Vape Culture Making Inroads On Main Street USA

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After generations of being addicted to combustible cigarettes in the ‘Revolutionary City’ of Williamsburg, Virginia, people there are turning to vapor products to kick the habit. In a recent article from the Williamsburg Yorktown Daily, writers explored how people in the city are quitting cigarettes while in their place, brick-and-mortar vape shops are being erected and an entire generation of ex-smokers are learning how to put down cigarettes for good.

We first visit Tracy and Dustin Musgrove, who opened “Revolutionary Vapes” in Williamsburg. Contrary to the common misperception that vaping's appeal is limited to teens and young adults, the emerging vape culture in Williamsburg is one with an older demographic. In particular, the Musgroves target professionals over the age of 30 who are looking for an effective way to quit cigarettes.

“Williamsburg was the market we were looking for,” Musgrove says. “With students and the active and retired military, those were the exact people we were looking to serve.”

“We focus on the 30-plus working professionals,” she added. “But everyone is welcome.”

Vaping, by and large, has been something that’s been appealing to an older generation that's hesitant to quit smoking, although recently a stigma has become attached to vapor products due to teenage use presenting a problem that’s spreading in high schools around the country. No one will argue that teens should have access to vapor products, but this story line creates a disconnect between the perceived and actual target markets of the vapor industry.

Evidence of an older vaping generation is abundant in the Williamsburg area, which is covered when the author interviews the owners of Maskervape. Store manager Tyler Turpin said that their customers are mostly service industry and construction workers, but that the store also gets some older professionals and college students

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“I love it here because you can talk to people,” Turpin said. He believes vaping is not only a positive alternative to smoking, but a way of life for some people.

He goes on to offer that the culture at Maskervape is communal, bringing people together from various backgrounds who would never have talked to each other otherwise.

“We have a 90-year-old veteran who comes in here once a week and tells war stories,” Turpin said. “At any one time, we could have a kid in college at one table, a 40-year-old construction worker at another, a guy who lives in the basement of his mom’s house … and they’ll talk, and the only thing they have in common is vaping.”