Issue 30 CHAMPS Show Magazine February 2022

VISIT BOOTH # 4061

COVER SPONSORED BY:

ISSUE 30 - FEBRUARY 2022

• Valentine’s Day • Shop Shots: Smokers Mecca • 2021: A Pictorial Review

Inside:

Atlantic City May 3-5th 2022

Next Show:

Content Pictorial Review of 2021

Photos by Nick Gaulin and Sly Vegas

Shop Shots: Smokers Mecca

By Bernie Boulders

Valentine’s Day

By Kevin Dankman • Illustrated by Sean Dietrich

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ISSUE 30 FEBRUARY 2022

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CHAMPS SHOW MAGAZINE

Advertiser Index 6

1836 KRATOM 31 ABR 38 AFG 16-17, 53 ALTERNATIVE HEALTH 73 B2B CANNABIZ WHOLESALER 81 BDD WHOLESALE 32, 77 BEAR QUARTZ 72 BENTFISH TRADING 29 BLAZER 59 CHAMPS UPCOMING SHOWS 78-79, 88, 93, 110-111 CHOICE INSIDE FRONT COVER SPREAD DELTA MAN 34-35 EARTH KRATOM 60 EDITH ROSE 108-109 ELITE 100-101 EMPIRE GLASSWORKS 90 EXCLUSIVE DISTRIBUTORS 105 FLUX 106 GOURMET INNOVATIONS 96 GREENLANE 36, 74, 76, 84, 86 HEMPS 41 HOMEGROWN HEMP 102 HOMETOWN HEREO 39 HONEY 89 ICONIC DOHKA 75 KARMA HEMP WRAPS 19 KASHMIR 64 KR8TOM 42-43 KRATOMADE 82-83 KRAKEN KRATOM 55 LEGAL LEAN 25 LIFESTYLE MARKETING 91 MAHA-K 103 MT BRANDS 13 MY BUD VASE 40 OMNI VAPES 22-23, 61 OPMS KRATOM 62-63 PARTYNUTS 48-49 POWERHITTER 51 PURE HEMP SMOKING PAPERS 56-57 REPUBLIC BRANDS 10-11 ROKIN VAPES 26 RYOT INSIDE BACK COVER SPREAD, BACK COVER SEAN DIETRICH 37 SMOKE HOUSE 02-03, 5, 68-69 SMOKE ODOR 92 SMOKEZILLA 98 SOL TRADING 85, 87, 95, 97 SPRAY420 104 SUNSHINE JOY 99 SWAG 44-45 SWEATLEAF 90 TOP EXTRACTS 12 TORO IMPORTS 50 VAPOR TECH 28, 58 VOODOO 94 WORLD OF LOTUS 47 X VAPE 21 ZIG ZAG 18 ZION HERBAL 8-9

CHAMPS SHOW MAGAZINE

Contacts

ISSUE 30 FEBRUARY 2022

Publisher

CHAMPS Trade Shows

Editorial Director Kevin Dankman

Ad Sales:

Kevin Dankman Office 818-616-7424

Credits Writing:

Bernie Boulders Kevin Dankman

Photography: Nick Gaulin Sly Vegas

Cover Art: Sean Dietrich

Design & Layout: Sixxx

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2021 A Pictorial Review Photos by Nick Gaulin and Sly Vegas

We wanted to take a little time to look back at some memorable moments from 2021!

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Smokers Discount • $4000 Winner

Dungeon Smoke Shop • $4000 Winner

Hempire State Smoke Shop • $1000 Winner

CHAMPS Gave Buyers $1000’s to spend.

CHAMPS SHOW MAGAZINE

CHAMPS SHOW MAGAZINE

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Smoke Shop of Fern Park • $1000 Winner

Wizard Smoke Shop • $1000 Winner

The Underground Smoke Shop • $1000 Winner

The Glass Games Returned!

1st Place • Shoeless Glass

Unique 1st Place • Plug A Nug

Fume-It 1st Place • Shuhbuh

All-Day Long Rig 1st Place • Kaleb Folck

MC 1st Place • Sir Pyro, Fourwinds Flameworks

Out Of This World 1st Place • Nathan Belmont

Pet Me 1st Place • Hicdogg Glass

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Rainbow 1st Place • Windstar Glass

1st Place • Topher Glass

1st Place • Puntington Wig Wag

1st Place • Amorphous Symphony

2021 A Pictorial Review The Glass Games came back and winners took $1000’s home.

CHAMPS SHOW MAGAZINE

24 Scare Me 1st Place • Shaggy Glass

Sean Dietrich

At The Zoo 1st Place • C-Martin Glass

Goblet Grab 1st Place • Rye Deyer

Artist Choice Winner • Durin Glass

1st Place • Noah, Armor Glass

Shots 1st Place • Kaleb Folck

At The Zoo 2nd Place • Burtoni

2021 The Glass Games came back and winners took $1000’s home.

Marbles 1st Place • Jef Durfee

A Pictorial Review

CHAMPS SHOW MAGAZINE

CHAMPS SHOW MAGAZINE

The Never Ending Story continued when Atrayu came by

Johnny’s Toy Shack of Pawns Stars AfroMan came casue he got HIGH

2021 A Pictorial Review Celebrities came to meet you all!

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2021 A Pictorial Review Birdman showing the Stunna brand

Darius McCrary

Mike Tyson signing autographs

Tommy Chong with X Vape

Who will we see in 2022? Do you know who? Let us know!

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CHAMPS SHOW MAGAZINE

SHOP SHOTS Smokers Mecca

By Bernie Boulders

Poughkeepsie New York

Looking through the Photos of Smokers Mecca, you can tell they definitely supply their customers with tons of options at various price points. Their neatly organized shelves feature sales info and details the customer wants. I used to call these silent salesmen. There are many ways that stores can stand apart in the crowded landscape. This technique is for sure an example of one that has proven time and time to be a success! The owner, Grant had his team at Smokers Mecca send us a little about him and his business journey.

Continues On Page 38

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038_cm30.pdf

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12/31/21

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Shop Shots Grant McCabe started his first business endeavor back in 2014 with a one-track-mind on success. McCabe started from the bottom, borrowing money at large interest rates and racking up credit cards to make his dream of opening a premium smoke and vape shop a reality.

Smokers Mecca opened its doors in Beacon, NY. The vape industry then skyrocketed in revenue, allowing his shop to become triumphant within the local market. To boost revenue during legalization, McCabe started his signature "Free Joint Friday" promotional giveaway.

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Shop Shots Every first and last Friday, Grant opted to use his smoke shop as a hub to freely hand out free marijuana joints to the local community. McCabe used this as a gateway to cross-promote his smoke shop to his CBD and Hemp wellness store (The Leaf NY), as a means of generating a better aspect of community to customers.

Through these unique marketing tactics, McCabe was able to get all of his companies back on track after a disparaging pandemic that resulted in the shutdown of local businesses nationwide. Now McCabe has launched Liquid Gummies, his line of Delta-9 hemp-derived gummies and drinks.

The companies have seen a huge increase from the humble beginnings we remembered so clearly back in 2014.

Continues On Page 52

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Shop Shots McCabe has always loved Champs and made it a point to attend each year regardless of all the turbulence experienced along the way. Champs attendance has and will always be focused on aiming to make new connections through this industry we all pour our hearts into.

It's a one-of-a-kind show that we wouldn't miss for the world.

Continues On Page 54

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Shop Shots If you see Grant and his team at the show, be sure to say High! I know I am going to give him a free joint.

After all, he gives so many away he should receive one now and again.

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We broke from the coast and headed west at the Wilmington Crater. The news was that it was a no-go zone filled with a mutated army and navy folks who had survived the tests and eventual failure of the new USS Nuclear City. They attached three nuclearpowered aircraft carriers together and built an offshore city on them.

Anchored off the edge of Wilmington and, in hindsight, way too close. It was torn apart in a storm, and the resulting explosion left a crater visible from space.

It was a direct shot west to our destination, Athens, GA. The weather became more stable the further inland you went. As a result, hail was a much less significant problem than it was up north.

An excerpt from a collaborative work in progress between Sean Dietrich and Kevin Dankman.

VALENTINE’S DAY The travel down the east coast was made particularly treacherous by an odd mix of winter weather and substantial inland deluges of rain. The Eastern upper coastal areas had changed from high population places to one of the harshest environments known to man. Things like atmospheric rivers, bomb cyclones, and hurricanes were a year-round problem now, not just seasonal.

One of the many slight changes that have both helped the earth and hurt humanity all at once. The air is much cleaner, for the most part. Water can be good and bad depending on where the storm passes before it hits you. This definitely slowed the process as getting our charges for batteries was harder.

Toxic chemicals and bacteria flow in the storms that pass old meltdowns and landfill fires and numerous other localized events at chemical plants across the country. Sometimes you're lucky, and it's a fresh shower from the ocean, and others, it's a discolored mess of nuclear contaminated acid rain. Luckily, it doesn't kill or even make you sick, that is, unless you drink it straight. However, it will definitely speed up the color degradation in clothes and on vehicles.

CHAMPS SHOW MAGAZINE

We were just south of Augusta when we stumbled upon a small, deserted town.

It would be an excellent chance to find some supplies. Most of the houses and buildings seemed empty or inhabited by night crawling creatures. All the grocery stores and convenience stores were always open with empty shelves.

We checked craft stores, headshops, hotel stockrooms. It was always a treat when you found fresh toiletries.

We were back on the road and headed out of town when someone signaled that there were signs of civilized life. We approached the sprawling compound, an old factory of some sort, with care and in the least threatening way possible…

There's a lot of crazy folks just trying to live a life out in nowhere land, and we don't judge how they live or thechoices they make so long as we live harmoniously. These people seemed to live harmoniously within their little bubble. They had greenhouses and outdoor gardens stuffed with plants Continues On Page 70 65

An excerpt from a collaborative work in progress between Sean Dietrich and Kevin Dankman.

CONTINUED...

and winter harvest veggies. Medicinal herbs, poisons, hallucinogenic, and even some plain old pretty flowers were everywhere. Pigs, chickens, and goats all seemed to have a place here and appeared to be a renewable food source.

They had a pull cord you could pull to signal that you were there. It didn't make a sound when you tugged it.

Instead, it shook plants, flowers and made some little lights flicker on and off. It was a few moments before a gruff round man shuffled up to the gate. Armed to the hilt with what looked like serious body armor protecting every inch… He had seen it all and was ready for more.

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You could tell he hadn't had a civil conversation in a while. He stumbled with words and seemed shocked someone had actually stopped by.

He introduced himself as John and made mention of his wife inside. We asked if he needed anything that maybe we might have something to trade him for food and supplies from his garden.

"I got, mostly what's we need." he said as he thought about it…" seeds! What kinda plant seeds you got?" This wasn't my area of knowledge, so I called out for our herbalist and farmer Kev-O to see what we had, "everything, we have stopped in so many farms and botanical gardens we have pretty much something from everything.

Even kratom, cacao, coca, and kava had been found on our adventure. Kev-O spent a lot of time foraging for seeds and plants he could propagate and share.

John was kind enough to invite us into his garden to sit and pass tales we had heard along the way. It was February, so not much was blooming outside besides some cold weather crops. Inside the greenhouses, that was another story.

Food was abundant and being grown in every inch.There were solar panels on every exposed space

you could find.

We all sat around an outdoor table. John offered us drinks and hand-rolled tobacco cigarettes from tobacco he grew himself. The pre-rolled smokes of the past were gone.

Instead, on a rare occurrence, you might find a stale pack of Newports or Marlboros Continues On Page 80

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John had a portable and an old in-house CB Radio. So, we got to work fitting them and training him how to use them.

He picked up fast, and you could see the joy come over his face as he started hearing voices from around the world.

The new nose was overwhelmed by a sudden and ominous light change and a low-level bass rumble. John quickly pressed a button on the remote he wore around his waist, and it all stopped.

John stopped and stepped away for a moment. Then, he paused, looked back, and said, "y'all might as well come with me and learn my secret."

An excerpt from a collaborative work in progress between Sean Dietrich and Kevin Dankman.

CONTINUED... wedged behind an old display. That was the secret, a honey hole that pays off to this day.

There was a lively discussion of the actual date: We had it as February 14th, and he had it as February 12th. We assured him that it was a simple miscalculation. With the new solar cycle, you could quickly lose a couple of days over a year or two.

John didn't have a HAMM radio. He could hear old FM broadcasts and AM loops but no current and up-to-date info. We had stocked up on CB radio to HAMM Radio conversion kits to quickly get those off the loop back on. At the beginning of the end, or whatever you want to call it, CB radios were a popular and easy-to-find way to communicate. When HAMM Brushland figured out a way to convert them to more digital data, it was a gamechanger for longer distances. It piggybacked off old towers and the old electric lines to create long-distance voice and data communications.

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We followed him down a narrow path to a hoop house greenhouse far away from everything. It was different.

Flowers grew all around it, some varietals I had never seen. This one also had a locked and sealed door…

He unlocked the 4 different locks one at a time very methodically. Once opened, he said that we could come in with him if we wanted to know, and it was very safe.

We followed through the door into what I can only explain as an observation room. John sat and looked through the window and told the story of his dearest wife and mutated zombiod sitting amongst the flowers.

Continues On Page 92 CHAMPS SHOW MAGAZINE

An excerpt from a collaborative work in progress between Sean Dietrich and Kevin Dankman.

CONTINUED...

She had brain cancer during the first wave. Then, just as she recovered, the 2nd wave hit like a storm.

Someone convinced her that she should take an experimental new vaccine that only worked on cancer patients. It somehow interacted with the residual radiation in her system to create a one-of-a-kind mutation. Although it was hard to explain, she looked almost normal, like she was healthy.

It was time to feed her, is what John explained. He began to talk to her through the intercom, softly reminding her he loved her, that he would keep his vow, "till death do we part."

At this moment, he told us that if we were squeamish at all, we might want to divert our eyes.

In the name of journalism, I had to stay. I had to know what this one-of-a-kind mutation was.

With a press of a button, the room was flooded with butterflies and birds. It was at that moment that her mutation showed.

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CONTINUED...

She danced around furiously chasing and gobbling down anything that moved one by one. Once she had cleared the area of moving objects, she sat once again on her throne, smiling, admiring her flowers. Then John pushed one more key on his remote, and from the sky came roaring thunder and rain. It was a cleansing shower inside her terrarium of life. The rain washed away all signs of the massacre that had happened. Those of us that remained in the room, exited with John and returned to the seating area he had arranged earlier.

There was an awkward silence before John spoke. He apologized for what he had subjected us to, but he needed to be honest. She had never infected others; she just chased anything smaller than her relentlessly, trying to eat it. This was the most humane and beautiful way he could come up with to keep her safe, existing in a new world. It was a lovely sentiment. We had nothing but respect for this old man and his beloved.

John's inherent goodness and kindness came out. He thanked us with a plethora of seeds, jarred veggies, potted meats, and dry cured meats. Anything he could spare, he donated to us. It was almost too much. We made space by giving him some seeds, new technology, and a few battery packs we had picked up along the way. Life was different after this visit. We had a unique perspective on the phrase, "Making it work." NEXT Stop… Athens GA. We were only a couple of days travel away, I had a nervous feeling in my gut, I hadn’t heard from my friends and family there in years. Who was still alive? How did Athens fair? Not a lot of news came out of the south, let’s hope for the best…

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