Vape ban 'a big hit' to Reading shop business owners

New legislation to ban the sale of single-use vapes from June 1, 2025, has been laid out in Parliament, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has confirmed. 

The government hopes that the ban will deter children from taking up vaping, as well as tackling the litter created by disposable vapes. 

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Businesses will have until the deadline to sell any remaining stock they hold and prepare for the ban coming into force.

Convivence shop owners and workers in Reading have told The Reading Chronicle that the single-use vapes make up a significant part of their sales, with up to 20 per cent of customers buying the products. 

Gurjeet Bajaj, who the bought the convenience store in Market Place four months ago, said that the ban will be a 'big hit' to his business. 

He said: "If customers didn't come in for them, they might not come in the first place. 

"They are going to stop the small vapes, but people will move to the big ones. 

"I'm moving towards selling big vapes - we're going to give people time to get used to them."

The business owner acknowledged the ban's aim to deter children from using vapes, with one in four secondary school children having used a vape last year, according to the Government. 

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But Gurjeet was sceptical about the ban's impact on the problem - as he said he regularly deals with children trying to buy a variety of vape products using fake IDs. 

He said: "I'm a father, I worry about my kids. But m preference would not be to stop the small vapes. 

"If we were kids and wanted to buy these vape, we would find a way to buy them.

"Kids come in and ask for the vapes, a lot of them using fake ID. You get used to seeing the fake IDs they use, I know what they look like. You often see fake provisional licences."

Concerns about the financial impact were echoed across the town centre, with Robin at Davina's Local saying that close to one in ten sales involved a customer buying a disposable vape. 

"It will be a headache, stopping selling disposable vapes," Robin, who has been at the business for three years, said. 

"The profit margin isn't that much, but it helps the place run smoothly."

Kamal, at Fix Tech and Vape in West Street, Reading. (Image: NQ)

Kamal, who works for his brother's shop, Fix Tech & Vape in West Street, said about 20 percent of customers buy a disposable vape - but the number is dropping. 

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He said: "From last year the craze is going down. People are going for the refillable vapes. 

"Already certain vapes we're not selling and not stocking more."

Last year, it was estimated that almost five million single-use vapes were either littered or thrown away in general waste every week in the UK – almost four times as much as the previous year.

Defra said vape usage in England had grown by more than 400 percent between 2012 and 2023, with 9.1 percent of the British public now buying and using the products.

Health minister Andrew Gwynne said: “It’s deeply worrying that a quarter of 11-15-year-olds used a vape last year and we know disposables are the product of choice for the majority of kids vaping today.

“Banning disposable vapes will not only protect the environment, but importantly reduce the appeal of vapes to children and keep them out of the hands of vulnerable young people."