Locals have blasted a newly-opened vape shop for having a name that some have called inappropriate and offensive.
The shop, called The Vapeist, opened in Callington, Cornwall on Tuesday but the owners, two cousins, have already been reported to the council over their choice of name.
Before Anton Perrins, 34, and Chris Anderson, 31, even opened the doors to their new store, situated in a previously-empty shopfront near the town centre, they had become the talk of the town with some locals saying the name was chosen in poor taste for its likeness to the word rapist.
But the cousins have spoken out, saying they intend to stick with the name, after spending thousands on buying branded supplies and fixing up the building - the pair said they will show residents that they are “good guys”.
The pair, who run two more businesses in the town, say they think highly of Callington and wanted to invest in the town centre, using storefronts in buildings that are otherwise empty and closed-up, Cornwall Live reports.
But after working crazy hours to this month to cement everything needed ahead of opening they hit a snag when someone pointed out the similarity of its name to words 'the rapist'.
After being reported to Callington Town Council for the name, the pair explain why a little judgement from strangers won't put them off and they will stick around to change people's opinions of the shop.
“We found a premises relatively quickly as there is a few empty shops in Callington," Anton said.
"We put up a post on the local Facebook page explaining what we were doing as we were getting a lot of interest from people about what was happening in the store and what it was going to be".
It's here where the duo received their first share of backlash.
"It was all because of the name and it's just not the way it sounds," he continued.
"The truth is that people who vape are refereed to as 'vapeists'. It wasn’t intended that way at all and it stunned us a little bit that people thought that."
People were saying the name was made in bad taste, that it could be offensive and that there must have been better options.
Anton continued: "We were even more stunned when we found out that the council had given us a bit of a nudge and said there had been a complaint. They were not particularly bothered about it and said to us more out of courtesy to let us know.
“That’s when I tried to explain to people the best I could that it's really not how it sounds and I was quite amazed by how much local support we got telling us to ignore it."
The pair had even considered packing up shop and moving to another town once they discovered someone had gone as far as to report the name.
“At the end of the day you could say it with anything like a cyclist or motorist," said Anton. "We really didn’t want to upset anybody.
"A few people have been less critical and said it wouldn’t be their name of choice but that's fine. Other people who do vape have turned around and said they haven’t got an issue with it and understand it.
"If you type it in Google it comes up and explains it’s a word used to describe people who vape.”
He continued to say that they considered changing the name altogether but after investing plenty of time and money, with signs already printed and being delivered, they decided to brave it.
“We’re going to try and change those opinions because we like to think we’re a nice couple of lads," he said. "We’re friendly enough and nice enough to get on with anybody and you can see what we’re like if you pop in and say hello."
