11 05 25 Political Analysts Dick Wadhams and Mike Dino discuss the election results

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now on Colorado's Morning News. Denver voters are widely saying
yes to a flavored tobacco ban in the city. Election
results for referendum three to ten as of midnight shows
seventy two percent voted to retain the ban in just
twenty eight percent wanted to repeal the law.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
So what does this mean for the future of smoke
and vape shops in the city. Joining us on the
KWA Common Spirit Health hotline is Mike Wing, owner of
King's Smoke and Vape Shop. It's located at the corner
of Champa in sixteenth Street in downtown Denver. Mike, thank
you so much for your time this morning.

Speaker 3 (00:32):
Thank you very much for having me.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
What was your initial reaction when you heard the latest
and what we saw with the vote Denver voters deciding
to retain the city law and banning flavor tobacco products.

Speaker 3 (00:43):
It was pretty devastating, you know, because the outcome for
all of us small business owners is bankruptcy, just kind
of nowhere around it. And you know, we really, we
really thought we had a chance fighting you know, an
out of state billionaires money, but we didn't. We never
had a chance.

Speaker 1 (00:59):
Mike, what happened, happens next for smoke and vape shops
like yours. What are some of the questions you have
to answer for yourself? What are options? What is the
business strategy going forward?

Speaker 3 (01:14):
Well, it's kind of the wind down. You know, we
can't serve our whole business models how people quit smoking cigarettes.
So when they ban all the things that we use
to do that, we no longer have a business. So
we have to wind down, and unfortunately it's towards the
path of closing and then bankruptcy.

Speaker 2 (01:32):
There's no way, you know, we talk to.

Speaker 3 (01:33):
Our I'm sorry, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:35):
No, I'm sorry about that. Mike curious if there's any
way to pivot your business model. I don't know how
it works going from here, I mean sixteenth Street. I
assume you are a pretty highly trafficked business. There is
this something that you see? Okay, can I sell anything different?
Or was flavored tobacco products your main business?

Speaker 4 (01:54):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (01:54):
Flavored tobacco products are pretty much our entire business, and
it's important to distinguished Like, we don't really sell tobacco
at all. It's just the things that help people quit tobacco.
But that's technically lumped into this. So like you know,
there's a reason thirty percent of downtown stores are vacant,
and that's because business is really really tough in downtown

(02:15):
Denver right now. So pivot doesn't look like much of
an option, but we're really hoping the mayor will come
through and help us out during these really hard times.

Speaker 1 (02:23):
Your opponents are saying that this is to better prevent
kids from becoming hooked on tobacco. Your response to their.

Speaker 4 (02:33):
Arguments, Yeah, so there's been so you have to be
twenty one and older to buy these products in Denver,
and there's been zero violations. So kids they're not getting
them here in Denver, like nobody sells to kids here
in Denver.

Speaker 3 (02:48):
They buy them online. So unfortunately this will have zero
impact on youth vaping. But we don't have the money
for TV ads to tell people out, so we lost.

Speaker 2 (02:56):
Let's talk about the ad campaign a little bit, Mike,
because you mentioned as we tried our best we could
to beat a billionaire. Do you think the state political donations,
the nearly five million dollars we saw from Michael Bloomberg,
do you think that greatly influenced the election outcome? Or
do you think Denver voters did vote with their heart
in their head and what they believed.

Speaker 3 (03:17):
Well, I strongly believe that his money influenced it. And
the reason being is all preliminary polling before he made
his donation showed that we were ahead. Denver is a
city of freedom. It's a city of my body, my choice,
adult autonomy. They believed in freedom is their market. And
then so after all the TV ads and after Michael
Bloomberg caught all this money and we had no chance,

(03:40):
the polling swedes.

Speaker 2 (03:46):
Interesting, Mike, in wrapping up with you looking forward of
what you can expect with this ban, I mean the
next steps. Do you know how quickly this goes into effect?
Do you sell the rest of your flavor tobacco products
or are you pulling them off the shelves today?

Speaker 3 (04:04):
So the preliminary so as of right now, unfortune starts
January first, twenty twenty six. You know, we're we're going
to beg the mayor and beg Denver City Council to
extend this to at least we can sell our current inventory,
because no, you have to make large purchases in this
industry to get these products. So to just throw them

(04:26):
out is to throw out everything for our investments, so
we're hoping that they'll push back the enfortune date til
later in the year, until next year, to give us
at least the chance of liquidating and getting out alive.

Speaker 1 (04:39):
Mike Wing, owner of King's Smoke and Vape Shop at
sixteenth and Champa Downtown. Mike, thanks for joining us. Best
of luck in the future.

Speaker 3 (04:48):
Thank you, Cole.

Speaker 4 (04:49):
We have a wonderful day.