Hundreds of independent vape companies have signed a letter urging FedEx to reconsider their ban of shipping vape products.
With a looming postal service rule banning the mail delivery of these products expected to come down any day – vape customers and the industry as a whole is waiting with baited breath on how to pivot with limited shipping options.
With such an uncertain future, many face the very real fact that they may not have access to their favorite vape products in the near future. There may be large sections of the country that may have little to no access to vape products….and that is concerning to many which prompted the President of the American Vaping Association (AVA) Gregory Conley to write the letter to FedEx CEO Frederick W Smith. The letter plainly states that once vape products are unavailable, tobacco companies will have a huge competitive advantage that sell their vape devices primarily through C stores and gas stations, in essence wiping out small business in this industry. Small businesses rely on the postal service and national carriers like FedEx and UPS to deliver their products and do not have access to the channels that big tobacco companies have in their distribution chain or wholesale chain and it creates a monopoly and unfair advantage.
“FedEx is doing a great disservice to American small businesses and consumers,”Conley said in a press release. “They are playing right into the hands of Big Tobacco, which directly benefits from policies that make it more expensive for adult smokers to switch.” Without reliable delivery options from a national carrier like FedEx or UPS, vape customers in rural America and remote areas will have little to no options and the backslide to harmful tobacco is a very real outcome.
Vape retailers have seen shipping costs skyrocket or evaporate entirely and with it, their customer base. If customers can not access affordable risk reduced cigarette alternatives, combustible tobacco will be the only alternative and this could have a huge impact on the health system with lifelong ailments and health impediments not witnessed since the 1980’s. Added to this reality, marginalized communities like black communities and LGBQT neighborhoods will bear the brunt of the ban with the FedEx policy resulting in more smoking, more disease and more death among these groups that already suffer disproportionately from smoking-related disease, the letter states.
Rural vape customers and smokers will feel the side effects of the ban by FedEx due to the fact that the midwest and much of the western states are scantily populated and in most parts unreachable by the newer private deliver networks. Without reliable supply, it only seems to reason that many will simply accept their reality and go back to cigarettes with little thought.