Knowing the worth of salt across vapes
Winner: Day-Today Drylaw
Vaping Retailer of the Year supported by BAT UK
Interview with Zahid Iqbal, store owner
UNDERSTANDABLY, there are plenty of retailers in Scotland concerned about the incoming disposable vape ban in 2025.
While the impact the devices have on the environment and the concern for youth access are very real issues that need to be addressed, a complete ban on the products will go on to have a detrimental impact for plenty of store owners.
Despite this concern, there are still those who are ready for the new legislation and, instead of viewing it as a hindrance, choose to welcome the new law as a challenge for them to overcome.
Every retailer worth their salt will know how to overcome the hurdles they face along the way and that is just the case for Day-Today Drylaw, in Edinburgh, whose staff members have been preparing for the disposable vape ban long before it was ever on politicians’ radars.
Store owner Zahid Iqbal has been working to introduce reusable vape options to both his smoking and vaping customers for some time now and, as a result, has managed to future-proof his store against the disposable vape ban. So much so, Zahid says he still feels confident about his vape sales after April 2025.
Zahid said: “We are more than ready for the disposable vape ban next year, we’ve been preparing well in advance to make sure we won’t see a hit to sales.
“For well over a year now, we’ve been talking to customers who have been coming in either for cigarettes or disposables to help them make the switch.
“Even if it means taking time out of our day to set up the refillable for them or giving them a deal on some pods to help them to make that switch, we make sure we do it.
“It works out cheaper for them in the long run and it means we have a customer who can come back to us to buy refills, or to get some more advice.”
An expert-level approach to the category and an eye for the future has helped to make sure Day-Today Drylaw’s vaping section is set for every hurdle that could come its way but still remains massively profitable.
As such, Scottish Grocer judges saw fit to name Day-Today Drylaw as the Vaping Retailer of the Year winner at the Scottish Grocer Awards 2023, for an outstanding category knowledge and confident approach in the face of adversity.
When it comes to the vaping range, Zahid reckons the key to success is knowing where the market will eventually go long before it’s the trend of the day.
Zahid said: “We want to make sure we have a range that covers what customers are looking for, as well as those products that our shoppers don’t know about yet.
“There will be plenty of people who come in looking for a certain flavour in disposable vapes and we do offer them the option of swapping to refillable.
“For us at the moment, that means introducing customers more to the nicotine salts options in our range.
“The salts offer customers a more intense hit and flavour, much more than the standard disposables they’re used to and, since it’s the flavour they’re looking for here, we can use that to really push up sales and help customers make that transition over to the refillable devices.”
As such, Zahid ensures his store has a wide variety of nicotine salts for shoppers to choose from, covering off various brands, flavours and strengths.
And it’s a solution that is clearly working for the store as demand for the salts sees Zahid make a regular order for the subcategory in excess of £8,000 just to keep up with demand.
Although, it’s not as simple as putting them on the shelf and hoping they’ll be a suitable replacement for when the ban comes into play.
Zahid helped to explain the difference when it comes to ratios in the nicotine salts range. The subcategory comes with a ratio between the Vegetable Glyceride content and the Propylene Glycol content that can have a dramatic impact on the vaping experience.
He said: “When it comes to vaping, you need to have that knowledge ready to go to explain to customers.
“It can be a complicated category at times, so you need to get your head around this. Take the nic salts, for example, you first need to explain how the different strengths work to customers and you need to explain how the ratio strengths works to them.
“You can get ones that offer a 50:50 ratio, which means the flavour and the strength are equal and the hit in the throat you get can be quite strong from the vape.
“Whereas, we also stock the 70:30 option, which offer less of a hit in the throat, but a sweeter flavour, making it ideal for shoppers who want an easier vape.
“Not only is this important for the vaping experience, but for the device themselves as well. If a customer uses the wrong concentration on the device, it can sometimes cause the container to leak.
“This makes customers think the vape is faulty and they could come back to complain to you, or make the switch back to a disposable option.”
Zahid’s knowledge has helped to ensure his vaping section is more than ready for the future. And it’s this comprehension that Zahid said Day-Today backer United Wholesale Scotland (UWS) was keen to hear from when it came to the launch of the firm’s new United Vapes website.
Offering Day-Today operators a direct website they can use to boost their knowledge of the category, the new site allows for next-day delivery for stores and access to a massive range of exclusive vapes, both across refillable options as well as for disposable devices, too.
Zahid said: “The new website has been really useful to help stay on top of our range. If we can get an order in before 1pm then we can have stock in the next day.
“And it’s been great getting to talk to UWS staff about the new website and offer some of my own insights for it.”
While the vaping section has got Day-Today Drylaw set up for the future, Zahid has been looking to new pastures and further expanding his estate of stores going forward.
Zahid said: “We’re happy with where we are with Drylaw now, so I want to start focusing on future stores.
“We have plans under way for a new city-centre store coming in the new year but the one we’re really excited for is our new Prestonpans store.
“We bought a plot of land so that we could have a completely custom-built store that we could have so much control over. We get to choose the store’s layout and will be able to site ranges in the best places to drive up sales.
“We are still working towards opening the new store but we’re very excited about what we will be able to do with it once it opens up.”
