Diwali the vape way

Festivals always bring great opportunities for retailers to boost their sales. During this season, retailers need to have the right range of products that attract customers. In order to grow vaping sales throughout the festive season, it’s crucial that retailers invest in the category to provide a successful offering and maximise sales. Displaying the category prominently in the store, in a clear and tidy display will ensure customers are aware of the choice and range available.

This is important whether shoppers are partying at home or out in a bar because vape products can become a distressing purchase at these moments, just as the cigarettes these same customers once smoked were. That means customers will be expecting to pick up their favoured brand in a convenient, local store.

The Hindu, Sikh and Jain communities in the UK have started their Diwali celebrations on Sunday, 9 October with a vibrant and colourful event in Trafalgar Square, London where more than 25,000 people gathered for the annual Diwali on the Square celebration hosted by the Diwali in London committee in partnership with the Mayor of London. The five-day festival takes place between 22-26 October this year, and Diwali, the Festival of Lights, falls on the third day, Monday, 24 October.

Vape Business spoke to some retailers to get some glimpses of festival celebrations. Importantly, the retailers ensure that they stay open even during the festival.

“We work, and try to celebrate it with our family and friends over the weekend, whilst trying to go temple on Diwali day,” Amish Shingadia, of Londis Caterways and Post Office in Horsham, said.

Mos Patel, owner, of Premier Heyside Mini Market and Post Office in Oldham, said : “In the evening we go to a temple, there are functions and fireworks. It’s good for the kids.

“We expose the kids so they keep preserving our culture. We don’t want them to lose that culture, especially living in this country. Obviously it’s different to India but we try to preserve that so at least they could know about the festival, they understand, they know people in temples, so they don’t isolate or they don’t feel excluded. We interact with people in the temple, do the darshan and gain prasad.”

However, Diwali and Eid are a bit challenging for Mos. “Because most of my staff are Hindu and there is a small local community here that is Muslim. So, we ask staff who don’t celebrate it to cover the shift of the rest of the colleagues who celebrate it. We have been here for 16 years, we have celebrated our festival but we never close our store. We have stayed open every single day.”

Diwali also brings the opportunity to gather for a meal under one roof. This one ritual is never missed by Mos during Diwali. “My family, and relatives, we all get together and after visiting the temple. Family and friends have a meal together. It’s a quite overwhelming day for the ladies because it takes them ages to get ready.”

Nishi Patel, of Londis Bexley Park in Dartford, said: “We just get together with the family, have some dinner, celebrate Diwali together and do puja. We usually have dinner around my house with my whole family.

“And the staff, we just let them go early so they can have some time with their families. We generally take them out for a dinner at the end of the month to celebrate Diwali, Christmas, everything at the same time.”

Nishi doesn’t witness a grand celebration in his locality as he lives outside of London in Kent. “There’s not a massive Asian community where we are,” he said.

“So we don’t really do anything in our locality, we wish people ‘Happy Diwali’ on our social media. Obviously, everyone knows that we’re Hindus and we simply celebrate Diwali, so a lot of our customers do wish us Happy Diwali during that period, even our white customers, the English community wishes us, so it’s nice to have that support from them,” he said.

In the UK, Diwali is becoming one of the biggest festivals observed by the Hindu community. Hindus celebrate this day marking the return of Lord Ram with his wife Sita and brother Lakshman to Ayodhya after 14 years of exile; in Jainism, Diwali marks the spiritual awakening of Lord Mahavir; Sikhs celebrate this day as the Sixth Sikh Guru – Guru Hargobind Ji – was freed from imprisonment. Every Hindu community has its own story for celebrating this festival, but with a common theme of illuminating the victory of good over evil.

Celebration of Diwali in the UK depends on the locality, such as Belfast, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Leicester, London, and those towns and cities where the Asian community has a sizeable presence.

Vape Business wishes everyone a very Happy, Healthy and Prosperous Diwali.