Rendez-vous #23 with Kim Shilling Manor

Rendez-vous #23 with Kim Shilling Manor
Owner of Moose Jooce Vape Shop in Lake Station (Michigan) Follow her on twitter 
First is there anything you would like to add to your self introduction on twitter: "I smoked 35 years...lost my husband to lung cancer..still smoked. Tried vaping on 10/21/2013 and quit overnight! Now I own Vape shops geared towards smokers 40+".

Kim Shilling Manor: I started smoking at 14. Like every other kid, I stole my dad’s Marlboros. By the time I was 18, it was a 2 pack a day habit. I tried everything to stop, Chantix, hypnosis, patch, gum, SmokeEnders. Nothing worked. It’s an insidious habit. My husband, John, died at age 49. He was a 3 pack a day smoker. By the time he was diagnosed, he lived 3 months. Even that didn't stop me from smoking. My Mom got lung cancer 9 years ago. That didn't stop me. Nothing worked until I tried vaping. 

Q1. Can you tell a bit more about your discovery of vaping while you were still a heavy smoker (2 1/2 packs of Marlboro reds a day according to your website) and how you decided to start a vape shop? It does not look like you are living in a big community. How was that received? Who are your customers?

Kim Shilling Manor: I was putting on my 35^th HS Class reunion, and I asked my friend, Sue Gladkowski if she’d like to go have a cigarette when we were decorating. She informed me she had quit smoking through vaping and had me try it. I was dumbfounded…left immediately and drove 40 miles and bought one. The young gentleman running the vape shop I went to wasn’t very helpful and didn’t understand the abject terror I had at giving up my cigarettes.

He was more concerned with coil making, cloud blowing…didn’t listen when I explained I need this to stop smoking. After a few visits to various vape shops, I realized that is what was missing…someone to sit down with me, one on one, and explain how the whole thing worked, how to fill it, how to change the coils, when to charge it. I needed a safety net, (the way having a carton of Marlboros in the cupboard was my safety net). I needed someone I could call and ask questions to. Someone to fix my vape if it wouldn’t turn on.

At that point, I realized there were so many people, like me, over 50, that needed someone patient, that would explain it completely to them, that they could lean on, call, explain to them. I came up with the idea of a vape store for people 40+. I live in a resort community with a lot of retirees, so it was a great match.

My customers run the gamut, from a 92 year old woman to an 18 year old smoker who is transitioning away from combustible cigarettes.

I’ll be the first to tell you I was stunned at how successful my first little store was, from using that formula. I tell people I don’t have customers, I have friends.

Q2. In a recent conference about e-cigarettes organized by NYU in New York City (here on YouTube) with a number of official experts I found that the most interesting contribution was by a vape shop owner, as he told his own story and described his very diverse customers in Brooklyn and their very diverse choices. He seemed to know much more than anybody of the experts about e-cigs. Your website is very detailed. What do you think is the most important to know and to do for a smoker who wants to try vaping?

Kim Shilling Manor: We have a process we use in my stores. First we ask what they smoke, how much and 9 out of 10 times, we start them out with a Boulder Rock. It’s a $15 starter kit, very simple, and the cost takes pressure off the customer. If, after they quit smoking, they want a new unit, we help them choose one, but we start them off with Boulder Rock kits. I have a full testing bar, we then find the flavor they like best, and start them out with 12-18mg. of nicotine. I always give them a bottle of tobacco or menthol flavor to start. We realize not everyone can quit smoking cigarettes with the first puff of a vape, so we take away the guilt, and encourage dual usage for the first week. We’ve had tremendous success with this method. Our employees are older, well trained in this method, and our first job is to make the customer comfortable and gaining their trust.

Q3. I am a big fan of your 'new former smokers' pictures initiative, the #youngadultsvaping or the older folks like Jim who smoked for 60 years until he switched. They should be required viewing for anybody wanting to talk about vaping. Can you tell us how you proceed? Don't you think this would be a great national and international campaign? Something to use for the upcoming 2019 World Not Tobacco Day? Kudos to Notblowingsmoke.org who were the pioneers of those I quit portraits?

Kim Shilling Manor: I saw the Notblowingsmoke.org pics a few years ago and LOVED the idea. People who have transitioned off cigarettes by vaping are INCREDIBLY proud of themselves. They thought they would be a smoker for the rest of their lives. They can’t believe how great they feel, how much money they save, etc.

My daughter in law made me the white board I use, it hangs in the stores. Many of the customers ask us if we can take their picture! I just feel that the world needs to know that you CAN stop smoking, through vaping, and what better way than the picture testimonials from actual quitters.

Q4. There are renowned experts in tobacco control in Michigan, working within institutions that are heavily funded. Some are in favor of e-cigs (Ken Warner) some very much less so (like Cliff Douglas). Do you have any contacts with those institutions and experts? Do you feel heard? ignored? 

Kim Shilling Manor: I have no contact with either of the gentlemen you’ve mentioned. I’m pretty rural, and I learn so much on Twitter from Dr. Gardner, Dr. MA, Skip Murray, Amelia Howard, Jim McDonald, Kevin Crowley. We don’t have a very active state organization, and between the four stores, having guardianship of my Uncles and Grandma, I don’t have the time to push our state organization. Hopefully, I’ll be able to find the time later this spring to become more involved. For now, I do what I can as a keyboard warrior.

Q5. I am completely ignorant about all the e-liquids produced in Michigan and elsewhere. How do you choose/select among them? What about Juul and the Heat not burn devices? Do you sell those too?

Kim Shilling Manor: Michigan is famous for its craft beers…and I’ve found that e-liquids made in Michigan are the best in the nation. It’s nice to be able to call the manufacturers of the e-liquid I sell and speak directly with them. My customers love the idea of buying local, and it’s been a wonderful way for my customers feel like they are part of the “vaping community” when the manufacturers come to the stores for the day to meet my customers, educate them and listen to them, their concerns and their questions.

I do not sell JUUL nor Heat not Burn products. I sell JUNO, but mostly refillable pod devices, with Michigan made salts/high nic.

I choose the Michigan made e-liquids we sell based on quality, taste and their involvement with advocacy.

Q6. Is there anything else you would like to add?

Kim Shilling Manor: My stores are in small rural cities. We are the “fly over” people that the “decision makers” in Washington D.C. ignore, don’t care about or distain. They aren’t touched by the 74 year old man that quit smoking and is off oxygen. They don’t care about the 92 year old who quit smoking by vaping, and doesn’t have to live in a nursing home. I’m beyond disgusted with our lawmakers and policy mavens that are doing nothing for public health. All they are doing is trying to save the tobacco tax dollars they have all gotten rich from. PAVE (Parents Against Vaping E-cigarettes) gets a TON of attention from our lawmakers, the FDA, etc. PAVE is a group of rich white suburbanite helicopter mothers that are willing to let ½ a million people die this year from smoking related deaths, just so their little Muffy or Biff won’t sneak a JUUL. Yet, they have the ear of our congress and the FDA. Honestly, the kids in our area aren’t going to Harvard or Yale. More than likely, they will go in the military on graduation or to a community college. This does not make them any less valuable than the children of a virtue signaling PAVE member. We know that socioeconomic factors play into smoking, who smokes, who will start… And now that we have found something that works, that will SAVE these people, our own government wants to outlaw it, and let us die. ALL to continue to get those pharma & tobacco lobbyist money. 

Thank you Kim for having taken the time for this rendez-vous and for all your great work to help people switch.

 

Comments

[Jona]

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