Heather Latter
Resolution Vapes & E-liquids is transitioning to a new name with a new owner this week.
Alex T. Bruyere and his wife, Tanis Lesiuk, will be taking over the Scott Street business and calling it Generation’s Vaper Lounge.
“It’s an established business,” Bruyere said about the business initiated last year by Theiah MacDonald.
“It was a price that I could not say ‘no’ to and the clientele is there,” he stressed.
“It’s a passion of mine, a hobby of mine, so it’s an honour to have the opportunity.”
MacDonald said with the first year anniversary of the shop being open coming up, she would have to renew the lease and business license, which got her thinking.
“This is a very profitable business but it’s more than an 8 a.m.-5 p.m. job, Monday to Friday,” she noted.
“It is a 24/7 job because you have to cater to your customers, do your inventory, do your accounting, expense report, and everything.
“And I just realized that at this point in my life . . . I have other priorities in my life now,” she added.
Thinking someone else would be able to benefit from the business more than she would, MacDonald approached Bruyere to see if he would be interested in taking it over.
“He said yes right away,” she recalled about their conversation back in August.
“I think he’s the best person to own this business,” MacDonald added. “He’s very knowledgeable and passionate about the product.
“He actually knows way more than me.
“I only know the basics to quit smoking but he knows a different level of vaping,” she remarked, which she described as a lifestyle to some.
“He sees value in this cornered market of Fort Frances.”
Vaping is an alternative to smoking but Bruyere sees it as more than that.
“There is a whole online world-wide community when it comes to vaping,” he explained.
Utilizing an online site called myvaporium.net, Bruyere has gotten to know many of the people who test the batteries and the electronic equipment of the products, as well as who manufacture the juice lines.
“It’s actually the Facebook of vapors,” he said, noting there are almost 6,000 people connected in the vaping community, including recovering alcoholics, drug addicts, smokers, ex-smokers, and people who have been in and out of jail.
“We go on Google hangouts and we all hang out at night chatting about vaping products to keep our minds busy,” Bruyere explained.
“It’s not about quitting smoking, it’s actually about bringing a community together to tackle whatever your addiction might be or the issue in your life.
“It’s a coping mechanism,” he reasoned. “And that’s what I’m going to try to bring here.”
Bruyere said unlike MacDonald, he’s not about the numbers when it comes to the business but about bringing more feet in the door.
“You’ll hear the term vaping community all over,” he remarked. “Fort Frances didn’t have that but we’re starting to.”
Bruyere wants to see people coming into the shop to chat and have a good time—without alcohol, cigarettes, or drugs.
He noted the business will be focused more on the people and the products, rather than the profits.
“If you are only driven by the numbers, it is so easy to get discouraged day by day,” MacDonald said.
“But in the first year of the business, we actually made a decent profit.
“It’s really a promising business and Alex taking over will take it to the next level,” she added.
Having been vaping for almost two years, Bruyere offered plenty of assistance to MacDonald when she first opened the business.
In fact, he actually had been doing research with the idea of opening a shop himself.
“He was one of our major customers here, and he always helps me with customers and trying to educate them and trying to make sure they are safe,” MacDonald said.
“With my belief system about helping the community out in the vaping industry, that’s why I decided to come in and meet them and assist as much as I can, and then we just went from there,” echoed Bruyere, noting after being a smoker for more than 25 years, he now hasn’t smoked in 18 months.
He said he tried every method to quit but it was only vaping that worked.
“It was like all of a sudden, I didn’t want to smoke,” he recalled, adding he wants to help break the cycle of smoking.
Meanwhile, MacDonald is thrilled that Bruyere is going to continue on what she started here.
“I’m glad that’s it’s here and that he will sustain it,” she remarked, noting she only planned to be in business for two-three years, especially knowing her husband’s position with the local Salvation Army could see them relocating in the future.
“I knew from Day 1 that when I opened the doors, I would build this business up to the best I could and then hopefully the right buyer would come along.
“We love Fort Frances and we’re hoping to stay here for many, many years, but we know that we can’t stay in this beautiful place forever because that’s not how the Salvation Army officership works,” she added.
But MacDonald stressed she wanted to bring vaping to the community because she had seen many lives changed because of it, especially helping to quit smoking.
“I just thought the community was missing out,” she reasoned.
And she feels like in almost a year, she helped hundreds of people in here Rainy River District—and she thanked Fort Frances and surrounding communities for all their support.
As Bruyere takes over the business, Lesiuk will be the manager of the shop during the day as Bruyere will keep his current full-time job at Pwi-Di-Goo-Zing Ne-Yaa-Zhing Advisory Services.
But he’ll be there in the evenings and weekends, and they will be open seven days a week with extended hours.
For more information, call Bruyere at 276-5497.
