This duo shares both a brotherly and a business bond, and when it comes to serving customers, they’re not just blowing smoke.
Mustafa and Ali Sarwary are co-owners of Bradford’s newest vape shop, North Vapes, to which residents are invited for the grand opening in Unit 2 of 136 Holland St. E. on Saturday, April 20 from 2 to 4 p.m., with a ribbon cutting at 3 p.m.
The event is set to include visits from dignitaries, as well as pizza, refreshments, a raffle and door prizes including merchandise, clothing and gift cards.
The store offers different brands of vaporizers and nicotine-based oils including open pods, closed pods and disposables, plus vaping accessories.
“In terms of what sets us apart, we’re very keen, and very adamant on customer service. We want everyone to have a great experience coming in here,” Ali said, adding that the store has a stamp system where customers who make 10 purchases are eligible to get a free item, plus they also plan to hold monthly raffles.
“It’s extremely important for us to accommodate our customers in every single way,” Mustafa said.
Not only are the brothers confident they can meet all of their customers’ needs, either with the products in stock or by ordering what customers want, but Mustafa also estimates they spent about $100,000 renovating the interior to not only be functional, but also create a colourful and welcoming space for all adults.
That includes a mural about three metres tall and 12 metres long that fills one entire wall with the North Vapes lettering across the top, a polar bear mascot, a colourful map of original six boroughs of Metro Toronto, as well as personal takes on cultural references, including “We the vape,” in reference to the Toronto Raptors slogan “We the north,” and “The vape is yours,” in reference to a line from the film Scarface, “The world is yours.”
The mural also includes two large images based on the Bearbrick collectible figures with which customers can take selfies.
“Not only is it a very beautiful store, but it’s at a very beautiful price,” Mustafa said, acknowledging the struggle many people face in trying to make ends meet with the current cost-of-living situation.
So far, that approach seems to be working, and since the store’s soft opening on April 1, there are already more than 20 five/five-star reviews on Google praising both the service and the prices.
A little hometown charm can help too, with that mural including graffiti-style letters spelling out “Bradford” and while the brothers are from Georgina, they said they have both friends and family who live in Bradford, which is one of the reasons they wanted to open a business in town.
“We really want to represent Bradford,” Mustafa said, explaining how grateful they are to their landlord for giving them a chance to build the business they envisioned when others were turned off by the stigma of vaping.
He said the duo looked at more than 50 different locations in and around Bradford and made offers on more than 20 before securing their current spot, which is big enough and has enough access to parking to facilitate the kind of customer experience they wanted to provide.
They also try to educate customers on the benefits of using vaping as a way to transition away from smoking cigarettes, according to Ali, who explained six members of their family used to be heavy smokers, but all managed to quit by using vaping instead, and some of them have even given up that as well.
“There’s a bridge from smoking to quitting, and that bridge is vaping.” Mustafa said. “The ultimate goal is to quit.”
The duo aspire to one day grow and add more locations, possibly in Newmarket or Aurora, but right now they’re focusing all their efforts on Bradford while keeping an eye on federal regulations that could potentially impact the business, including restrictions on flavours.
In a statement from March, federal Minister of Health Mark Holland said the government “wants to see innovation” in smoking cessation and called smoking cigarettes the “number one cause of preventable deaths” in Canada, but also discouraged the use of flavours “that are targeting kids.”
While the brothers said they take seriously the responsibility to prevent the sale of nicotine products to minors — they have several signs reminding customers that they must be 19 years of age or older to purchase anything in the store, and strictly prohibit smoking or vaping inside the shop — they also don’t want to see the removal of flavours altogether.
Holland said the federal government would work with provinces to “restrict flavours down to what’s only essential for the purposes of cessation,” but couldn’t specify exactly which would remain.
“At the end of the day, we’re believers in a higher power and we feel that the right thing will happen down the line,” Mustafa said.
North Vapes is open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday to Saturday and 10 a.m to 9 p.m. on Sundays. For more information call 289-763-5190.
