Rehoboth store offers flavors for vapers

Electronic cigarettes have been banned from Rehoboth Beach's Boardwalk and sandy strip, but Efactor Vape on Route 1 welcomes vapers with open arms.

It's a lounge meets high-tech hookah bar: Leather couches line the wall as fruit-scented clouds billow across glass display cases filled with vaping gear.

Chipotle employee Mike Wooldridge toys with his custom e-cig as he sits at the counter. The Greenwood resident started vaping in November, after 14 years of smoking Marlboro cigarettes. He still has a pack sitting in his truck, he said, but wants nothing to do with them.

Instead, he swings by Efactor Vape nearly every day before or after his shift, not only to puff on his Mountain Dew mix or strawberry-flavored vapor, but to chat with other nonsmokers at the lounge.

“I've quit smoking,” he said, crediting his switch to vapes for kicking the habit. “Now I'm more on the hobby side of it.”

The shelves at Efactor Vape are filled with multicolored vials – with more than 125 different flavors and varying nicotine levels. It's like a candy store for adults, and Wooldridge said it's a much better, and cheaper, choice than regular cigarettes. He even opts for the liquids with no nicotine at all, now that he's kicked the traditional habit.

There's a lot more to vaping than just inhaling. Vaporizing culture includes cloud competitions, he explained; he hopes to join Efactor's employees in future events. But for now, he's learning more about how to customize his device's coils to make denser clouds and how to mix different flavors for a custom taste.

“We have something for everyone,” said employee Angel Mace, who started vaping three years ago after smoking for 30 years. Efactor also offers coffee and drinks, products based on CBD oil – a hemp-based oil users say helps with more than 1,000 inflammatory diseases – and free Wi-Fi.

Efactor Vape opened at in a small shopping center on Route 1 between Midway and Panera in summer 2014 as S.S. Vapes. The first store was opened in Ocean City, Md., which is now closed. From there, the owners set up shop in Berlin, Md., followed by Rehoboth Beach and Salisbury, Md., with plans to open a store in Dover this spring.

Within the past three months, the three co-owners – Marty Schlegel, Kirk Kinnamon and Dr. Barry Morrison – found a new direction, separated from S.S. Vapes, and changed the stores' names to Efactor Vape.

When they started their business venture, the e-cigs market was just getting off the ground. Since then, more than 20 stores have opened on the Delmarva Peninsula, Schlegel said, and while the competition may be stiff, he believes Efactor has something different to offer.

“One year ago, no one knew what vaping was. Now, you can't go anywhere without seeing someone vaping,” he said. “We're just trying to create a comfortable, relaxing environment … for people who have been excluded from virtually everywhere else.”

Schlegel disagrees with Rehoboth Beach's recent vote to ban e-cigs on the Boardwalk and beaches, but he said it's a chance for Efactor to offer a haven to people who have been ostracized from restaurants, bars and beaches. Although the ban may dissuade some people from visiting Rehoboth, he said, it hasn't negatively affected his business.

“The ban doesn't hurt us here. It hurts downtown businesses,” he said. Schlegel said he and his partners love the Rehoboth location, despite the ban, and don't plan on leaving the storefront anytime soon. He said they also hope to become more involved in community events and possibly host open mic nights.

While Rehoboth limits where people can smoke – both regular cigarettes or e-cigs – Schlegel said there really aren't any regulations on the new booming business. He said he would support regulations to ensure the safety of customers, but Efactor is taking its own steps to provide quality, American-made products.

There are three main ingredients in the liquid used in vaporizors, and the process of turning the liquid into a smoke-like vapor is pretty simple, he said. Each device has a tank and a battery, with an atomizer in between. The battery heats the coils on the atomizer, which turns the liquid into a vapor.

“It's kind of basic,” he said.

The liquids sold at Efactor contain three ingredients: vegetable glycerin, propylene glycol and artificial or natural flavoring. Some also include varying levels of nicotine.

Propylene glycol is the most highly contested of the three ingredients. According to Food and Drug Administration regulations, propylene glycol is used as an anti-caking agent and antioxidant, among other purposes, in food for human consumption. The FDA has classified propylene glycol as an additive that is “generally recognized as safe” for use in food, according to the Centers for Disease Control; however, propylene glycol is not permitted as an additive in cat or dog food.

But Schlegel said there are no current, definitive studies showing harmful effects from firsthand or secondhand vapor inhalation. Regardless, he said, it would be nothing compared to the 2,000-plus carcinogens found in traditional cigarettes.

“There's a lot of misinformation,” Schlegel said.

That's one of the reasons Schlegel agrees that the industry needs more regulation. He said he expects to see some new federal- or state-implemented guidelines in the works within the next year.

For now, though, Schlegel and his employees, including Mace, are doing their best to enhance the quality of life for people trying to quit smoking cigarettes or picking up a new, trendy hobby. He said knowledgeable employees help people customize their experience, by figuring out whether they want to try to quit smoking by gradually decreasing nicotine levels in their e-cigs or simply want to try a new flavor.

“Our stores will always be a little different in the reason why we're here,” Schlegel said. “The main goal has always been to help people improve their quality of life.”