Smoke Shops/Head Shops Are the Worst

I'm seriously befuddled by how brick-and-mortar smoke shops have managed to stay in business as long as they have. Of the four located nearby me, they perfectly capture the full essence of "retrograde."

To be honest, since online shops became a thing, I've always considered local shops a "source of last resort," but even at simple stuff like water pipe adapters they rarely have stock even though this is something like a universal item in that everyone with a bong one needs and something that works in a multitude of situations/problems.

Never mind the more exotic stuff.

Last night I broke the glass connector that goes into my Chill Steel Pipe white and then connects to a whip. Funny/not funny angle on this is that I bought a CSP specifically because I was concerned about breakage, as the coffee table where I've been seshing recently is solid granite. So, I avoid glass and go for the CSP -- and find a way to break the only breakable part of the CSP.

Anyway, I take the connector to a local head shop. This is a large place...probably 3,000 square feet and unlike most smoke shops, very little of that space is dedicated to clothes, incense, etc....it's almost entirely about bongs, dab rigs, etc.

So I show them the broken piece. Hey, I don't expect an exact replacement...I'm just hoping to find something that tides me over until CSP (in Canada) can ship me the original replacement part. Anyway, the guys in the shop look at the broken connector, correctly identify the 18mm end and then act like they other end is alien technology, even though it's basically a glass barrel with a couple of raised rings for securing a whip hose.

"We don't have anything like that. What's it for?"

I explain that it's for connecting a silicone whip/hose to a bong.

"You mean like a whippet?"

Doh!

I was in this shop about a month ago looking for a back-up banger for my Ace ball vape. OK, the Ace banger is a little unique since the part that connects the joint end to the chamber is pretty high up the banger, but when I explain -- and actually show them the Ace -- they have no clue what it is. I explain it's a ball vape...

"What's a ball vape?"

I haven't actually explored this store's stock of dry herb vaporizers because it would probably be a retail nightmare.

I guess it's easy enough to shrug this off and accept that the day of brick-and-mortar shops (of many types) are severely numbered.

But there's a reason for a future in which head shops will entirely vanish. And it's not just a technology issue.