How We List Vape and Smoke Shops
How we list vape and smoke shops comes down to four steps: find every shop, take out what isn't one, clean up what's left, and refresh it all every month.
Where We Find Vape and Smoke Shops
Where we find vape and smoke shops is Google's business listings: every open listing in the vape store and smoke shop categories, with its name, address, phone, hours, rating, review count, the topics that come up in its reviews and its busy times. Shops that Google marks as permanently or temporarily closed are left out. The last full refresh was October 2, 2026.
What We Leave Out of the Shop Lists
What we leave out of the shop lists is anything that isn't really a vape or smoke shop. In Colorado that meant 77 gas stations, convenience, liquor and grocery stores that carry vapes on the side, 2 adult stores, and 30 fake listings, mostly pins with almost no reviews that claim to be open 24 hours. When one shop has two listings at the same address, we keep the one with more reviews.
Licensed dispensaries stay on the site, labeled and listed apart from vape and smoke shops, because they sell THC vape cartridges under Colorado's marijuana rules.
How We Clean Up Shop Names
How we clean up shop names is limited on purpose: we only take out the keywords some owners stuff into their Google names, such as lists of brands in parentheses or the city tacked on the end. We never rename a shop.
How Open Now and Walk Times Work
How open now and walk times work: your browser works out which shops are open from each shop's hours and the time in Colorado, so the page is right at 2 AM even though it was built earlier. If you share your location, your browser also works out how far each shop is; the location never leaves your phone or computer. Walk times are estimates from straight-line distance, so "Walk there" hands you to your maps app for the real route.
How Ranking Works on VapePenStores
How ranking works on VapePenStores: without your location, lists put the best rated first, using each shop's Google rating pulled toward an average until it has enough reviews to trust. With your location, the closest shops come first. Nobody can pay to change either order. Ratings are Google's, shown with the number of reviews and a link to the listing, and we count review topics without copying anyone's review.
How We Draw the Maps
How we draw the maps: every shop's card shows its own block, drawn from OpenStreetMap streets and buildings, with the shop's building lit up. Until an owner sends us photos they took or own, that map is the shop's picture. We don't use photos from Google.