Tyler Goldman is scrambling to end an epidemic that’s slamming the smoke shops of the Big Apple: nicotine gouging.
A slew of opportunistic tobacconists throughout the city have been jacking up prices for the flavored nicotine “pods” used to refill the Juul, a wildly popular vaporizer made by Goldman’s San Francisco-based company, Pax Labs.
Last weekend, smoke shops on St. Mark’s Place in the East Village were marking up four-packs of so-called “Juulpods” by as much as 88 percent — to $29.99 from the suggested retail price of $15.99, a survey by The Post found.
Nicotine fiends have been coughing up the extra dough, proprietors say, because the Juul — a sleek, $49.99 device that looks more like a USB thumb drive than an e-cigarette — delivers an immediate rush of nicotine that’s unlike most other vaping devices.
At the same time, Pax Labs has been unable to meet demand — sparking lines and higher prices.
“Sometimes I sell it for a couple dollars more because the guy bringing it to me charges me extra,” admits Joe Dekmak, co-owner of the Village Bazaar smoke shop at 351 Sixth Ave.
While Dekmak usually sells the pods for the authorized $15.99, “There’s this guy who comes by with a van that charges $16 or $17 a pack, so I’ll take those and sell them for $18 or $20.”
Pax Labs — which launched the Juul last year aiming to duplicate the growing dominance of its high-tech Pax weed vaporizer — is trying to tackle the problem by increasing supply rather than clamping down on scalpers.
“We’ve tried to police it, but it’s obviously a game of Whack-A-Mole to some extent,” says Goldman, Pax Lab’s chief executive.
Pax Labs has doubled monthly production, to 2 million Juulpods, and hopes to get it up to 5 million by January.
The increased production will allow Pax Labs to expand distribution across the city — and country. “We want to be in 20,000 NYC smoke shops and bodegas by next year,” Goldman said.
The Juul delivers its quick, cigarette-like rush by combining the pure, “freebase” nicotine used by most vaporizers with weak organic acids to produce “nicotine salts” that are found naturally in tobacco leaves, says Pax Labs technology chief Adam Bowen.
“That seemingly slight difference in chemistry makes a huge difference in how nicotine is absorbed,” Bowen said.