Jerome is the owner of three Los Angeles California-based smoke shops: Sandbox Smoke Shop in Redondo Beach, Pipe Down in Lakewood, and Pipe It Up in La Habra. We sat down with Jerome to get his insight on the highs and lows of owning a smoke shop in 2024, including top selling-products, and how to stay profitable and successful in these uncertain times.
Let’s start at the beginning. What initially inspired you to open a smoke shop?
What inspired me to open my own business was my strong desire to be an entrepreneur. That’s the number one thing for me: I always want to have my freedom and a comfortable work-life balance. I always wanted the freedom to work with different groups of people, usually younger adults, to be able to mentor and help them learn to be entrepreneurs and leaders in their community. As far as my reasons for joining the smoke shop industry, I’ve been an advocate of cannabis use since I was young, and I’ve always taken a liking to smoke shops. As a teenager, I always wanted to not only own a smoke shop but also have the coolest shop around.
How has the industry changed over the years?
I have always taken a liking to glass and the artistry that goes into making each piece. One of my first jobs in the industry was wholesaling glass to smoke shops. It was literally a job involving sales out of a backpack, but I really enjoyed it. I would take out all of my glass samples in front of smoke shop owners and have customers coming up to us excited to check out the different glass, which also made the store owners happy. I really miss that.
What changed is that, unfortunately, glass isn’t as cool as it used to be. I don’t feel like glass is as “cool” to customers as it was when it was illegal. Customers are not fantasizing about glass like they used to. I used to have customers come in and talk for hours about glass; we would just chop it up and share our mutual love and appreciation for the art. So that is definitely a big change. I feel like it made glass less exciting. Everything illegal tends to seem a little cooler.
Now, glass sales are more driven by necessity and basic functionality; customers just need something to smoke out of. Sometimes people will buy nice pieces, but overall, the customers behind it are not nearly as enthusiastic about glass as they once were.
What percentage of your sales is from glass versus other products? What are your top-selling products?
I would say glass sales make up about 30% of our revenue, while vapes make up 50%. In 2024, I would have a hard time naming a smoke shop “a glass shop,” whereas before, I could almost literally just sell glass and still be profitable. I know a lot of glass blowers who were successful a few years ago, and now many of them are just struggling to stay in business and make a profit.
Kratom is another big product that sells a lot for us. Kratom has gotten so much better over the years because the knowledge behind it has expanded. A lot of people didn’t know what it was and the health reasons behind it. CBD products are still a big seller, especially CBD gummies. CBD sales dropped off for a while, but they are starting to come back now that many of the hemp-only stores are slowly closing down and big box stores are becoming less open to CBD.
Papers and Raw products are always a big seller for us. Not just their papers but their skateboard decks, blow-ups, clothing, accessories, etc. You have to love a company that is so deeply rooted in cannabis culture that all of their accessories sell and are popular among cannabis users.
In what way would you say COVID-19 affected your business?
The biggest societal change I have noticed is that I feel like humans became more lazy, at least here in Southern California, because free money was being handed out. This disincentivizes people from working as hard, and as a result, they also have less money. So by that alone, you have employees that change their work ethic and consumers that change their spending and shopping habits.
Companies are adapting to this nature as well, knowing the state of the economy. For example, Puffco’s newest product is priced at $220, which I think is a reasonable price given the state of the economy and people’s finances. Puffco’s previous product drops were closer to a $400 retail price point, which is higher than most consumers are willing to spend in 2024.
I started my first shop (Sandbox) in 2020, right around the start of COVID-19. I was probably the last smoke shop in our area to close because it was my first year, and closing would have meant the end of my business. We stayed open while adopting strong COVID-19 precautions—masks, gloves, hand sanitizer, not letting people in the store, etc. That year, we had a killer 4/20 celebration where people came from all around the state. The following day, 4/21/2020, the city came in and forced us to close down as a “non-essential business.” Luckily, we made enough money in the interim and on 4/20 to stay afloat until we could reopen later that year.
What advice do you have for other smoke shop owners?
Either you offer better pricing or better quality. You have to be better in some way—better atmosphere when you go there, better pricing than your competitors, or some combination. I am also always looking on social media for the newest trends and products in the smoke shop space. Having new and exciting products is a great way to incentivize repeat business because customers will come shop at your store for the latest and greatest products.
How do you use platforms like Google, Yelp, social media, and other online platforms to get traffic?
I don’t do too much marketing for my shops, but with platforms like Yelp and Google, I still feel like those are among the top ways that every store owner should market their business. When you think about it, a majority of the time when someone is looking at a restaurant to go to, they’re going to use one or two things—Google or Yelp.
So obviously, you have to make sure that the name is correct, hours of operation are up-to-date, and more importantly, make sure that your employees take care of every customer that comes in and encourage them to leave a Google or Yelp review. By utilizing those platforms and having the best reviews in your area, that should be the first thing that boosts your business itself.
What would you say are the challenges of running a smoke shop in 2024?
Challenge one: The main challenges will be dealing with employees. If you have more than one shop, you can’t possibly be at each shop all the time. So structure is very important. Having a good team should represent your character and the person you are. Building a strong team of capable employees is absolutely essential. When somebody goes into any business and enjoys dealing with the person on the other end of the counter, I think that will show, and it should rub off on the customer and leave a positive impression.
Challenge two: The constantly changing laws and legalization are going on here. For example, flavored vapes are illegal. It’s clear that some cities care more and some cities care less, but I feel like the government sets up these laws in a way that lets the officials in each city make the decision and choose whether or not to enforce these regulations.
Almost every smoke shop in California sells vapes. When vapes are half of most smoke shop’s sales, they have no choice but to sell them if they want to remain in business. It rubs me the wrong way when California makes laws like that because I don’t remember having a chance to vote on this issue. We have flavored alcohol, and we are supposed to be the land of the free. But then there are laws on what we can and cannot smoke.
The main point the politicians creating these laws are trying to convey is that the vapes are appealing to kids. Well, smoke shops used to be 18+ for tobacco sales, and now they have increased the age to 21+. I feel strongly that smoke shop owners and vape shop owners who do the right thing and follow the law of only selling to 21+ are doing no harm. If they follow that law, they shouldn’t have to get punished because of the guy down the street who’s selling to underage customers and taking them to the high school, which is unacceptable. We need to hate the player, not the game. At my shops, we won’t even sell a lighter to people under the age of 21; we always put our best foot forward to do everything by the books.
This conversation is far from over. Click the link below for more of Jerome’s insights on counter-cultural retail in 2024. Still to come: Jerome offers his thoughts on hemp/alternative cannabinoids (Delta 8, HHC, Delta 9, etc.) and goes back to the very beginning to give us a brief history on how he landed in the smoke shop industry in the first place.
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