vapor market in recent months in the Dayton-Springfield region — and most of those competitors say they, too are looking to open more locations in the region. The “vapor shops” serve customers looking for an alternative to smoking cigarettes. Tobacco-free e-cigarettes are battery-operated devices that heat liquid nicotine and flavors into a vapor that the user inhales.

The industry faces the possibility of regulation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which is expected to announce restrictions to advertising, sales to minors and perhaps a limitation on “e-juice” flavors. Ohio recently passed legislation that would ban sales to minors.

Vapourous is owned by Jamie Porter of Clayton, who said she is looking to open a second location in the Dayton-Clayton area “in the near future.”

Vapor Royals is owned by the husband-and-wife team of Michael and Nichole King, who live in German Twp. in Clark County. Nichole King said she and her husband are planning to open two additional shops, perhaps in the Urbana and Bellefontaine areas, within the next three to six months.

Both new retailers sell the devices used to transform the e-juice into vapor, and multiple “flavors” of the juice.

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