US Vape Channel Data 2026

This page brings together the published tables behind VapeBrief’s two-part US retail and wholesale directory analysis. Use it to check definitions, download the aggregates and cite the findings with their limitations.

Directory data: October 29, 2026. Published-table release: 1.0, October 31, 2026. The underlying business-level directory is not included.

What the directory records

Operating and closed are the contributing authors’ classifications from reported public-source evidence. A catalogued record is not proof that a business currently operates, sells an authorized product or complies with applicable laws. Unconfirmed does not mean closed. These figures are not a census.

• Retail uncertainty: 47,154 of 189,490 records remain unconfirmed. The Verification Gap Index describes the unconfirmed share within a state’s directory records, not its closure rate.
• Wholesale evidence: T0–T2 contain 1,241 records, including 1,203 marked operating. T3 contains 2,519 records. Evidence strength and operating status must be reported separately.
• Contact fields: 56,613 retail records marked operating, or 41.3%, have no phone number, website or email recorded. Missing fields do not prove that a business has no digital presence.

Read the two-part analysis

1. US Vape Retail Map 2026 — status counts, selected state comparisons, store formats, exact chain names and contact fields.
2. US Vape Wholesale Map 2026 — evidence tiers, selected state counts, wholesale-to-retail ratios and the limits of those comparisons.

Download the published aggregates

• National status overview — CSV. Eight rows: the total and three status categories for each directory. Totals and their component categories overlap and must not be added together.
• All nine published tables — CSV. Five retail tables and four wholesale tables in one long-form file: 199 table cells, identified by table, row, column, value, data date and source article.
• Definitions, attribution and limitations — text file.

These downloads transcribe the articles’ published aggregates. They do not provide individual business records, complete state-by-state data or a new audit of the original directory. No new business-level verification was performed for release 1.0.

How to interpret the tables

Catalogued

A record included in the submitted directory. It can be marked operating, closed or unconfirmed.

Verified operating / operating

The authors report store-level public evidence for the classification. This does not mean a journalist visited the premises or certified legal compliance.

Evidence tiers T0–T3

Grades of public evidence in the wholesale directory. A weak evidence tier and an operating status can coexist; they are different fields.

Verification Gap Index

Unconfirmed retail records divided by catalogued retail records in the same state, expressed as a percentage. Source coverage affects comparisons.

Wholesale density

Wholesale records per 1,000 retail records in the same state. This ratio does not establish shipments, supply routes, capacity or market share.

The contributing team reports using public license and registration lists, business listings, store locators, distributor listings, brand-partner pages and other public records. The article methods describe its inclusion and review criteria. This public release does not expose the record-level source ledger or a reproducible business-record deduplication audit. Unresolved duplicates, stale records, missing businesses and classification errors remain possible.

The published state lists and exact chain-name lists are selected comparisons. The retail format table is not exhaustive and does not sum to the national total. City labels are not harmonized metropolitan areas. Contact fields overlap. Preserve the original denominator, units and rounding when using a table.

Cite the data accurately

Suggested attribution: Midwest Vape Distro research team, US vape retail and wholesale directory; published by VapeBrief. Data as of October 29, 2026; published-table release 1.0, October 31, 2026. Link to the relevant article and this page. State whether a number is catalogued, marked operating or unconfirmed.

For a proposed reprint, translation or extensive reproduction of tables, see media enquiries and reuse. Photographs and third-party materials have separate rights. This page does not grant a blanket open licence over the unpublished directory.

Research team and editorial responsibility

The directory and contributed analysis are credited to the Midwest Vape Distro research team, whose members work for a US vape wholesaler. That commercial affiliation is disclosed in both articles. VapeBrief is the publisher. Its publication byline is a shared editorial label; it does not identify a named individual researcher.

For a methodological question, a request to contact the contributing team or a correction, email support@vapebrief.com. Include the article, table, figure and supporting public evidence. Requests for unpublished records depend on availability and the relevant rights; access is not promised.

Release history

1.0 — October 31, 2026: First public download release of the nine already-published numeric tables and the national status overview. The articles’ numerical tables are unchanged. The retail article was clarified to separate wholesale evidence tiers from operating status and missing contact fields from actual digital absence. See corrections.