Sinbad Vapors opens in Princeton

PRINCETON — Sinbad Vapors opened for business in Princeton at 105 S. Main St. The store opened on April 2.

Majid Jabber, CEO and owner of this store, also runs other ones in Kewanee, Peru and Ottawa.

“We are not associated with head shops,” he stressed. “We offer an alternative to smoking and are cheaper than smoking.”

Sinbad Vapors offers a variety of products to accommodate every taste and every budget.

“We provide a service to help people quit smoking,” he said. “We offer customers advice and guide people who come into the store.”

Jabber said he has had customers who have smoked for 50 years and were able to stop using the products in his store.

Jabber, who lives in Toulon, came to this country seven years ago from Iraq, where he was a translator for the U.S. Army. He has a master’s degree in engineering and worked at Caterpillar and Dell.

“I smoked for 13 years and tried to quit smoking,” he said. “I investigated these (vaping) devices, and they helped me to quit smoking.”

Jabber wants to stress that his store is not a head shop and doesn’t sell any illegal items despite the public’s perception in many small towns to the contrary.

“We want to project professional image, so I require my employees to wear ties to separate us from our competitors,” he said. “Vaping has grown very fast in popularity.”

A vaping device consists of a battery and a liquid containing four chemicals with a variety of flavors for users. Devices have different levels of nicotine in them depending on the customer’s previous smoking usage. People can still enjoy the oral fixation but not have to smell like a cigarette. Vaping does not emit harmful fumes in a house or car like smoking. There are four chemicals in a vaping device versus 4,000 in a cigarette.

Jabber said vape stores have been popular in California and are becoming more popular in Illinois. He feels every town will soon have a vape shop because the growing public awareness of them.

Hours for the Princeton Sinbad Vapors are from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday and from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Sunday.

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