Given the quasi-legal state of the cannabis industry in terms of state and federal regulation, it is to be expected that not everything functions as ideally as it could.
Different state-level regulations and lack of federal funding from large financial institutions mean a lot of the recreational market, so many of us enjoy can feel at times like it’s all held together by duct tape and pure determination.
One only has to look at the insane logistics of plant tracking, reliable testing, product delivery, and continual adaptation to new legislation (and taxes) as proof point that despite all the odds, dispensaries are putting in a lot of hard work and brain power to bring the plant to the masses and for that, I for one am eternally grateful.
That said, just like with any burgeoning industry, there are a few things that dispensaries would do well to spend some time trying to improve upon to not only become more competitive today but to position themselves for hyper-growth better when things change federally.
Before any dispensary owner’s egos get bruised, and before them fingers start tapping out a prematurely emotional response, just read this: I am not claiming to be a Shark Tank master businessman, nor does this list guarantee success. I’m simply sharing a collection of much-chewed thoughts derived from my role as a passionate consumer of legal cannabis products.
So don’t take anything wrong; the whole goal behind this post is to share thoughts from a consumer and professional marketer’s perspective and nothing more. Take it or leave it; I’m just trying to help here because I see many hearts in the right place but are struggling.
Looking At Your Business With a Fresh Perspective
No doubt operating a canna-business in today’s world is full of extra problems other businesses don’t have to worry about, like being cash-dependent, struggling to find commercial real estate, and having excessive retail regulations.
Hopefully, as more states legalize over time, we can have a little state-to-state free-market competition to see who can create the smoothest retail process (for businesses AND customers) and, thus, collect as many tax dollars as possible.
^In case this is your first time on this blog, the above paragraph should indeed be read with a little bit of facetiousness.
But as the wise sage Boomhauer said: “dang ol’ danged if you do, danged if you don’t dang ol.” The rules is what they is, so, given this fact, what can we do within these confines?
We make it as foolproof as possible. We look to streamline every step of the process from when someone walks in the door to when they walk out.
This includes carefully considering how your business goes about implementing state-specific identification processes, that signage is clear and obvious, and that the flow of people through your establishment encourages engagement with your merchandising and prevents blockages or crowding.
In essence, it may be helpful to put on your civil engineering hat to survey your establishment with the fresh eyes of someone who isn’t already intimately familiar with your store layout and product offering.
Ask yourself, “If I’d never stepped foot in here, what would I do” and run this process from start to finish, multiple times, ideally including other people to get as much feedback as possible so that you can go about creating a shopping experience that is as delightful for customers as it is profitable to your bottom line.
1. Invest in Creating an Experience
Hopefully, the abovementioned importance of channeling your inner Vulcan logic to maximize process efficiency didn’t entirely put you to sleep because while that is a fundamental important first step, everything here on out is additive in that it will help augment an existing efficient retail operation.
The biggest issue I find from a consumer perspective with dispensaries across states is how many of them seem to lack a cohesive brand identity. Undoubtedly this is because so many people are all about the money without bringing a core ethos to the table.
You can be all about the paper and nothing else, but honestly, that’s probably not going to work out for you in the long run. Smokers are picky and connected. Bad news travels fast.
However, while some dispensary owners may have rad ethos, it’s just that they haven’t consolidated this into a plan that can be implemented to communicate these values and beliefs to prospective and existing customers.
As far as I can tell, these more soulless feeling businesses usually fall into two primary categories, including 1.) lazily branded strip mall/commercial real estate operations focused on competing on price and volume and 2.) residential structures that have been converted into dispensaries on the cheap.
Now, I’m not ragging on all of these types of businesses, as there is indeed logic that dictates much of their existence. It’s difficult to invest millions in premier retail experiences without access to any traditional federal investment resources, for example.
Regardless of if you’re selling out of a strip mall or if you’ve converted a three-bedroom one-level house into a dispensary, it’s important that you still try to create a unique experience that captures the “why” in the “why did you get excited about cannabis in the first place.”
Infuse your location with your identity. Cookies lean heavily on hip-hop lifestyle and cultural branding. Oregrown Portland is all about being outdoors, featuring sponsored mountain bikers. Serra takes an entirely different route, positioning itself as THE brand of Instagram with an almost artisanal jewelry store vibe.
Regardless of what specific personality you apply to your brand, as long as you are conveying an honest emotion, expressing your individual (or communal, if a team) humanity, and putting effort into creating some viiiiiiiibe you’ll be leaps and bounds better off compared to those who don’t.
2. Put Your Product on a Pedestal
If you are operating in a state allowing deli-style cannabis sales, aka big-ass weed jars, where purchases are measured out individually in front of the customer, then this is the route you should try to go.
I have a whole post on why I think deli style is superior to pre-packaged states, in addition to the obvious environmental impact of single-use packaging.
Naturally, this won’t be an option for businesses in states where it’s prohibited. Still, man, it sure does create a rad experience for customers as A.) seeing huge glass jars of weed is just exciting, and B.) seeing and smelling your flower before purchasing is fun and reassuring quality assurance.
If you have to sell pre-packaged, then at least having some type of display feature that allows customers to view the flower in its whole beauty, ideally under some magnification, is best.
There are a variety of display options out there, although I have yet to see the portable pods/capsules work out well, as the plastic often seems to tarnish fast. The constant jostling by customers destroys the delicate bud structure over time.
The best way to display cannabis outside of big glass deli-style jars would be to pin it in big flat glass cases, similar to how rare butterflies are preserved. This allows for quick and easy visual evaluation by customers. The flat nature also makes it easy to add complementary genetic, farm, THC, CBD, and terpene profile information to help educate customers.
3. Integrity Over The Quick Buck
Yes, there will always be nefarious business owners in every industry. Given the large demand for “lowest possible prices” in cannabis, shady businesses will undoubtedly be looking to save a quick buck by offering lower quality or older/damaged product.
While businesses have been able to skate by this way, I don’t think it’s going to last as the cannabis legalization movement spreads across the country (and the world!); consumers will be looking to move up-market in terms of the quality of product and quality of experience.
Given how cannabis was illegal for many of our lives, many smokers became accustomed to “whatever they could get” which was often crunchy-ass brown brick weed from Mexico.
Once you gain insight into what “good” quality cannabis is like, not just to smoke but to see, touch, and smell, then well, it’s hard to ever go back to that old shwag.
As such, I foresee a standard progression of up-market purchasing habits as people move past dipping their toes into legal cannabis and begin to understand better what good weed is and what terpene expressions they prefer.
So if you think that cutting corners will get you ahead well, I’d respond that I’m skeptical, especially in the long run, where companies that sell bunk will not be able to compete with those who offer truly exceptional products.
4. Pay People Who Consistently Perform
Just like with every industry on earth, you get what you pay for when it comes to talent and being the primary interface between your dispensary and prospective customers; these budtenders have a lot of responsibility on their shoulders. Budtenders make and/or break businesses.
Sure, you could engineer a robot to serve people pre-portioned packets of dank, but in reality, if your dispensary service is shit, 90% of people won’t care and go elsewhere because, in most big legal cities, there’s obviously a shit ton of options.
Do all budtenders crawl out of their moms fluent in terpenology? Probably not. No, to become a master at one’s craft that takes a lot of hours of practice, which itself requires some pretty serious discipline.
Some discipline is motivated by the allure of the lifestyle of saying, “Yeah, I work at a dispensary, no big deal, chah. totally…” but for most people to log enough hours to perfect the art, they have to be really passionate.
So, if you don’t currently have good budtenders or are just starting out, look for a genuine passion for cannabis from your applicants. Ask them what strains they’ve been smoking on. Ask them what their favorites are, which they don’t like, and why. Try to understand their palette and if it grooves with your vision with what farms and products you intend to sell.
But understand that passion still needs to be channeled correctly for it to be a win-win for both parties. Be willing to educate and train hires on what your goal is, who is your personality/lifestyle type that you’re targeting, and what you’re 5, 10, and 50-year goals are.
Also, be willing to compensate fairly. The cannabis industry holds the potential to be unique from other mainstream sales/service industries. Cannabis is all about thinking, loving, respecting all living things, and pondering what’s up with the universe.
As such, we shouldn’t engage in a race to the bottom of our specialties like fast food or Spirit Airlines. No, we should go the way of craft cocktail barkeeps (see: mixologists), sommeliers, and tobacconists. We should compensate accordingly when someone truly takes the effort to understand and perfect their craft to the point where they can truly educate people. That is how it should be.
5. Encourage Individual Authenticity
Most local dispensaries already do this well enough, which is why local shops usually have much stronger followings than big corporate franchises, not that they can’t be run well, too, but they often lack personality to their detriment.
As mentioned above, thinking beyond just the transactional nature of the business can help better develop a brand that people talk about and come back to. In essence, taking the time to infuse your shop with some personality can have real-world, long-term positive impact on your bottom line.
One of my favorite dispensaries to hit up on the coast here in Oregon is Oregon Coast Cannabis which not only has a mad selection for its relatively remote location (compared to the city) but is also just a rad experience overall.
The store is absolutely dripping in big regal chunks of driftwood, which goes a long way in making you feel like it belongs there. The open, airy nature also harmonizes well with people’s mindset when hitting the beach. The service was chill and non-salesy, and they recommended a dope hiking path nearby.
Embracing the local culture, geography, and community can go a long way in creating a shopping experience that people will remember for a long time, which is the best kind of marketing you can do.
What doesn’t work well is pretending you’re too cool for school and creating a non-welcoming cold environment. Yeah, we get it, you listen to gangster rap and a neck tattoo, and you’re real hard. Congratulations on conforming to what seems to be a majority of the population under 30.
This “I’m so hard I’m going to look miserable while working in one of the world’s raddest industries ” is not the correct vibe. Real thugs aren’t going to Cookies retail locations to source their pounds, dawg, so you’re only really stuntin’ on tourists, office workers, and New Balance aficionados.
Let your personality shine. Don’t pretend to be something you’re not. Try to have fun. It seems like common sense when you read it, but it can easily be forgotten in the whirlwind of excitement that comes with opening and running a dispensary, or so it would seem.
6. Speak to the Enthusiasts
Is there a massive hole in the public’s understanding of cannabis due to decades of government lies and propaganda? Yes. Does that mean this bar can never be raised, and we should talk to people like they’re idiots? No.
Look, I get it; in any retail environment, you’re inevitably going to have to deal with a bunch of chads looking for “the strongest shit” for their upcoming bachelor party in which they’ll be smoking that infused blunt after a solid dozen beers and probably never touch weed again after due to the bad time they’ll inevitably have mixing herb and drunkenness.
But there are also customers who look forward to their monthly trip to the dispensary the same way beard-totting IPA lovers look forward to seeing what new brews their local tap house has or how my mom gets excited to see what new books the local library has in.
Based on my interactions, there is a strong thirst for knowledge regarding cannabis. For one thing, it turns out things couldn’t be more opposite from what we were conditioned to believe growing up in America.
Second, given the “cool” factor weed, many people may hesitate to speak up and ask questions for fear of appearing ignorant.
So, ask a couple of questions, like “What are you looking for today” and based on the responses, try to ascertain the level of canna proficiency your customers have. If they are regulars, drop farm names or multiple favorite strains, and adapt your engagement accordingly to presume some proficiency.
If your customer obviously hasn’t got a clue, don’t sigh in disdain but embrace the opportunity to educate them! The industry and, thus, the community won’t grow if it always acts like a private cool kids club. Knowledge is power, and people appreciate it when someone bestows such power upon them.
Personally, I think knowing about the farms that grow your product is key. Understanding the source of your craft product is of utmost importance in almost all passion niches like wine, coffee, whiskey, denim, heck, and even firearms!
Just like with food and restaurants, people with discerning palates will naturally want to know where their product came from and how it was made.
Growers are getting advanced AF with their techniques, which is GREAT marketing material. Deep water hydro? Living soil? Cutting-edge full-spectrum LEDs or unique terroir outdoor soil? Enchant your customer while educating them at the same time!
If you are on the supply side, consider educating the dispensaries you distribute to about your flower. Where’d you get the genetics from? What went into the decision to grow this particular strain? What was unique about the process, the plant, and the effects?
Arming dispensary staff with a least a few bullet points on your farm and your flower will help you stand out in a blurry world where budtenders often have dozens of different strains from different growers to try to memorize and recommend.
Standing out with stories and details here is a simple way to help stand out in a crowded marketplace and communicate what makes your bud special.
7. Think “Green” In Everything You Do
Yes, thinking about weed all the time is great. But we need to think bigger. Weed is a plant. Plants require a healthy, functioning earth. People who like plants often also like earth.
Hence, we should all reduce single-use plastic as much as possible, promote recycling, and feature reusable options like Re:Stash jars that, hey, you can also print your brand on, and then they double as portable advertisements!
The amount of plastic waste and, thus, litter that the legal cannabis industry generates is downright repulsive and shameful. Yes, some of the blame can be followed back directly to politicians that treat cannabis like radioactive isotopes with their packaging laws while demonstrably equally dangerous products like, uh, alcohol, skate by with non-existent packaging restrictions.
Through enough activism and education, hopefully, we can change these trends. Still, in the meantime, we can also focus on what is within control in terms of trying to insulate mother earth as much as possible from being barraged with garbage to death.
If you are producing pre-rolls in-house, please consider investing in biodegradable joint tubes (Humidi, Safely Lock, Hempak) or tubes made of reclaimed ocean plastic which is recyclable (Sana Packaging).
Trust me when I tell you hippies and casual outdoor lovers care about these things a lot, and this movement ain’t slowing down anytime soon, so you can either get on the train and strengthen your brand now, or you can be left behind with all.
8. If You Don’t Have Something Good To Say, Don’t Say Anything
Do markets sometimes become flooded? Sure. Is the correct way to combat that by bad-mouthing and leaving fake negative reviews of your competitors? No. Does it happen? Yeah, a lot.
Having spent over a decade in SEO, I’ve learned a thing or two about the depths and complexities of modern spam, particularly as it pertains to online reviews. As such, I’ve become adept at being able to spot clear manipulators.
You usually see this kind of thing going on in more densely populated city areas, especially within walking distance of tourist areas. When you’re from out-of-town reviews, such as those on Google Maps, for example, it can sometimes be you’re the only source of intel, and the dispensaries know that.
As such, people go online or go to an “online reputation management” firm to help them “boost” their reviews will “deboosting” their competitors. This results in businesses with a lot of 1-star and a lot of 5-star reviews, a pretty tellingly unnatural dichotomy of reviewer sentiment.
So big business boss men and women, please don’t participate in mud races to the bottom. They don’t last long term and don’t make the industry look very good.
Let’s at least try to treat each other as we’d like to be treated. The good old-fashioned ‘golden rule,’ right?
Much like the nuclear theory of mutually assured destruction, if we start down the path of cannibalization, then everyone will lose.
9. Connect With Your Community
Cannabis, before being legal, was community-driven, and it would be a tragedy if that were lost in the process of legalization and mass adoption.
Sure, you can sell just like any other corporate brick-and-mortar, but it’s in your brand’s long-term best interests to find ways to support and, more importantly, engage with your community.
Not only is this the right thing to do it helps promote a positive image to non-smokers who may have uninformed neutral, or negative pre-existing biases in the industry.
So yeah, if you are selling in a community that is mostly black, brown, white, or anything in between, you should also probably have some of those same colors working in and shopping at your store.
If you think you can disregard the community, you don’t understand cannabis culture very well. People who smoke weed are not the same as any other demographic. Fancy dispensary bud only exists today because of legitimate grassroots activism.
Actions don’t have to be massive; little things can make big impacts too. For example, there’s so much single-use plastic waste out there that having a crew to pick it up would be a great way to win some support. Communities and local governments like it; it’s a win-win-win.
^It’s also pretty fun to do ripped, FYI
10. Treat Your Product With Love and Care
Cannabis is a beautiful thing in many ways. In the olfactory sense, in a mental and emotional sense, and also in a visual way.
No, you shouldn’t judge books by their covers, but godamn, it definitely helps if they have a good one. Therefore, those nug inspectors out here appreciate any care your dispensary can take in preserving bud structure integrity.
Yes, we know that they get tussled about between trimming and packaging and distributing, BUT once in their big dispensary containers, that really should be the last of it as much as is controllable.
Implement training that minimizes unnecessary jostling of the bodacious buds all about their glass jars. This knocks off trichomes, essentially the magical glitter of your finished product and something you would do well to keep as much intact as possible.
Summary & Caveats
As you may have noticed, this list of grievances, or “rant,” if you will, is written from a consumer’s perspective. My credentials? Well, I like weed and buy most of it from the legal market, having shopped in Nevada, Washington, Colorado, and Oregon.
Am I the end-all-be-all authority on dispensary experiences? Well, no, that would be medical patients. That said, I am a marketer by trade and want to help contribute to the effort to push the industry along and evolve it as much as possible in a way that results in as balanced of a win-win for locally-owned dispensaries and their customers as possible.
It’s worth noting that not everyone will share my points of contention, and I completely understand that. Heck, I like the hodge-podge-3-bedroom-1960’s-house-turned-bright-green dispensary on occasion. Buddy’s basement bongfests and van hot boxing are nostalgic AF.
Understandably then, there will always remain niche markets. There will be a consumer base for dispensaries so posh they feel like designer bag stores. There will be a base for the mom-and-pop, the outdoors folks, the all-natural folks, the tourists, the bachelorette parties, and everything in between.
All I ask is that regardless of your bRaNd or prime consumer category, don’t stop pushing yourselves to create the best possible experience possible. You are the face of the industry and oftentimes the very first exposure to cannabis many people will have.
First impressions are lasting, and if we all want to grow and thrive together, then we should care about one another and take nothing for granted.
