BILLINGS — On Friday, the FDA announced an immediate ban on the popular e-cigarette, Juul.
In response, stores around Billings are removing Juul from their shelves, but for many vape stores, it's still business as usual.
"It doesn't really affect us because we don't sell Juul. They're sold by big tobacco, and we don't deal with big tobacco products here," said Nathan Ochsner, general manager of Vintage Vapor on Broadwater Avenue.
Juul was targeted because of it's viewed as one of the biggest contributors to the growing problem of kids under 18 becoming addicted to vaping because they heavily market sweet, flavored juices. Juul is arguably the biggest name in the industry and shutting the company down could promote fear within smaller retailers.
"They're (the government) is going to start with the big-name people. And hopefully the smaller guys are going to be like, they took down Juul, how can we make it last? Juul had all this money behind them and fell. How can we compete as a small company?" Ochsner added.
Oschner said he thinks the FDA ruling may actually push up sales of disposables at stores like his.
"Or people getting into bigger devices and stuff like that. Again, Juul was just a small portion of that market, but they were one of the most well-known because of the advertising that they’ve done," he said.
Ochsner advocates for patrons to make their own minds up when it comes to vaping.
"If people do their proper research and look at the right reports and not what everybody's telling you and actually do your research, you'll notice that your mind will be changed," said Ochsner.
