New smoke shop in Howell catering to cigarette, vape and marijuana smokers
The owner of a new smoke shop in Howell said it is a good time to get into the market because of the legalization of recreational marijuana in Michigan and the growing popularity of e-cigarette vaping.
Howling Howell Smoke Shop opened last week at 120 W. Highland Road/M-59, Suite 300, in the Crossroads Town Center shopping center.
While the shop does not sell marijuana, it carries accessories for smoking marijuana, including water pipes, wax pens, trays and grinders.
It will also carry traditional cigarettes, e-cigarette vapes, loose bagged tobacco and cigars.
Owner Ali Abdallah has some of the store set up and he will add more products once they arrive. Abdallah said there are supply chain delays for some products, but he did not want to wait any longer to open.
"A lot of people smoke. That's good and bad, I guess. And marijuana is legal in Michigan now so that helps," Abdallah, 32, said.
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The shop also carries cigarillos, which are small tobacco cigars.
Abdallah said most customers use cigarillos to roll marijuana blunts by removing the tobacco and filling the paper with marijuana instead.
While Howell does not allow marijuana businesses, surrounding communities have dispensaries.
"A lot of people say they go to (dispensaries in) Whitmore Lake," Abdallah said. "Around here a lot of people grow it because it's legal to grow."
He said when it comes to tobacco users, more people have gravitated to e-cigarette vapes.
"Regular cigarettes have a lot more chemicals than vaping," he said. "It feels like people are moving toward vapes because of that."
Abdallah said Breeze vapes are the most popular brand. They come in dozens of flavors.
"Everyone has their flavor that they like."
As of Monday the shop also had bags of loose tobacco, empty cigarette tubes and rolling machines for people who roll their own cigarettes.
"The people who roll your own are more of the slightly older middle-aged or above," Abdallah said. "It's much less expensive. You could buy a carton for $80 or spend $10 to roll your own."
Before opening the shop, Abdallah owned and operated a Marathon gas station in Flint for about eight years. He also worked at a gas station with an attached smoke shop owned by his brother while he was looking around for a new gas station location.
He said he shifted gears and opened the smoke shop instead.
"It's a lot less overhead than a gas station."
He said the location in Howell was attractive because the shopping center gets good traffic because of Kroger and access off M-59.
"I wanted to get out of Flint," Abdallah said. "Up in Flint there is so much competition. It's saturated. Here it is not as saturated. There are a few smoke shops but the closest is a couple miles away."
Contact Livingston Daily reporter Jennifer Timar at jtimar@livingstondaily.com. Follow her on Twitter @jennifer_timar.
This article originally appeared on Livingston Daily: Smoke shop in Howell catering to cigarette, vape and marijuana smokers
