Theo- first, good luck. Second, some suggestions.
You should visit the existing vape shops, talk to the people who work there and watch the store/foot traffic and what they buy and do and the frequency. You might even want to take a part-time job in one of the stores after scoping them out: working inside is the best way to learn. After you have spent a few months learning and maybe worked in more than one shop and in a different part of the city, start looking for a small piece of rental space, which has to be in a location that is well-trafficked with the sort of customers you are looking for.
Your staffing must be people who can educate the consumer quickly and effectively and sell during the education process. You will also need to create area visibility near the store location and probably in the clubs and where other potential vapers hang out. It may sound ridiculous but giving leaflets to people who are forced to smoke outside might be a natural audience for your shop. I used to be an analogue smoker and have been in the position of "smoker-leper" many times, standing out in front of the office building where I worked. Vaping will help them reduce their misery, and this approach gives you the possibility of some level of "viral". Where vaping has caught on is in places where there are still die-hard smokers. Boston where I live now is not a great market as there are too many non-smokers, and smoking is on a level with puking in public.
I would probably consider the East Village as a place to open or maybe Brooklyn. Look for where the "head shops" are located to the extent that there are still all that many left. You also need people who not only love nicotine but who want to save money. Vaping saves money after the initial hardware investment. I would suggest that you steer people toward tanks and not dripping and building. Let them learn dripping/building on their own and come back to you for pointers. You need to be their "valued teacher".
I am a native New Yorker (Manhattan) and lived their most of my adult life mostly on the West Side and in Chelsea, both of which may be fertile neighborhoods. New York is not like any other market in America, which is one reason why very little consumer product testing is done there. (Testing is done in Iowa, Pennsylvania, Florida and a few other states. New York is not part of America and has unique consumers and challenges.)
Final suggestion: don't get into any retail business in NYC until you have answered all your own questions. Otherwise there is no place like NYC to lose money quickly and completely.
Again, good luck to you.
Best. Hank-in-Boston
