John Tlumacki/Globe Staff
Boston Smoke Shop’s Francine Whu, a Newbury Street shop operator, said no landlord in Newton Centre would give her space.
How many smoke shops does Greater Boston need?
The question is gaining urgency as stores with “adult only” signs in the windows pop up all over town, to the dismay of some neighbors, and what was once an indie industry with a Bob Marley vibe has been infiltrated by local chains with leaders who toss around terms like “shareholders” and “economies of scale.”
Smoke shops, long a counterculture staple of college towns, legally selling pipes and hookahs and other paraphernalia under the pretense that it could be used for tobacco, have been around for decades. But with marijuana now legal in Massachusetts and vaping becoming a booming global business, they are rapidly multiplying.
In the last 18 months, as legalized marijuana came to Massachusetts, Chelsea-based Boston Smoke Shop has gone from eight stores to 21 in Greater Boston and is scouting for additional Massachusetts locations.
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