Good old Smoke Shop

[pavlakos]

since im not 18 yet, and my father doesnt have a credit card i shop for everything i need at the local arab stores. and it is awesome having them know u and giving u discounts, and free shit. the guy i usually go to doesnt have anything but nakhla but hes closest and gives me 250 gm packs of nakhla for 4 dollars...his brother owns a rele sweet hookah bar, and its 18 and up(one of the rare shi sha joints that actually cards ppl) and he lets me and my friends in no prob...thats pretty kool.

[Yonatan]

downtown haifa is about a 3 minute walk from my house.

50g nahkla and waha for about $1.20, 6 quality quicklite coals for about 0.50 cents... israel prevails yet again....

Hey Yonatan...

You wanna start some international trading

JD

i thought about starting some kind of trade thing for people who live in europe and have to take loans to buy shisha...

if you're serious ill talk to my friend and maybe we can work something out

[azcoyote]

i live in canada so unless i feel like payin 15$ for 50grams of Nakhla its all online for me.

Hell, what do premium brands go for?

During prohibition bootleggers ran booze down from Canada. Now it seems like the economics are ripe for shisha to go the other way. Ought ot be able to make about $90.00/pound profit. Damn those revenuers...remember the Whiskey Rebellion!

[[LB]]

I live in Santa Cruz which also has countless smoke shops, at my count 4 downtown and two others in the city.  However I've found at least for the hookah itself online MUCH CHEAPER.  I bought a junior that broke for the same price I bought a 26" Two Hose Egyptian with painted base.  I also got many more freebies with the 26" hookah I ordered online.  

The other problem with local is not enough selection, the main smoke shop has 3 brands of tobacco but thats it.  The other shops sometimes don't have the same brands week to week, and lack other accsessories (like a washable hose).  For these reasons and more I do more shopping online then at local shops.  Though I do sometimes buy stuff at local shops as well.

your lucky you have any at all, i have to go to brookyln which is about an hour and a half away just so i can get some havana!

[Sonthert]

#1: the hookah industry is still young...lots of local stores think they can make a killing by cashing in on a fad...in reality, they are making it a fad. If they priced things fairly and stoppe trying to make the payments on four Lexuses (Lexuss...Lexii), there would be cheap retail places that people could find what they wanted. Percentage taxes are always a bad idea, they always make the lower quality products(or lower alcohol content, in the case of booze) more attractive price-wise. The really good gulfii tobacco can't even be found in the US, for the most part because they are some damned expensive after taxes, an importer couldn't make any money importing them.

#2 As a condition of #1, to answer Dan's question, In Canada, they probably only have three or four of the cheapest brands beacuase they have the same structure of excise tax and its even higher.

#3 Still a majority of Americans don't buy things online...bad mistake to hinge your distribution on online sales...you're missing more than half the market (albeit the poorer segment of the market, for the most part).

[Lakemonster]

Local........ not so much. Too high here for the brand....... way to high. The shop here sells hookahs that they charge $179 that I can drive to DFW and get for $60.

So I make a point to drive. In the big town I get some of the same prices seen online or at times lower. I havent done business online for hookah in almost 6 months. I keep my money somewhat local and by twists and turns... benefit those I ultimately prefer to do business with.

I agree with Tangiers.... many online vendors could really be making the bread by retailing as well. Theres one consideration... can I make a go of retail outlets? ...... or keep a bridge with local retailers by offering wholesale accounts? Is there a good way to balance this and still have a "good neighbor" attitude toward 2nd party outlets?