Heather Latter
If your loved one’s New Year’s resolution is going to be to quit smoking, you might want to stop by Resolution Vapes & E-liquids here to see if “vaping” might be the way to do it.
Theiah MacDonald, along with her husband, Ryan, opened the new shop at 334 Scott St. last Monday as an alternative for those who smoke.
“I’m really passionate about the product because I’ve seen a lot of relatives and family members turn their lives around using this product,” noted MacDonald, who moved to Fort Frances six months ago from Winnipeg.
She has more than five years’ experience in business, and also has a bachelor’s degree in Economics and international business.
She also is working on her master’s in Supply Chain Management.
“My cousin is a two-and-a-half pack-a-day smoker and when he converted to vaping, it just changed his life,” MacDonald exclaimed.
She indicated there are more than 4,000 chemicals in a cigarette.
“There are only four substances in vaping—that’s vegetable glycerin, which is vegetable oil; natural and artificial flavourings—there is a range of flavours from fruits to desserts to candies to Canadian or Cuban tobaccos; propylene glycol, which is found in asthma inhalers; and the fourth one is optional, which is diluted nicotine,” she explained.
“So for smokers who are trying to wean themselves off nicotine, they can customize their nicotine from 18 to zero,” she noted.
“How it works is we take you in for a free consultation and then we customize the nicotine to you—how much you smoke every day, every week,” said her husband.
“When my family started using this product, it changed our lives as a family, and I just want to share it with others here in Fort Frances,” MacDonald remarked, adding both she and her husband have lost family members to cancer.
They also have experienced benefits from vaping.
“My husband, who smoked for years, his biggest testimony was when he got on the ice,” MacDonald recalled.
“After smoking a vape for several months, he noticed that he could breathe better, his lungs were much more open.
“Also, when he was on the baseball field, he could run faster and farther,” she added.
MacDonald, herself, was never a smoker but uses vaping for other reasons.
“I used to be asthmatic,” she explained. “I’ve never smoked a cigarette in my life, but the reason why I vape is because of the substance in the vape called propylene glycol, which are found in asthma inhalers.
“It actually opens my lungs and helps me with my asthma,” she explained.
“Plus, when I craved desserts after a meal, for example, I can pick up the birthday cake or vanilla custard and I will vape it, and it’s zero calories.
“So it helps me with weight management, as well.”
MacDonald said benefits of vapes is that the people around you don’t have to inhale that second-hand smoke.
“No bad smell on your clothes, on your hair, in your car, in your home,” she stressed.
”No ashes that you have to clean.
“If you can switch from smoking to vaping, you’re making a healthier decision without compromising the habit, without that craving, without that struggle to quit,” MacDonald added, noting vaping also is a cheaper option financially.
She indicated the up-front cost is $100, on average, but in the long run it’s more economical.
“An e-juice or e-liquid ranges from $15-$25,” MacDonald said. “If you can convert to vaping, in the long run you are saving money.
“You’re only spending about $20 per week to vape,” she noted, adding, on average, individuals spend anywhere from $30-$80 a week for cigarettes.
“[Vaping] costs anywhere between $10-$30 a week,” she remarked. “And our bottles typically last for a week-and-a-half.”
MacDonald explained that when you smoke, you light a cigarette, which produces ash and there is combustion.
“All these chemicals there are included in the cigarette when it’s combusted, like cyanide, benzene, ammonia, and carbon monoxide,” she explained.
“As tobacco burns, the smoke produces small amounts of nicotine, which are quickly absorbed into the bloodstream,” she remarked.
“How vaping works is you switch from combustion to vaping. You eliminate tar, you eliminate ash, you eliminate all the unnecessary chemicals.
“Instead of using smoke as a delivery method, water vapour is used.”
MacDonald’s husband said with all of the cancer-causing chemicals in cigarettes, there’s not one yet proven to be in a vape.
While something that’s become quite popular in the city, MacDonald conceded vaping is very new to Fort Frances.
“This is the first vape shop here in Fort Frances and surrounding areas,” she noted, citing the business is in a great location on Scott Street—in the heart of downtown Fort Frances.
“I don’t want it to look like a smoke shop,” she stressed. “I want it to look professional.
“We’re here to help [people] save money and improve their health.”
MacDonald said they renovated the space to give it a sharp, chic look.
“We want to have a lounge feel where everyone can relax, everyone can talk about the product, everyone can enjoy themselves while getting to know the product,” she reasoned.
“This is change and there are a lot of people who are resistant to change—they don’t want to change their habits,” MacDonald acknowledged.
“So we wanted to make it as comfortable as we possibly can for them to make that transition from smoking to vaping.”
MacDonald said they’ve had a study stream of visitors to the shop since it opened last week, but the majority of people don’t know about the product.
“The community is still unaware of what we offer,” her husband noted.
“We have to educate people,” echoed MacDonald. “It’s a brand new thing here in Fort Frances.
“Nobody knows about it, and that’s one of the reasons we wanted to bring it here to educate people that there is a way better alternative than smoking.”
Ryan MacDonald said there are a lot of negative stereotypes about the product—one being safety.
“There have been incidents within our own country of people hurting themselves with this vape, only because they have tried to customize the product way more than they should have, at a very high and unsafe level,” he remarked.
“It’s all about product knowledge,” Theiah MacDonald stressed.
“These machines are very user-friendly,” she added, noting everything is digital.
“And they are extremely safe, if used properly.”
Resolution Vapes & E-liquids offers everything someone would need to get started with vaping—from a variety of vaporizers to an array of e-liquid flavours.
“We’ve had extremely positive feedback,” MacDonald enthused. “In fact, before opening the shop, when speaking with people locally, there seemed to be a real interest in vaping.
“That’s what pushed me to take the next step and open the shop because I saw a demand for it.”
She explained there is a difference between a stick e-cigarette and a vaporizer.
“We try to educate that this is not the same as a stick e-cigarette that you can buy at a convenience store,” MacDonald stressed.
“Our number-one priority here in our shop is safety, education, and customer service,” she pledged.
MacDonald noted her prices also are very competitive with vape shops across Canada—and even competitive online, as well.
“We’re doing a good thing,” Ryan MacDonald said.
“It’s an amazing service for a community that has had many deaths due to cancer.”
Resolution Vapes & E-liquids is being managed by local resident Cody Brown, who Theiah MacDonald said is very knowledge about the product.
“He knows this product inside and out, and he has this amazing work ethic,” she lauded.
The shop is open Monday through Saturday from 11:30 a.m.- 8 p.m., with possibly extending the hours soon because of demand.
Several grand-opening promotions are going to run for a month, so MacDonald encourages people to stop by and check them out.
You also can “like” the new businesses page on Facebook.
“We just want to help Fort Frances quit smoking one smoker at a time,” he added.
