With tears in her eyes, Societe Caponette exchanged words of disbelief with customers from behind the counter of her Worcester vape shop Wednesday morning, thanking them for their well wishes and saying she doesn’t know what the coming months will hold for her.

A day earlier, Caponette, who has owned Worcester Vapor on West Boylston Street for the past six years, found out that she will have to shut her doors in the coming days after Gov. Charlie Baker ordered a four-month ban on the sale of vaping products in the state.

She said she was shocked after hearing the news.

“It’s devastating, financially devastating,” she said. “It’s all I have.”

With thousands of dollars of products still on her shelves, Caponette said she has no idea what’s next. With no source of income, she fears she’ll lose her home. She also worries for her three employees — one of whom was homeless before taking a job at the shop.

"We have bills to pay, we have leases, rents to fulfill. We have mortgages, car payments, every day living expenses,” she said, adding, “I’m still in shock. I don't know how I could survive for four months with no income. I’ll be out there looking for a job.”

It’s the same story across the state.

“It is going to put us out of business. I don’t know of any vape shops that will be able to stay open if they can’t sell products for four months,” said Erica Martins, who owns Notorious Vapors in Easthampton with her fiancé.

The statewide ban, effective immediately, was quickly approved by the state Public Health Council Tuesday and applies to all vaping products and devices. It comes amid growing concern about the health effects of vaping products.

But Caponette and other Worcester vape shop owners say the move was ill-informed and overreaching. They said the products to blame for the vaping-related lung illnesses that have sickened at least 530 people in 38 states and claimed nine lives are black-market THC cartridges with Vitamin E oil.

"We know in the vaping world that it's illegal THC cartridges that are causing this whole kerfuffle,” said Kevin Brown, who has owned Madvapes in the city’s Grafton Hill neighborhood for six years. “They're just taking everybody down and it's sad."

Most of Brown’s customers are older adults who have used vaping to help them quit smoking cigarettes. He said his shop has never marketed to children.

His store was packed on Tuesday as customers came in to stock up on products after learning of the ban. He said others told him they plan to travel to New Hampshire or other states to buy vaping products.

“They’re all outraged about it,” he said.

Brown said he has an 80-year-old customer who started coming to his store five years ago after quitting smoking after 60 years.

“She said, ‘I don’t care what they do and what they say, I’m gonna keep vaping’ because she knows she feels better, and that is my customer base – these people that are older and have quit smoking from it,” Brown said.

Katelyn Simoneau, who began vaping six years ago, said the products helped her quit cigarettes after smoking for 20 years. Eventually, she said her lungs cleared up and she can now breathe easily while going for walks or doing other activities.

She usually shops at Worcester Vapor, but said she’ll have to go to another state or stop vaping completely after the store closes.

“I think it’s horrible,” she said.

A few miles away on Park Avenue, employees at Vaporize were also grappling with what the ban might mean for them.

Manager Adrian Pelka said 90 percent of his business comes from e-liquid and vape product sales. He said the store will try to survive on CBD and glass sales for four months, but it’s going to be tough.

“It’s heartbreaking,” he said. “You have a lot of money invested in the business and it’s taking away our livelihood. Especially before the holidays, it’s really tough.”

So far, Pelka and the other business owners said no one has come in to shut them down or give them any type of formal notification. He said the notice the state gave was inadequate — even two weeks would have given him enough time to sell of some of the store’s inventory, helping hold the business over during the ban.

“It’s just been on the news,” he said. “I want a piece of paper that says what I have to do, what the next steps are.”

All of the business owners also fear the ban will lead people to turn to the black market for products.

“If they want this, they’re going to get it either way from whoever,” Pelka said. “Or they might do homebrew stuff if they can buy the flavorings and the VG/PG stuff and start mixing stuff at home, they might do that. But then again that's not really clean – people are doing this in their garage or in their kitchen. It's not really healthy.”

The worst-case scenario, he said, is that former smokers will go back to cigarettes.

Caponette said one person has already come into her store asking where to get ingredients to make their own vaping products.

“If that’s not dangerous, I don’t know what is,” she said.