Smoke and Gift Shop opens on White Horse Pike

THG/Mohammed Fuad. To purchase photos in The Gazette, call (609) 704-1940. Raja Sabir opened Smoke and Gift Shop on the White Horse Pike in April.

A new business is in town on White Horse Pike as the Smoke and Gift Shop comes to town. As you enter the store, it is no ordinary store as it is a combination of a smoke shop and gift shop. On the smoke shop end of the store, you’ll see a collection of glass pipes and bongs, rolling trays, smoke odorizers and tobacco products such as wraps, cigars and papers. On the gift shop end of the store, you’ll see accessories such as sunglasses, wallets, caps, jewelry and many more. What stands out with this store is that it has a room dedicated to greeting cards so while you’re shopping inside the store, grabbing a last minute greeting card can be very convenient.

The store has been open since April 1 and Smoke and Gift Shop owner Raja Sabir is a resident of Mays Landing and this is his first business venture. Prior to opening the store, Sabir was a commercial truck driver and with his kids growing up, he wanted to stay closer and be around his family more. With that being on the back of his mind, Sabir eventually left his truck driving job and started his new business. With two months into a new venture and a new location, Sabir is liking the friendliness and the support that he has been given so far by the town.

“It’s very good here, the people are nice. I see that the location is really nice and business is good here. I see the nice people living around here, that’s why I stopped here and talked to someone to find a place. So far, people are really cool here and I haven’t had any problems,” Sabir said.

Sabir also embraces the customer service side of the business as he tries to connect with his customers by engaging with them and getting to know them more. While the store has many tobacco and smoking products and other gift items to sell, Sabir doesn’t want this store to be only a smoke shop to others. He wanted to enhance it by bringing in other items such as caps, wallets, flowers and sunglasses so that for those that are coming in to buy smoking and/or other products, they can also shop around and buy a greeting card or some flowers for someone. This is what led him to combine the two things and call it a smoke and gift shop.

“We have everything here, that’s why I knew I didn’t want to open it as just a smoke shop, I have two things: smoke and gift shop. We have gift cards, wallets, watches, we have a lot of selections here. So far, the people really like it because not only is one person only coming here just to buy a smoking product, my shop is open to everyone,” Sabir said.

For someone who started a business on their own after leaving their previous job, Sabir advises those who are looking to start a business to stay fully committed to it in order to help make it into a successful business. While being on one end of working for an owner, he has thought about wanting to run his own business for a while. Fast forward to now, the times of thinking of starting one has come to fruition and Sabir feels that he is satisfied now that one goal is accomplished and he’s around his family more.

Smoke and Gift Shop is located on 100 South White Horse Pike. The hours of operation are from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. from Monday through Saturday and 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday.