Ecigs Wholesale Ture Story---UD Wholesale Should Concern. HOLYOKE -- Anthony Caldalda boarded a cruise ship in Florida two years ago a cigarette smoker trying to quit. In the ship's store he bought an electronic cigarette for $15. He left the ship with a business plan that led to Vapers Edge at 241 Main St., which in September marked its one-year anniversary. "When I stepped off that ship, I invested immediately. I loved how it made me feel," Caldalda, 34, said Tuesday.

Just don't call "it" smoking. What happens at Vapers Edge is the inhalation and exhalation of vapor -- often carrying sweet or spicy aromas -- produced by a battery-powered hand-held device. Vaping. E-cigarettes are the most basic, cheapest and easiest to obtain forms of vaping, available at convenience stores and gas stations. Vaping is often partaken by cigarette smokers trying to quit. Or former butt fiends who latched on and stayed after quitting the smokes. Or others who were curious and tried and liked the atmosphere, subculture and gadgetry of vaping, according to Caldalda and online sources.

But a key of vaping is it lets practitioners, again, many of whom are trying to kick the cigarette habit, manage nicotine intake, Caldalda said. That happens via the liquid, "vape juice," that is inserted by tincture from a 30 ml bottle into the cartridge or tank of the vaping device. Press a button and the battery heats the juice into the vapor the user inhales and blows out, with the hundreds of varieties of juices containing varying levels of nicotine. Or none at all. (More on that later).

"Kind of like drinking a virgin daiquiri and getting the taste but not the kick," Caldalda said. Some of the devices are known as vape pens because they resemble the writing instruments but actually are more the thickness and heft of a pocket flashlight.Vapers Edge is a rectangular-shaped establishment with a dart board, couches and chess set to the immediate right and glass display counters flanking the long center aisle.

Ecigs Wholesale Ture Story---UD Wholesale Should Concern. Behind the counter on the left are wall shelves lined with rows of hundreds of vape juice bottles bearing colorfully and graphically adorned labels. Caldalda said he stocks 370 "flavors" of vape juice, some straightforwardly named and others boasting a more intriguing nomenclature:

Apple, banana, cinnamon cream, jelly donut, lemon, lime, milk, tea, water melon, Obsessed by Psycho Bitch, Enter the Dragon by Gemini Vapors, Sunday Brunch by Voop Juice, Gobz in Your Face Liquids and Coco Bongo -- Mango, Pineapple and Coconut Smoothie. Picture, Caldalda said, the powdery crumbs in the bottom of a box of Froot Loops cereal, that being a vape juice flavor.

"You're smelling Froot Loops and 'tasting it', you're not just smelling it," he said. Whether vaping is a healthy alternative to smoking cigarettes remains up for debate. The Mayo Clinic said that most experts agree that because vaping doesn't burn tobacco, it is likely to cause fewer harmful effects than traditional cigarettes. But some flavoring agents and additives in vape juice have been shown to be toxic, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the American Heart Association and others have reservations about vaping, the Mayo Clinic said.

Questions discussed around vaping include whether it merely is the lesser of two evils in comparison to its bad-ass older brother the cigarette and whether the supposedly nicotine-free vaping really is entirely devoid of nicotine. Skeptics also note that e-cigarette companies are owned by big tobacco brands. Last year, Public Health England, an executive agency of the British government, released a study that concluded vaping was "significantly less harmful to health than tobacco and (has) the potential to help smokers quit smoking." But another study this year by the University of Athens Medical School in Greece said vaping may be more dangerous than was thought.

People continue doing lots of stuff that studies say may or may not be bad for them, and Caldalda said business is brisk. Customers at Vapers Edge are male and female and from the range of ages and backgrounds, he said. "It's a very growing business and it's becoming more popular," said Caldalda, who was born and raised here and now lives in Chicopee. Vaping is legal in inside Vapers Edge, but the practice is generally prohibited in the same places that smoking cigarettes is prohibited, he said. Vaping also has its fun, if laid-back, appeal. Caldalda exhaled trumpets of vapor and said there are lucrative competitions in the world to determine the longest and most interesting clouds of vapor exhalations.

Ecigs Wholesale Ture Story---UD Wholesale Should Concern. The glass cases on the left as you enter Vapers Edge contain vaping devices and gadgetry. Those on the right are perhaps a nod to the business sense of Caldalda, who also owns Davans Computer Services next door: Those display cases contain glass pipes, rolling papers, grinders and other paraphernalia for use with marijuana. Massachusetts voters opted to legalize marijuana for recreational use by approving a ballot question on Nov. 8.

But while that marijuana law goes into effect on Dec. 15, Gov. Charlie Baker and the state Legislature are authorized to rewrite the law, so actual availability of recreational pot might not happen for a few years. Caldalda is a businessman who seems to know that operating means dealing with ups and downs. His only employee at Vapers Edge is himself, though he said the city and Greater Holyoke Chamber of Commerce have been helpful. "The city hasn't been bad to me. I'm actually part of the chamber of commerce. I went through the SPARK program," he said, referring to the chamber's eduation regimen for prospective business operators. "I was already in business before that, but you learn a few things," he said.

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