Vape vending machines facing pushback from some suburbs

A fledgling Elmhurst-based company that distributes vending machines offering electronic cigarettes and vaping products is facing pushback from some suburbs.

Among them are Hoffman Estates, which last week banned the machines from the village.

“The sale of tobacco and tobacco-related products … is fairly regulated in terms of where it’s sold and point-of-sale locations,” Village Manager Eric Palm said. “(Village) staff just doesn’t feel that having these in establishments that could be more easily reached by minors and other people who shouldn’t be buying them is appropriate.”

The village board voted unanimously to enact the ban.

“I didn’t even know they made those kind of machines,” Trustee Karen Mills said. “And I do welcome that we’re doing this.”

Hoffman Estates’ ban seems unlikely to be the last.

Elk Grove Village Mayor Craig Johnson said he expects his village board in July to add vaping product machines to the town’s ban on cigarette vending machines.

John Floro, founder and co-owner of vending machine operator VenVape, said machines have been turned down by other communities but Hoffman Estates is the first to enact a formal ban.

The company currently has 14 machines operating in nine suburbs, he said. His goal is to get 30 to 50 in circulation in an area extending to Rockford and northern Lake County.

“It makes sense to go a little further if you can get three or four locations out there,” he said.

Floro’s approach has been to seek approval from municipalities before finding restaurants and bars to install the machines in. Along the way he sometimes has been surprised by both the OKs and the rejections he’s received.

He notes the machines’ ID scanners that provide age-verification of users, and said they’re intended to be positioned within view of an establishment’s staff.

Tree Guys Pizza Pub in Itasca is among the suburban locations with a VenVape machine. Itasca Community Development Director Kurtis Pozsgay said all that would have been required to allow it is ensuring the business has tobacco and vending machine licenses.

VenVape promotes itself as a source of passive income for its host businesses, which are promised 30% of sales profits. With $5,000 to $10,000 in monthly sales anticipated at a 50% profit, business owners are told to anticipate $750 to $1,500 per month.

After the owner of the premises applies for a tobacco license, all maintenance of the machines is handled by VenVape, Floro added.

Beyond Itasca, VenVape has two machines each in Waukegan and Woodstock, three in Aurora, and one each in Wood Dale, St. Charles, Crystal Lake, Algonquin and South Elgin.

His list of communities where there’s at least a path to approval but no machines yet includes Carol Stream, Roselle, Lombard, Downers Grove, Elgin, West Chicago, Villa Park, Geneva, East Dundee, Barrington, Winfield and Batavia.

But permission in those places may not necessarily be automatic. Barrington Communications Manager Rebecca Wyskochil said a special-use permit would be required for any establishment to have a vending machine vaping products in town.

Floro knows of only one other company in the region offering a similar product, but said the business is robust in states such as Arizona, Nevada, Texas, Florida and North Carolina.

He and business partner Brandon Colello of Itasca began working on the idea almost two years ago.

“I thought it was a great idea,” Floro said. “People just think it’s a really cool idea.”