Ark Valley News - Park City e-cigarette store works to educate

Zola's owner Eddie Hoyle with some of the liquids used with e-cigarettes. Some of the more popular ones are black honey with caramel and strawberry flavored “Zola's Milk."

Park City e-cigarette store works to educate
By David Dinell
Last Updated: June 25, 2015

Eddie Hoyle sees his Park City store, Zola's Vapor Emporium, 120 W. 61st Street North, as more than just a business: it also has a mission to help tobacco smokers with their addiction.

Switching to vapor smoking, or e-cigarettes, worked for him, including being able to lower his nicotine intake, and he wants to get others to try it, too.

Hoyle, 57, had been a smoker for 39 years and tried everything to quit, including a patch and chewing gum.

"But I just couldn't quit smoking," said Hoyle.

He looked into some of the local e-cigarette stores, but wasn't pleased with them.

"I wasn't given the type of information I wanted," he said. "It was more like, ‘here, give me your money and I'll see you.' I didn't like that."

So he decided he could do better and opened his own venture in December 2013 in Park City, with an emphasis on customer education.

"I wanted to show what it could do for others," he said.

Indeed, on a recent afternoon, a couple of customers were in the store with Hoyle and the atmosphere was decidedly low key as they discussed the merits of different vapor flavors and undertook e-cigarette smoking.

One customer, John Robinson, a Park City resident who had been a tobacco smoker for 40 years, said he was ready for a change when he came into the shop earlier this year.

He liked smoking, but didn't like the smell and side effects he said the tobacco smoking cause him.

"I can breathe again," he said. "That's the big thing."

Robinson said he feels better in general and has "a lot more energy."

Hoyle said Robinson took to e-cigarettes "like a duck to water."

Another customer, Courtney Janzen, said he likes the vapor smoking because the craving for it is much less than a tobacco cigarettes

"This is something you can do for a long time," he said.

Whether that's true or not is still unknown, according to a Feb. 28, 2015, report in The American Journal of Medicine.

"Some acute effects of e-cigarettes on heart rate, blood pressure, and airway resistance are reported," the publication stated. "Although there are some reports of improved cessation in a subset of users, there are also studies reporting decreased cessation in dual users of regular and e-cigarettes."

The Journal also pointed out that there is no regulation of the devices, which allows anyone to obtain them online. A check of online sites found that they will ask if the buyer is 18 or older, but there is no verification of that. Zola's and other in-person stores do restrict sales to legal adults. The Journal also stated that whatever the health effects, customers are flocking to them since they were introduced in the United States in 2007 — and personal experience, such as Hoyle's and others, is what's driving growth.

But vaping, as it's called, is still considered smoking, and in that regard, earlier this year, Park City officials banned e-cigarette smoking in public places or places with public access, such as restaurants. Hoyle said he doesn't have a problem with that.

"It didn't affect me as a business," he said. "We do need to be respectful of others in their space."

Smoking is still permitted on private property and in the store, where Hoyle was happy to show e-cigarette techniques.

Indeed, even after 20 minutes of heavy smoking, there was little evidence of the product in the air, and a non-smoking visitor's clothing didn't smell, nor did his eyes tear up from smoke.

A basic kit to get started with e-cigarettes can be obtained for about $25. That includes the tank, battery and charger. A more upscale unit can be had for about $100, Hoyle said, although some spend even much more than that on deluxe equipment.

The recurring cost is buying the liquid that produces the smoke and those sell for $6.50 for one, $12 for two and $17.50 for three bottles.

The store custom mixes the liquids that are used to make the vapor in the e-cigarettes. Some of the more popular ones are black honey with caramel and a strawberry juice-based concoction called "Zola's Milk."

The cost, Hoyle said, is less than tobacco smoking and the only tax on e-cigarettes is the sale tax, although that could change.

Tobacco cigarettes today in Kansas go for $6 for a pack of 20 and from $60 to $65 for a carton.

The business is a side venture for Hoyle, as his full-time job is a truck driving for a Wichita welding supply company. He does stop by in the later afternoon after work and is there on Saturdays. His son, Seth Hoyle, mans the store the rest of the time.

The location, on the west side of Broadway, is a mixed blessing. The traffic is not as heavy as Hoyle would like, but on the other had, there's lots of parking, even for big trucks — and he occasionally gets inquiries from truckers about stopping by.

To attract attention to the store, which is in the front of an industrial building, Hoyle put a wind banner in front.

The name, Zola's, comes from a well-loved and respected babysitter he had as a child, and the emporium part of it comes from the fact that he plans to branch out into other items in the futures.

Hoyle has done some internet marketing, but has relied a lot on word of mouth and repeat business.

"Compared to where we were a year ago, I'm pretty happy," he said. "It's been a struggle at times, but I'm glad we haven't given up."

Despite the competition, Hoyle said his customers come back because of the north Sedgwick County location and his customer service.

"Those are our selling points," he said.

Any money Hoyle makes goes back into the venture to improve its inventory.

"This isn't about getting rich," Hoyle said. "What I'm trying to do here is give people good customer service and an understanding of what this is all about."