Common Smoke Shop Business Mistakes To Avoid

No one has a perfect track record. From Rocky losing his first bout with Apollo Creed, to Guns N’ Roses Chinese Democracy, history has seen countless examples of mistakes made and prices paid.

At Got Vape Wholesale we are no stranger to this concept, as throughout our over 20 years of business we’ve seen every mistake in the book and even made a few of them ourselves… which is why we’re here today to help you avoid the same common smoke shop business mistakes.

Much like the first caveman to discover porcupines punch above their weight, we’re here with a face full of quills to let you know what mistakes to be on the look out for, how to avoid them, and what the consequences you should be prepared for if you continue down the path.

By standing on the shoulders of giants, your smoke shop will be able to see the mistakes from a mile away and steer your ships far away from the potential ruin of these icebergs. Instead you’ll enjoy smoother sailing, all without having to make the costly mistakes others have before you.

This way when it comes to running your smoke shop in 2026 you’ll be able to focus on the real challenges that lie ahead, instead of playing catch up patching the leaks incurred by your own mistakes.

Table of Contents:

Buying Cheap No Name Brands
Overstocking Your Inventory
Using Bad High Risk Credit Card Processors
Limited Hours Of Operation
Poor In Store Presentation
Bad Attitudes
Misaligned Pricing
Ignoring Market Saturation
Avoid Common Mistakes With Got Vape Wholesale With Got Vape Wholesale

Buying Cheap No Name Brands

Looking like a piece of street meat after a night out at the bars, cheap no name brands purport to offer your smoke shop the chance to cash in with lower price points and higher return on investment.

But just like the dirty water dog you ate at 2AM, there comes a time when taking the easy route amounts to taking the long route to disaster. Whether that’s having to sprint to the toilet the next morning or dealing with dissatisfied customers the lesson is the same - taking short cuts is a mistake.

Unlike a poor choice of late night snack however, taking the easy way out with your smoke shop can lead to a host of business ending issues like charge backs, customer disputes, and negative reviews flooding your google profile.

Issues like these can easily cause your smoke shop death by a thousand cuts, slowly picking away at your bottom line until the fact your business sells cheap no name glass is the least of your worries.

Thus it’s essential to your success as a business to stay clear of cheap no name brands, resist the temptation to cut corners, and instead choose brands with a proven track record of delivering consistent quality.

With the right eye you can even stock up on products that cost the same as no-names, all the while purchasing from brands that have the exact level or reliability that consumers are looking for in their vaporizers, glassware, and accessories.

Just look at brands like Exxus Vape which have demonstrated that bargain bin pricing isn’t exclusive to knock off glassware, with releases like the Exxus Vape BUBL Hand Pipe 12pk maintaining a highly accessible price while still delivering a top tier borosilicate glass experience.

Instead of having an army of poorly manufactured glass arrive in a pile, choices like the Exxus Vape BUBL Hand Pipe 12pk come in point of sale ready packaging that helps catch customer eyes and reinforces the quality nature of the devices.

This means that there’s no longer any reason to choose the no-name brands, as thanks to the expansion of the market and increased consumer interest brands have risen to the occasion and now supply quality devices with prices that match, but value that exceeds.

Avoid all of this mess by simply sticking with quality affordable brands like Exxus Vape, Wulf Mods, and more. Trust us when we say your customers will thank you and your profits will rise just like standards of your inventory.

Overstocking Your Inventory

There exists the saying “too much of a good thing” for a reason and it’s not just about putting mayo on a hoagie, but also about how you go about stocking your smoke shop and anticipating consumer demand for various products.

Overstocking isn’t something that’s done on purpose of course and from time to time will inevitably happen, but you can save yourself a lot of trouble by not taking the bait of here today, gone tomorrow fads that leave you stuck with a mountain of backstroke.

Only investing in the right amount of stock can obviously be difficult, which is why we recommend pacing yourself when it comes to new releases and starting with a smaller test sample to see how your own individual market reacts.

Make note of how different devices are selling and then when you have enough data, you can accurately purchase more of the popular devices that are really connecting with your specific slice of shoppers.

Under this mindset you’ll maintain stricter control of your capital and avoid having your investment sit on the shelf and diminish in value. Instead you can diversify your inventory with a wider variety of products to cater to shoppers of all interests for broader sales success.

Choosing this approach will go lengths when it comes to avoiding overstock, all the while making your smoke shop more accessible for a wider variety of customers interests.

However, if you already have back stock built up - don’t give up hope just yet, take a look at our guide on how to move your smoke shop’s back stock for a handy get out of jail free card should you need it.

Using Bad High Risk Credit Card Processors

When it comes down to brass tax, your smoke shop is going to rely on its ability to process credit cards in order to keep yourself afloat and allow for the maximum amount of sales under your roof.

Unfortunately for our industry, the powers at be have flagged smoke shops, vaporizers, and other alternative products we distribute as “high risk” when it comes to processing credit card transactions.

This results in a vast majority of the major credit card processors completely freezing us out and blanket banning any businesses that have any of these items for sale. Instead, we have to rely on the smaller subsection of the market classified as “high risk credit card processors”.

The companies that exist in this space are, to put it politely, a rogues gallery of different businesses with a vast difference in quality and funnily enough a high risk for exploiting your smoke shops tough situation to exact brutal fees and drain your profits one sale at a time.

By nickel and diming your every transaction with exorbitant fees, these unscrupulous high risk credit card processors will bleed your business dry, hold your funds hostage, and lead to utter ruin for your smoke shop’s future.

Thus it’s incredibly important to not just choose a good high risk credit card processor, instead of a bad one that’s ripping you off. While at the end of the day all credit card fees ultimately amount to digital highway robbery, it’s a necessary evil in order to operate in this day and age.

To provide you a way out of this hedge maze and save you from credit processors who wield their rates like a mad man swinging a firemans axe, Got Vape Wholesale has created a ready to guide that breaks down the best high risk credit card processors for smoke shops.

Chock full o’ essential information on how to identify trustworthy high risk processors and including a few of our own recommendations, this article is just the type of resource we wish was around when we started out and will absolutely help you avoid making a devastating mistake.

Limited Hours Of Operation

Timing is everything. Just ask Ashlee Simpson about her classic SNL performance or the guy who brought a knife to gun fight with Indiana Jones - success is often defined by showing up at the right place, at the right time.

Which brings us to the next common mistake, having poor hours of operation that restrict how easily customers are able to access your wares. This can be opening up too late in the day, closing too early at night, or only being open certain days of the week.

No matter what the issue is, having hours of operation that don’t gel with your overall customer base can prove to be catastrophic in the long run. Fewer shoppers will be able to rely on your business and you’ll deprive yourself of cultivating the “regulars” that help buoy your bottom line.

While it may be convenient for you to open the doors at 11AM, this can cost you a significant amount of potential morning traffic and vice versa for the midnight crowd if you're locking up at 9PM every day.

Finding a balance is the key to this situation, with many shops taking the route of staying open later on the weekends and opening earlier on the weekdays. This kind of hybrid approach seeks to meet demand when it’s available and ensures you're not wasting time with an empty shop.

If you do have ultra restrictive hours, consider experimenting with longer hours of operation in order to cast as wide a net as possible, then dial in things in as you find out what hours receive the most amount of sales.

Always remember that changing hours takes time to see effect, as customers will only gradually realize that your new opening times allow them to pick up what they need at more convenient times. Thus make sure to let the changes have time to marinate before abandoning all hope.

At the end of the day you have to find out what works best for your life and the business, as finding this balance will result in the best possible results and the most positive manifestation of yourself.

Poor In Store Presentation

Another common mistake stems from the opinion that the vaporizers and water pipes we carry more or less sell themselves. That how you present the products doesn’t matter, so how as having the product in stock does.

This is a terrible assumption to make and a folly that many inexperienced smoke shops can fall into. When zero effort is put into the overall presentation of your store this can discourage customers by leaving them unimpressed, confused, or lost amongst the sea of options.

Smoke shops where everything is simply piled on top of each with little regard to overall ambiance or purpose can muddy the mind and leave your business as less than the sum total of its parts.

In order to combat poor in store presentation it’s important to make sure your interior is an inviting place that people want to be. Consider classic tenets of design such as the fengshui of your smoke shop, as these principles can help assuage this underlying issue.

Try to reduce clutter, boost the brightness, and utilize free space in order to facilitate a comfortable shopping experience where foot traffic naturally flows and don’t end up feeling like they're trapped in the pig pen.

Make sure your display cabinets are set up in a way that’s conducive to customer interaction, avoiding poorly lit set ups like the plague. Instead favoring small LED lights that show off your wares in all their glory.

Look over your various categories of products, sprucing up the ones that need a little help and making sure that all aspects of your smoke shop are up to speed. Check out tailor made guides such as our breakdown on how to properly display nectar collectors in your shop for more info on how to make specific pieces really pop.

No matter what you end up doing, taking the time to invest in the presentation of your smoke shop will come back ten fold with higher profits and a more enthused customer base that actually wants to stop in.

Bad Attitudes

Bad attitudes may work at Pat’s and Geno’s steaks, but there's no Philly charm in walking into a smoke shop and dealing with an owner or employee's bad attitude. This is to say that another common mistake smoke shop owners make is letting the pressure of starting out or maintaining business get to you and result in a negative attitude towards customers.

For better or for worse, people these days are more sensitive than ever when dealing with retail shopping. With the confines of online shopping having accustomed many to the robotic obedience of a website, even a dreaded micro aggression can cause you to lose out on a sale.

That’s why whenever you open to the public for the day, make sure to hang your bad attitude at the door and get yourself into retail mode. No matter what’s going on in your life, it should run parallel to your business - never letting the two mix at the risk of losing it all.

While there are many shops that remain open despite their surly off putting attitudes, they are knee capping themselves from achieving market growth. Instead of living up to the full potential, the rude reputation is off putting enough to make people choose the next shop over.

A major part of the appeal to the brick and mortar shopping for something expensive like a Puffco Peak Pro Concentrate Vaporizer with 3DXL Atomizer lies with the fact the shop will be able to explain how it works, what it offers, and a physical place to return to should there by an issue.

Instead of ordering online where communication is strung out between endless emails, shoppers can call your shop directly to speak with you, letting you explain warranty policies and ensure they get 100% of their money's worth.

But when you're rude or have a bad attitude, this implied trust is broken with the customers and they don’t get the same reassurance when purchasing. Instead, they’ll be more skeptical about spending big with you, destroying your brick and mortar advantage completely.

That’s why having a good attitude and positive front facing persona is so essential to finding real success with your smoke shop. By dodging this common error, you’ll be putting yourself at the front of the line in customers' minds and setting yourself up for a far brighter future.

Misaligned Pricing

Much like the adventurer that ends up drowning due to the excess gold they’ve stuffed into their pockets, giving in to the temptation of greed is one of the most common errors that smoke shops make.

We are of course speaking on the propensity for shops to up-charge on devices, going above and beyond the market value in a naked attempt at boosting return on investment. While it’s entirely in your control to raise prices like this, it should be known it carries grave risks.

Abusing marketing scarcity and fleecing your customers is a trick that will only work so many times before negative reviews and bad word of mouth catch up to you. You might catch unaware customers lacking and hit them with a higher price, but once they realize it their opinion on your business will sour.

This will also result in far fewer sales, as more savvy consumers will be price checking everything that you have for sale, making sure your retail shop isn’t trying to take them for a ride.

Doing right by your customers will work out in the long run, as cultivating return customer relationships is essential to you finding the most success. That’s why over charging on products is such a fatal mistake and one that should be avoided at all costs.

Ignoring Market Saturation

Lastly, one of the most common and destructive mistakes that smoke shop owners make is thinking they can open up in a heavily saturated market and still find long term success.

Opening yet another smoke shop when there are already an abundance of local options is by far the easiest way to set yourself up for failure. No matter how much you think your business offers something different, in a saturated market it will be difficult for consumers to see how.

Taking your efforts to an area with less of an over abundance of smoke shops will allow your individuality to shine. Offering shoppers access to all of the products they used to struggle to get their hands on, all with your own unique spin on things.

Now this is obviously easier said than done, as you don’t want to roll into a town with a total of 3 customers interested in smoking / vaping to set up shop and not have access to enough potential shoppers to make operating there viable.

That’s why taking the time to thoroughly research the area you're looking to open up in before setting up shop. Make sure to check out the competition, see how much there is, and examine their wares to see what you can offer that’s different.

It may take some time to find the perfect spot, but when you do it will pay off in dividends. So don’t make the same mistakes thousands of shops have before you and never open up your smoke shop in a heavily saturated market.

Avoid Common Mistakes With Got Vape Wholesale With Got Vape Wholesale

With the most common smoke shop business mistakes identified, you’ll now have a far easier time avoiding them and have the foresight to turn around when you find yourself headed down one of these dead end paths.

The end result will be far easier success for your smoke shop, giving you the confidence to grow your business and make the dynamic moves that result in major wins for your bottom line. No  more speed bumps slowing you down, now you can go full speed ahead knowing exactly what to dodge.

Thanks for stopping in with the team and as always, make sure to check out the rest of our smoke shop resources over at the Got Vape Wholesale Smoke Shop Industry Blog.

In 2026 we’ve explored a wide variety of topics filtered directly through the lens of smoke shop owners like yourself including how to market the Puffco Peak Pro Link, what types of customers you’ll see in your smoke shop, and broken down how to buy better glassware.