Wondering where to buy a good pipe in the campus area?

Don’t worry, there are plenty of places willing to sell tobacco or water pipes to anyone over 18, and High Street has recently added a new one to the list.

The newest is the Puff and Stuff Smoke Shop, located at 1652 N. High St. The shop is full of a variety of products that students can use to enhance their smoking experience.

However, there are other campus stores that would rather not have seen “Puff and Stuff” take its first breath.

“I hope it doesn’t bring heat to the nearby stores and screw it (business) up for everyone else,” said Shawn Lewis, a manager at the Import House on corner of 13th Avenue and High Street. He said with its the large uncovered windows, Puff and Stuff Smoke Shop, that faces High Street, poses a problem for stores like his and makes the whole business look tacky.

By heat, Lewis is referring to groups such as the police and Campus Partners coming into the stores to check up on them regularly. A manager at Higher Ground, another store that sells pipes on the corner of High Street and 17th Avenue, has the same concern. He also thinks that the new store may be a threat.

Rob, who did not want his last name printed, is a manager of the almost 3-month-old Puff and Stuff Smoke Shop, and has been in the pipe business for 14 years.

“The other places should not be worried about our store being here if they’re running their business correctly,” Rob said. “As for the large windows that face High Street, they will be covered eventually, but we are unsure of when.”

Puff and Stuff says that it, like other pipe stores in the off-campus area, take their business seriously.

Walking into one of these stores and using a term like “bong” is a major faux pas, and do not even think about asking, “Do you have anything to put in this?”

According to Rob, patrons of his store need to have reached a certain level of maturity. “I kick people out and tell them to come back later when they’re ready,” he said.

In both the Import House or Puff and Stuff Smoke Shop there are signs reminding people what they are about to purchase.

In Rob’s store there are signs with the word “Bong” circled and slashed out in red, and underneath it reads ‘tobacco or water pipes only.’ The Import House also has a list of rules on their display cases, and breaking any one of them leads to the patron being asked to leave the store.

The managers at both stores said the customers fall into a wide range of people, from parents to college students and from businessmen to the retired.

Within the world of business, especially this business in this area, there is always money made and because of it competition remains high. However, The Import House and Puff and Stuff Smoke Shop plan to keep the business rivalry a friendly one.

“It’s an open market and everyone is free to do what they want,” said Lewis.

“United Dairy Farmers sells milk, Big Bear sells milk, and they can still get together and hang out after work,” Rob said.