New smoke shop opens in E.L., features ‘high-quality art’

Eric Poinski has seen many people walk in and out of his smoke shop since it opened three weeks ago, including a couple of elderly women who inquired about using a water pipe as a vase.

Poinski is the manager of Wild Side Smoke Shop, which opened March 26 at 1101 E. Grand River Ave. Although the shop’s primary function is to sell tobacco and smoking devices, Poinski said the shop, lined with walls of blown glass sculptures, can be compared to an art exhibit.

“People walk in and just look at the designs a lot of the time,” Poinski said. “Some of the pieces are things people haven’t seen before, and truly are pieces of high-quality art.”

Spanish senior Tony Norlin said the shop caught his eye as he walked by.

“The colors really intrigued me,” he said. “I don’t smoke, but the way things are set up and the uniqueness made me think, ‘Why not stop in for a look?’”

Poinski said the shop buys the blown glass from locations across the country to avoid a boring collection. The water pipes usually come from California, and the pipes are shipped from areas nationwide.

“We like to use local artists, but a lot of them can get into an artistic groundhog day,” he said. “By getting them across the country, we get all sorts of influences and neat pieces.”

Poinski and two co-workers run the East Lansing shop — as well one in Ann Arbor which goes by the same name — for an owner who lives in another state.

“He’s from the area and wanted to do something here,” Poinski said. “But he’s a private guy and likes to do things from behind the scenes, while broadening his horizons.”

Poinski said Wild Side Smoke Shop only condones the use of tobacco products and doesn’t advertise, preferring a small, loyal customer base.

“If people want to come in and shop, that’s great,” he said. “But we prefer people who know what we offer and have them spread by word-of-mouth. We like to keep it low-key.”

With several other smoke shops in the area, landscape nursery freshman Joel Franken said he isn’t sure how a another one can survive.

“I’m not sure what business is like for the other shops. I don’t ever see a ton of people in them,” Franken said. “But it is a college town, so I suppose the potential customers would be higher than a normal city.”

Poinski said he hopes setting up shop next to Cedar Village will help attract customers.

“A lot of people aren’t going to want to buy a $400 pipe and walk all the way back from downtown,” he said.