I used to go to the Tinderbox stores in L.A. in my teens. There was one in almost every big mall. The smell of that place is always what I associate with a good tobacconist. This was before tobacco turned into a "target of opportunity" for the Morality/Diet Police. With tobacco, it was firearms that became a social stigma. Because at the same time the L.A. malls had Tinderbox stores, Sears and Montgomery Wards in the mall sold firearms.
Tobacco started becoming politically incorrect until the cigar craze came along, which revived it. Then a little later, hookahs became huge. Probably popularized partly by soldiers serving in the Middle East. I remember in the 90s in L.A. there were coffeehouses that had hookahs and they'd sit in there smoking hookahs, drinking Turkish coffee, and playing backgammon and chess. But it was all Arabic men in there and some Armenians. No hipsters.
Both cigars and hookahs gave a boost to tobacco at a time when the government could have probably pulled off a ban had they wanted to. It was being discussed in upper echelons of the CDC. They decided huge taxes were more effective and so they nailed the cigarette smokers. A lot of B&M stores were being targeted by police "sting" operations that sent in underage Explorer scouts to buy cigarettes and see if they could catch the B&M not checking ID. With that and high taxes, operating a B&M was becoming hard.
And gun shops weren't faring any better. The feds were all wrapped around the axle over so-called "assault weapons" and there was the laws about that. But 9/11 changed the public perception of guns and guns became popular again. Plus, people finally noticed that a handgun tends to be more effective against an assault than a cell phone. In the meantime, yes, we had an influx of Tactical Tommies in the gun shops who were turning AR-15 rifles into the Swiss Army Knife of firearms. More crap hanging off the weapon than ornaments on a Christmas tree. And if you asked for things like lever action 30/30s they thought you must have lost your mind. The gun shops made a comeback, but many started to look like an arms bazaar in the Middle East than anything else. And there's nothing wrong with that. But they had changed course more towards the Tactical Tommies and Mall Ninjas than hunters. It's what they had to do to survive. Hunters buy a firearm once in a while and don't like to fool with a winner if the weapon is a consistent meat-maker. But Mall Ninjas are going to always need the latest weapon or AR-15 variant that the popular tactical discussion forums mention. That's where the real money to be made is. The Picatinny Rail is the best thing to happen to gun shops since the appearance of the AR-15 itself.
Likewise, the B&M tobacco shops had to do some adjusting, too. Cigars, of course. Some have to sell hookahs and the shisha. Still others even have to sell "tobacco water pipes" everyone knows are bongs. They can't keep the doors open just selling tobacco unless they're in a larger city. A lot of them were responding to the market opened up by medical marijuana. Then a whole new entity popped up, that being the "smoke shop" which masqueraded as a tobacconist but sold RYO tobaccos using the fig leaf of "pipe tobacco" to defeat high government taxes. They mostly all use the phrase "smoke shop" so those "in the know" can see who they are. Many of them sell bongs as well.
The whole thing, be it B&M tobacconists or gun shops, are morphing and/or hybridizing because of government taxes, laws, bans, and meddling. The market does not care what the government says or wants. The market can be defamed, insulted, ridiculed, or hindered by the government but the market does not care. The market will find a way because of demand. In the 1980s, handguns were the "evil gun" the government was trying to ban. Gun shops responded by moving on to semi-auto weapons like HK-91s and 93s, AR-15s, Steyr AUGs, and so forth. Then those weapons became the "evil gun" and gun shops took a big hit. But many states passed CCW laws and handguns came back into style and now there's a bigger choice in handguns than there ever were in the 1980s. Even the "derringer" made a comeback, and who could have seen that? Then 9/11 scared the dickens out of everyone and people demanded semi-auto weapons once again. Before that, people could go around the Clinton semi-auto ban by buying AK-47s that had 5 U.S.-made parts in them and AK mags were already here by the conex-load. Whatever the government does, the market will find a way around.
It is the same with tobacco. The market found a way around the taxes. B&M tobacconists can serve a large market in a city, but in smaller cities, they'll often have to serve a larger clientele and sell the RYO "pipe tobaccos" as well as hookahs, shisha, and sometimes bongs. I've seen a number of these places around here. The government will one day find a way to tax the RYO "pipe tobacco" and the market will find a loophole around that, too. Such as selling it as "incense", for example. It's all in how it's labelled.
The changes in B&M stores aren't always a change in who smokes what, but rather, market responses to government pressure coupled with fads and changes in tobacco consumption. Hookahs are a big deal here, but in the Middle East, they've been part of their social scene for quite a long time. Many coffeehouses over there have hookahs for people to use if they don't have their own. So, it's just another aspect that arrived here. The market here also knows the government, so far, isn't taxing the heck out of it. Pipes have really made quite a comeback in their own right. Pipes will be the next big thing and will eclipse hookahs, probably within the next couple years. When that happens, the market will respond and true B&M tobacconists serving pipe smokers will crop up everywhere. The internet is already there, but you cannot open your laptop and smell the tobacco and see it. The B&M will be the place people go to see what they're buying. It's not far off and the market is already hearing the rumor.
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