Vapouround Bus to recruit smokers
for The Puf fin Hut’s personalised
stop-smoking service
In 2013, Helen Seward found herself in a situation sadly familiar to many of us. She had been made
redundant and wasn’t sure what she wanted to do for work. All she did know was that the corporate
world wasn’t for her. Then, one day while sitting in a restaurant, she spotted a man vaping.
a
“It made me wonder – do we have any vape shops around
here? There are plenty further north, so
why not here?” With the seeds of an idea sprouting, she spoke to a friend in Dorset who owned a
vape shop and that was that.
“If this doesn’t work I’ll get a job,” she told herself.
She set up a stall at the Shambles Market in Devizes before moving outside to attract more
customers. In May 2013 she opened another stall, this time Chippenham. Then, that November, the
first brick-and-mortar Puffin Hut shop opened for business in Royal Wootton Bassett, Wiltshire.
“My son Ben had just started uni. He thought I was mad and that he’d have to get a job!” But he
needn’t have worried. Two months later, Helen recruited her first employee. Meanwhile, over in
Chippenham, business continued to flourish, and her growing customer base kept saying that they
wished she would open a shop in the area.
“I found the ideal property in a per fect location. A year to the day after our first shop opened, we
opened a second in Chippenham”.
T wo years on and with Ben now working as e-commerce manager for the business, the Puffin Hut
now boasts a third shop; in Stratton, Swindon.
Helen’s own experience of transitioning from smoking to vaping is pretty typical. She felt around in
the dark and tried a few devices before she stumbled upon the right one for her.
“Eventually I took my vape apart to see how it all worked. That made it a lot easier to understand
how to use it properly”.
Many smokers give up on the idea of vaping by this point as it can feel complicated and
overwhelming. With that in mind, Helen believes in working from the ground up when it comes to
introducing smokers to e-cigarettes, starting by reframing what vaping is all about.
“People come into the shop saying that they want to give up smoking. But I tell them, it’s not about
giving up altogether. You’re only giving up the negative parts of smoking – the smell and the taste
and all the har ms to your health. You still get the feeling of smoking a cigarette”.
F rom then on, it’s all about finding the right device, the right liquid and the right regime. Often,
people gravitate towards expensive and complicated equipment that they don’t need. Helen and
her staff know from experience that simple, cost-effective devices are far more likely to work for the
customer.
“Sometimes I have to humour people by saying, ‘just try this one instead and see how you get on’. It
usually tur ns out that I’m right!”
a
Customers are
guided through what she refers to as a ‘mini consultation’, which enables staff to
tailor a personalised smoking cessation program, taking into account budget, smoking habits,
flavour preferences and what exactly it is they hope to achieve from vaping. Ideally, they’ll
completely quit smoking tobacco. But for many people, it’s more of a gradual transition.
220 | VM15