I saw one Electronic Cigarette company advertising their products to trade customers in a Scottish Licensed Trade magazine a couple of weeks ago and wondered if it would catch on. The biggest problem I foresaw was that landlords were obviously going to have to sell the cigarettes at a much higher price than we are used to paying online if a profit was to be made. Parting with £25 for a starter kit over the internet when you have access to all the research you could ask for is one thing. Taking a £40 hit on a product you’ve never tried and have heard little about when you can buy a packet of £6 smokes from the machine in the corner is another thing altogether.
Having said that, its looks like a number of pubs in the UK have decided the E Cigarette may be worth a shot. Perhaps with the effect of the indoor smoking ban and the credit crunch showing no sign of abating, the E cig is an easy way to entice customers back to the bar. Hopefully as the chill of the winter season starts to bite and more people start to grumble about the thought of stepping outside for a fly puff, pubs will realise that the E Cigarette will provide a welcome boost to their falling turnover. With a little luck the Electronic Cigarette may just become a common sight behind the bar, right next to the crisps and peanuts.
A Telegraph article on a pub selling the Electronic Cigarette behind the bar.
