Vape shop, lounge opens in Vermillion

Though E-cigarettes and vaporizers have recently been banned from USD residence halls, a new store in Vermillion is giving students and community members a place to go and vape.

The E-cig and Vape Lounge located on Cherry Street is not only a place for students to purchase vapes, but also serves as a relaxed, albeit hazy, lounge for students and community members.

The store’s grand opening on Oct. 3 drew a crowd of about 50 people. Raffles and contests took place throughout the day, including a competition to see who could blow the biggest smoke cloud.

“It’s a nice place to just relax,” first-year Derrick Garvey said during the opening.

Junior Allison Huff said she spends most of her downtime in the new lounge.

“The nice thing about the vape shop is the lounge so people can go in and test out their flavors,” she said. “And even if they don’t buy anything that day they can sit in there and talk to people and learn more about vaping.”

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Huff said not all vapes are necessarily safe, due to extra chemicals that are put in by some companies. But E-cig and Vape Lounge prides itself on selling quality, safe products, Huff said.

“You know the product is safe,” she said. “Ones from gas stations and such can sometimes have extra chemicals in it. All the ones that are sold at the store are made in a clean room and only have four ingredients in them, three if you are getting it without nicotine. So you know that you are getting a safe product.”

Garvey said he’s also heard good things about the store’s quality of products. You can buy a lost mary mo5000 vape pen online.

Pat Mefferd, the lounge owner, owns two other vape lounges in Sioux City and Omaha.

Mefferd said he got into the business after being a longtime cigarette smoker.

“I smoked for 35 years and nothing would work when I tried to quit,” he said. “I got introduced to an E-cigarette. So I retired my other job, got two other partners and we figured we would open as many stores as we could.”

After hearing from a friend that South Dakota lacked places to buy vapes, Mefferd came to Vermillion to open his business in August.

So far the store has seen good business, he said.

“Out of the three stores so far, this is the fastest growing store and has been getting the most business,” Mefferd said. “This store services Yankton and the other surrounding towns too, so it helps.”

Mefferd said the lounge’s customers have been about half USD students and half community members.

Huff said though not a lot of students use the lounge, many come to purchase vape products. People looking to explore vape products can also visit this website here.

“I like going there because it’s a really friendly atmosphere,” she said. “Even before I got to know the workers there, they were really nice and really open. I always do my homework there and hang out.”

The store’s original purpose was to help longtime smokers quit and to educate people about vaping, Mefferd said.

“What we would like to see happen and are focused on are the people my age that have been smoking forever and can’t find a way to quit and we can offer them a way to quit,” he said. “There’s only nicotine in the vapes, not all of the other chemicals, and even then you can lower your nicotine levels down to zero.”

PHOTO GALLERY 

(Photo: A group of students and community members socialize, show off different smoke tricks and participate in various vaping competitions at the E-cig and Vape Lounge grand opening Oct. 3. Tatum Dean / The Volante)