“Why is yours a couple of quid more than the place up the road?”
It is a fair question, and honestly, people ask us this all the time. The simple answer is that we buy proper stock from proper suppliers, and we know exactly where it comes from. Trading Standards have been busy across Lancashire this year showing what happens when shops try to cut corners, and it has not been pretty.
What has been going on
In July a shop in Chorley was closed for three months after officers found illegal vapes, illegal tobacco and even sales to under age customers. They went in five times and took eight hundred and sixty four packs of illegal cigarettes and tobacco and one hundred and eighty seven illegal vapes. In April a stall and a shop in Ormskirk handed over two hundred and twenty three illegal vapes and a few hundred fake perfumes.
That is just two places in one county in a short space of time. It is not a couple of bad bottles. It is a whole chain behind it.
How to spot the dodgy stuff
You do not need to be an expert. A few things are easy to spot straight away:
- Disposables. Single use vapes have been banned since June 2025. If a shop still has a wall full of them, something is not right.
- Bottle size and strength. Nicotine liquid cannot be sold in bottles bigger than ten millilitres and cannot be stronger than twenty milligrams. A thirty millilitre nic salt bottle should not exist.
- The label. You should see English labelling, an ingredients list, a nicotine warning, a batch number and a contact address. If any of that is missing, nobody has notified it to the MHRA.
- The price. From October the duty alone is two pounds twenty per ten millilitres and have until April 2027 to sell existing stock so if someone is selling way under that afterwards, there is a reason.
From 1 April 2027 every bottle will need a duty stamp, just like a bottle of whisky. No stamp means it is not from a legitimate shop.
Why it matters
Dodgy stock is not tested, not checked and not insured. Some bottles that have been seized had nicotine levels nowhere near what the label said. And the money does not stay in the town. Trading Standards are clear about where the profits from counterfeit goods end up, and it is not in Lancashire.
Meanwhile the shops doing it properly carry the cost of doing it properly, which is the couple of quid you asked about.
Where we stand
We have been at 287 Dickson Road since 2013. Everything on our shelves has a real invoice behind it. When duty stamps arrive in 2027, ours will have them.
If you are ever unsure about something you bought somewhere else, bring it in and we will have a look for you. No judgement, no lecture. If you would rather report it, Trading Standards take reports through the Citizens Advice consumer helpline on 0808 223 1133.
