A vaping retailer taking aim at stereotypes associated with users of the devices found the practice has largely gone mainstream, despite persisting negative perceptions.
TVape, the largest online retailer of vapes in Canada, is trying to dispel the notion that vapers tend to be uneducated, less active and underemployed. The company says that while the popularity of vaping continues to soar in North American markets, there is still a stigma attached to using the devices, forcing many vapers to hide their habit to avoid judgement from their peers.
A survey conducted by TVape investigating the stigmas impacting the vaping community reveals wide appeal and use of the devices among all age groups and across socioeconomic lines.
“Vapers are often stereotyped as lazy, uneducated people who binge on fast food and Netflix, but that’s really not the case,” Graeme Coleman, communications associate for TVape, told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “The main takeaway of the survey is that vapers are just like everybody else.”
The survey showed roughly 77 percent of vapers have completed a secondary education and roughly 67 percent are employed full time. They also stay active, further diminishing the portrait of the average vaper as lazy. Roughly 76 percent of users exercise at least one to three times a week, with 31 percent exercising four to seven times a week.
The devices also prove popular with people across all age ranges, despite the perception the devices are for younger generations.
“Our goal is to continually discover data and give insight into the vaping lifestyle,” Coleman told TheDCNF. “The vaping community already knows a lot of this data, but the people who are stereotyping vapers might be surprised.”
Researchers at VaporFi, a popular e-cigarette retailer, recently found that over the past two and a half years vaping has shifted from a taboo subculture into a common practice in both cities and rural environments in the U.S. The study found the number of vape shops in the U.S. jumped from 3,500 to 10,591 between 2014 and 2016.
Spurred by consumer demand, the industry grew from the ground up in the form of small business vape shops, which organically increased as more people, many former smokers, adopted the habit.
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