E-Cigarette Store Opens at Shoppes at Flight Deck

Elite Vapors, a local electronic cigarette business, is now open at the Shoppes at Flight Deck. 

It's the second location for owners Kim Baethke and her son Dustin Sisler, who started selling electronic cigarettes at the Barnyard Flea Market in 2009. 

Their booth at the flea market will remain open on Saturdays and Sundays, but the mother-son pair now have a venue to sell their products during the week. 

Elite Vapors, which opened at the beginning of March near Tokyo Grill and Firehouse Subs, offers electronic cigarettes, also known as personal vaporizers or vaping devices. The devices are filled with a chemical liquid and produce a vapor for inhalation rather than smoke.

Baethke, a long-time smoker herself, first tried an e-cigarette when her son sent her a kit. Sisler, also a smoker, had been laid off from his job around that time and started using e-cigarettes because he couldn't afford to keep buying packs of tobacco cigarettes. 

Baethke said she was skeptical at first, but stopped using tobacco cigarettes after just a short time. 

Just a few months after Sisler lost his job, Baethke was also laid off. That's when the pair started selling e-cigarettes.

"To me, there were too many benefits to not tell everyone this works," Baethke said. 

Although e-cigarettes haven't been approved by the Food and Drug Administration as a means to quit smoking, Baethke said she's had several customers who were long-time tobacco users switch to e-cigarettes and then quit using both completely. 

Her customers often come back to tell her about their progress. 

"That's probably the best part of it all - that instant gratification," she said.

But there are some people who just enjoy using e-cigarettes, Baethke said, including herself. 

"Smoking is kind of a mental thing," she said. "(Smokers) want to feel that they've inhaled and see the exhale." 

There are dozens of flavors of e-liquid available at Elite Vapors, such as tobacco flavors, french roast coffee and raspberry pina colada. Sisler mixes the e-liquids at the store and lets customers can choose how much nicotine they want in their e-liquid. 

The lifetime warranty e-cigarette kit sells for $85. Customers usually spend about $25 a month on e-liquid and other parts per month if they were pack-a-day smokers, Baethke said.

Elite Vapors also offers a place for customers to hang out.

"We have a vaping lounge where people can just relax, use their vaping device and use the free wi-fi," Baethke said. "We have cards and different games they can play."

The store is open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and 1 to 6 p.m. Sunday. 

For more information visit the Elite Vapors Facebook page or www.elitevapors.com.