Overview
- Reporters counted 54 e-cigarette outlets clustered along Harris Street and Overbridge Road in Manchester’s Cheetham Hill.
- Shop managers say most units operate as wholesalers supplying retailers nationwide rather than selling single devices to walk-in customers.
- Greater Manchester Police’s 2022 Operation Vulcan targeted the area’s counterfeit trade, with later figures citing 1,050 tonnes of goods seized, 216 shops shut and nearly 400,000 illicit vapes recovered.
- Manchester’s trading standards say they are aware of the concentration and do not currently have concerns, while police have previously said most shops are legitimate though some have engaged in illicit activity.
- Some residents question the legitimacy of the proliferation, and local reporting notes prior Salford trading standards raids seizing thousands of vapes and counterfeit e-liquids worth over £70,000.