Electra Smoke Shop recently opened at 4499 Marie Drive in Middletown’s Kitty Hawk Plaza between Grand Avenue and Roosevelt Boulevard, offering tobacco-free electronic cigarettes that serve as nicotine-delivery devices, said Jason Collins, the store’s owner.

The new Butler County business aims to help area residents quit smoking cigarettes, or at least spend less money while puffing away on a non-burning alternative, according to Collins.

“The average person smokes about a pack, a pack-and-a-half a day,” Collins said. “If you smoke that much, 30 milliliters of fluid will last you all month and you’re only going to spend $18, as opposed to $250 a month, and you can smoke them anywhere.”

Electronic cigarettes generate between $250 million and $500 million in revenue each year, according to industry estimates.

A start-up kit at Electra Smoke Shop costs anywhere from $27 to $60 and includes the rechargeable electronic cigarette unit, complete with a cartomizer, atomizer, charger and nicotine oils.

The smoke shop carries 34 different flavors of nicotine oils, everything from Mountain Dew, Juicy Fruit, watermelon and cotton candy to Red Bull, coffee, strawberry and Marlboro. “I’ve got any flavor you want,” Collins said.

The Middletown business provides “a great location” at an affordable price with the convenience of a drive-thru window, he said. The shop also offers beverages, snacks and candy.

Collins up with the idea for the business when his mother wanted to quit smoking after being diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

“Mom was buying the cheap (e-cigarettes) from the gas stations and she was going through more money than when she was smoking,” he said.

A friend then told Collins about the Joyetech e-cigarette, which has ended up helping his mother stay cigarette-free since last December.

Collins said he realizes the business isn’t a cash cow, but that doesn’t bother him.

“I’m trying to help people get off cigarettes,” he said. “I’m not going to become a millionaire doing it. I also have a day job.”

Jim Tapp, 44, a smoker of 29 years, said he has been cigarette free for six weeks since purchasing an electronic cigarette from Electra Smoke Shop.

Instead of burning through more than a pack a day at a cost of $35 a week, Tapp said he now spends just $7 a week for nicotine oil.

“I don’t crave it (real cigarettes) at all,” said Tapp, who is gradually adjusting the amount of nicotine the device offers so he can quit smoking altogether. “The electronic cigarette … tastes better. The vapor looks like smoke, tastes like smoke and I get the same effect that a cigarette gives me, except I’m not smoking all of those chemicals.”