They’re supposed to be highly regulated. So why can’t authorities provide a reliable figure?
L et’s rewind to 2023 for a minute. New Zealand had more than 7,000 vape retailers but both Labour and National were promising to cap the number of stores at 600. Chris Hipkins reckoned Labour would do it if they got in (they didn’t). So did Christopher Luxon, campaigning on the same number with National’s Better Health Outcomes policy (they won and didn’t follow through). Three years on, with another election looming, there are still thousands of stores around the country. Exactly how many is hard to determine.
Under New Zealand jurisdiction there are two different categories of vape retailers: specialist and general. All specialist vape retailer ( SVR ) businesses have to be approved by the Ministry of Health, and must make a separate approved vaping premise (AVP) application for each store they want to operate. There are currently 1,337 approved AVPs in New Zealand, ranging from the tiny vape shop carved out of your local dairy to the flash-looking stores operated by tobacco giants. The country has more SVRS than liquor shops (bottle stores account for 930 of our 4,802 registered off-licences ).
The numbers get a bit trickier once we zoom out to general vape retailers: places like dairies, supermarkets and service stations. They’re permitted to sell a limited range (no fancy flavours) as long as vapes aren’t their primary product. These businesses have to file a regulated product seller (RPS) notification with the Ministry of Health, whose current list – shared with The Spinoff in response to an Official Information Act request – totals 1,694 registered businesses. Some of those businesses operate multiple stores, of which there are more than 2,100.
Adding that figure with AVPs gets us to more than 3,400. That’s a lot of shops. But it’s far fewer than an estimate from a couple of years ago.
At least they agreed on something. (Source: Newshub)
In 2024 the Ministry of Health estimated there were more than 7,000 individual stores selling vapes in New Zealand, which were being run by somewhere between 5,000 and 6,000 retailers.
What’s going on? Has the number of vape shops really halved since 2024? It certainly doesn’t feel like. Perhaps these businesses are simply not registering with the authorities? According to a Ministry of Health spokesperson, “the earlier estimate of 5,000-6,000 retailers, and references to 7,000+ stores, were based on broader system information, including historic notifications and intelligence about market activity. These figures are indicative rather than precise point-in-time counts, as the retail environment is dynamic and businesses frequently enter, exit, or change how they operate.”
The spokesperson said that while “ differences between estimated retailer numbers and current notifications do not necessarily indicate widespread non-compliance… we recognise there is a gap between the estimated retailer numbers and the current RPS notifications, and the ministry continues to work closely with Health NZ to support compliance and remind retailers of their obligations under the act.
“As retailers are visited, investigated, or reviewed by enforcement officers during their usual activities, their registration is checked and followed up if not in place.”
Registration is part of the increasing regulation of the industry. The SVR regime was introduced in 2020, when the Labour government passed the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products (Vaping) Amendment Act. Disposable vapes have been banned since June 2025 (although pre-filled pods are still allowed). The rules around promotion changed at the same time and marketing tightened up too.
Vape stores in Auckland (Photos: Google Maps)
One retailer The Spinoff spoke to had converted part of their dairy premises into a separate vape store after the SVR regulations came in, a process that was “very hard” due to the cost and time involved. Was it worth it? Today vapes only make up a very small portion of their business, they said. “It’s not big.”
While neighbourhood shops are the most visible segment of the market, there are also online stores – 132 approved internet sites are registered with the Ministry of Health. A 2026 study by University of Auckland academics, discussed in a Public Health Communication Centre Briefing, found only 18% of online retailers were fully compliant with the suite of new regulations.
Regardless of who’s doing the selling, all vaping and smokeless tobacco products are designated as notifiable products in New Zealand, which means they have to be registered with the Ministry of Health. Its current list includes 1,267 vaping devices, 1,037 different kits, 3,496 varieties of “nicotine salt vaping substance” and 848 of “freebase nicotine vaping substance”.
The risks associated with vaping are increasingly under the microscope. Last month a study by the University of Canterbury, published in New Zealand M…
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