Smoker's Club finds niche

With a recent expansion of the business and an upcoming statewide ban on public smoking, the Smoker's Club of Mt. Pleasant is experiencing interesting times.

Owner Dave Sprunger loves his business and believes it is doing well.

"Our business stays afloat because a very large part of our business here is the make your own cigarette business," Sprunger said. "A lot of folks are making their own these days. They save a lot of tax money doing so and it's more economical to make your own."

The Smoker's Club also offers a chemical-free alternative to mainstream cigarettes; these contain none of the chemical additives that manufactured cigarettes do.

With people making a substantial savings as they roll their own cigarettes, it is easy to see why Sprunger's business is doing well. But with legislation to ban smoking in public areas, it is uncertain whether or not his business will be affected.

Sprunger, for one, does not think it will change anything.

"I don't think the smoking ban will affect my business," he said. "People generally buy their product here to take home and enjoy. I really don't think it will affect smoking. We are very fortunate that the current legislation that will go into effect May 1, we are exempt from. Folks are welcome to partake in smoking tobacco in any form here in the store, be it cigars, or hookah tobacco, cigarettes or pipe, whatever they like.

"...We are a retail store that derives more than 75 percent of our income from tobacco and tobacco-related sales, so folks can come in here and enjoy our new lounge and sit down and smoke a cigarette, pipe or cigar indoors like in the old days."

Sprunger's client base is quite diverse.

"I've literally had millionaires rubbing elbows with street people in my store," he said. "It's a very wide demographic. So we really cover all the spectrum of Mt. Pleasant."

Recently, as the unit next to him became available, he chose to expand the business adding a lounge and more storefront.

"The reason I chose this time to expand was really something we've meant to do for quite some time, but things are never right to do some things," he said. "The unit came open next door and I said 'It's now or never.' I couldn't take the chance of somebody else getting in there on a three- or five-year lease. So, we opened the lounge now for a few weeks and we're doing good."

The lounge is in the front window of the new addition and Sprunger also has two hookah lounges in the back that are still under development.

The Smoker's Club was founded in November of 1996 and was originally owned by Bruce Gardner. Sprunger came to work at the store in 1999 and he purchased the business from Gardner in January 2007.

"It's been a love for me. It's been kind of a lifelong dream," Sprunger said.

There's not exactly another retail tobacco smoke shop in the area to attract business, but there is competition.

"Liquor stores and gas stations are all selling tobacco these days, so yeah it's out there, but I'm the only true tobacco shop in the area," Sprunger said.

Even though his business is succeeding, Sprunger has experienced a slight slump in business. Other than that, he said, things are going quite well.

"Because we are an economic alternative to manufactured cigarettes, when the economy is troubled it does tend to send people our way because it's a good way to save a few bucks and still enjoy tobacco," he said.