Drilling a hole into a liquor bottle is a simple enough procedure. But the process has become surprisingly lucrative for two juniors who earn up to $25 for turning students’ empty trophies into glass smoking pipes.
When junior marketing major Jared Senator and junior finance major David Kneisly noticed the bottle-pipes — that can be packed with tobacco or marijuana — weren’t easy to find locally, they launched Testudo’s Boutique this fall.
“We always wondered why there were no shops in College Park that sold these products,” Senator said.
“At first, we were just going to buy the products and then retail them, but we decided to personalize it by making them ourselves,” he said.
Customers can either request a replica of a design the pair has already sold — selected photos are posted on www.testudosboutique.com — or ask Senator and Kneisly to convert a new bottle.
Their website specifically instructs customers to use the pipes for “tobacco only. No funny stuff.”
The pipes are priced from $10 to $25, an affordable range that students, such as junior biology major Kobby Waters, said was a significant factor in choosing to shop there.
Waters, who bought a pipe from Testudo’s Boutique, said there was no question he would rather buy no question he would rather buy from a fellow student than from a tobacco shop.
“It’s cheaper and you get a custom-made product,” he said. “You get what you want. It’s just better.”
Senator said this sums up the reasoning of most of their customers.
“That’s why it works — it’s just more personal,” he said.
Although a tobacco shop called The Bamboo Eater opened in College Park last semester, Kneisly said this has actually helped, rather than hurt, the Boutique’s business.
“[The Bamboo Eater’s owners] buy stuff from us on a weekly basis,” he said. “But our main customers are students who see the website.”
The two mainly rely on Facebook and word-of-mouth advertising to get exposure for their business and said this system has been working just fine so far. The business had 70 “likes” on Facebook as of last night.
“We thought people just heard about us from our previous customers, but our last 10 customers or so have said they saw it on Facebook,” Kneisly said.
One student, who asked to remain anonymous because glass pipes can be considered drug paraphernalia, said he was impressed by the speedy service he received when he gave Senator and Kneisly a bottle he wanted converted into a pipe.
“They picked up the bottle, and an hour later, I had it back,” he said. “Plus, it’s much cheaper than if you get it from a store.”
Senator said this turnaround time wasn’t unusual. In an e-mail, he described the process as “semi-easy” — drilling a hole, inserting a copper tube, sticking in a rubber grommet and attaching a glass or metal bowl.
“We can usually get [an order] done in one or two hours, depending on whether we’re free,” Senator said.
Although neither has considered Testudo’s Boutique’s fate very far into the future, they both said the early success of the business has made them hopeful for its survival.
“We’re definitely going to continue next semester, and if all goes well, next year,” Kneisly said. “After that, I haven’t really thought about it yet.”
kirkwood at umdbk dot com
