Business Profile: Vape Escape, Yorktown
Northern Westchester residents who want to vape now a have a new place to shop.
Vape Escape was opened in Yorktown by town residents Steven Galper and his wife, Lara, in October. It is the first store to specialize in e-cigarettes in town.
The couple is e-cigarette users. “We stopped smoking because of that,” Mr. Galper said last week. “We have not smoked since March.”
After they quit the habit, the couple decided to open their e-cigarette store, Mr. Galper said. The store offers a variety of products related to e-cigarettes, including e-liquid, which is what a person would vape. “It is a liquid that goes into a tank,” Mr. Galper explained.
The liquid comes in a wide variety of flavors, including caramel, cinnamon, watermelon, and cranberry, as well as tobacco and menthol flavors, Mr. Galper said. E-cigarettes are powered by a battery.
“A lot of people are doing it as an alternative to smoking,” Mr. Galper said.
Lara Galper said there are various levels of nicotine in each flavor, including from no nicotine to all the way up to the level that would be found in a regular cigarette. “I’m on zero now,” she said. The goal for she and her husband was to gradually reduce the nicotine levels in their e-cigarettes, she said.
“You don’t smell like cigarettes,” she said. Many bar and restaurant owners allow the use of e-cigarettes inside their establishments, she said.
Aside from gradually reducing the nicotine levels, e-cigarettes have another feature that helps people quit smoking regular cigarettes, Mr. Galper said. “The habits of smoking are the oral fixation of holding it, taking a hit on it, That’s the habit. The addicting is the nicotine,” he said. “With a vape you don’t get tar. You don’t get all the chemicals. This has four oils mixed into one.”
Vaping has been around for nine years. “In the past five years it took off,” Mr. Galper said.
Mrs. Galper said she and her husband are strict about following the law by not selling e-cigarette products to youths under 18.
The couple, who also own Genesis Jewelers in Yorktown, has an initiative to help the community. Through December 2 they are accepting donations of diapers to benefit the Westchester County Diaper Bank. Any type or brand of disposable diapers and baby wipes are being accepted. Those who make a donation will be entered into a raffle for a G-Shock watch.
Vape Escape is located at 2039 Saw Mill River Rd. in Yorktown. For more information, call 914-245-3000 or visit vapeescape.com. The business is also on Facebook and Twitter.
