A quiet Manchester suburb has become home to 54 vape shops squeezed onto two adjoining streets, a stretch of 430 metres that one shop manager now calls the "biggest vape market in Europe".
The proliferation of vape retailers in Cheetham Hill follows a major police crackdown on counterfeit goods and organised crime in the area. Greater Manchester Police launched Operation Vulcan in autumn 2022, targeting districts blighted by criminal activity. Cheetham Hill had previously been dubbed the "counterfeit goods capital of Britain" and was known as a hotspot for serious gang activity.
By 2024, the operation had closed 216 counterfeit shops in Cheetham Hill, with 238 people arrested. Officers also seized £500,000 in cash, 1,000 tonnes of goods, class C drugs valued at £2.4 million and 400,000 illicit vapes.
Footfall drops by 30% after closures
As reported by the Daily Mail, the operation made Cheetham Hill safer, but the shop closures hit local trade, with customer footfall falling by 30%. Manchester City Council has since spent £100,000 on improvements to the high street, but the area continues to struggle.
Many former retail units have since been taken over by vape businesses. There are now 30 vape shops on the 130-metre-long Harris Street, and a further 24 on the 300-metre adjoining Overbridge Road.
Local traders describe a "dead" high street
Maiwand Safi, who has worked at the Mughul Grill And Coffee in Cheetham Hill since 2012, said: "Before, our takeaway shop was very busy." Surbir Arora, who owns a grocery store in the area, added: "But now, we are a little bit quiet. Now it’s all mobile shops and vape shops. The police closed everything. After that, you can see, all the shops are shut down now. It is not very good. I am looking for another place, because this place is dead."
Not everyone shares that view. Kamran Akhtar, manager at The Vape Boyz on Harris Street, said customers travel from far and wide to buy vapes in Cheetham Hill, with regulars coming from Bradford and Liverpool, and some from as far as Glasgow and Edinburgh. According to Mr Akhtar, Cheetham Hill has become the "biggest vape market in Europe, never mind Britain". He added that the area has become far safer since Operation Vulcan was launched.
Isa Cheema, 21, who works in Astro vape shop, said the area was previously overrun by drug dealers "armed with knives". He believes it is far safer now, but adds it is "pretty mad how many vape shops there are here".
Planning rules and data security concerns
John Leech, Liberal Democrat leader of the opposition on Manchester City Council, said: "They’ve chosen to relax planning rules so authorities do not have the strength to reject the proliferation of vape shops. A shop that might have been a greengrocer in the past might have been replaced by a similar one. But now it can be replaced by anything."
The UK's vaping market is worth around £2.5 billion, and around 80% of the world's vapes are produced in China. Mr Cheema said the shops in Cheetham Hill get "ambassadors" from China trying to sell their products, while another retailer claimed some Chinese manufacturers are willing to pay as much as £3,000 a year for a large billboard advertising their vapes.
Graeme Downie (Labour), chairman of the cross-party campaign group, the Coalition On Secure Technology, warned: "The vape in someone’s pocket really could be used to quietly harvest data or track their movements. Millions of these smart vapes are manufactured in China where the state has sweeping powers over industry, raising serious questions about where data could end up and who can access it."
