"Until now, these were the markings of marijuana dispensaries, dripping with 1960s hippie nostalgia and the musings of the stereotypical stoner, and it’s high time for the cannabis aesthetic to get a refresh, cannabis entrepreneurs say."
From "The Golden Age of Dispensary Design Is Almost Here/As cannabis legalization has become more widespread, retailers are getting increasingly serious about the design and branding of their shops" by Anna P. Kambhampaty (NYT).
“The retail environments for cannabis don’t match the money people are spending on it, nor do they match the diversity of the consumers,” said Kim Myles, the co-founder of MylesMoore, a design firm that revamps the interiors of mom-and-pop cannabis dispensaries across the country. “It’s a quality plant. Going into a dispensary should be a quality experience. There’s no way we are going to overcome the stigma it has if we don’t change the touch point for the consumer.”
Do you care about buying legalized marijuana? If so, do you want to buy it amidst hippie trappings or do you want to shop in a more up-to-date setting? What would that be?
Here's what the MylesMoore firm has come up with. Does that say "quality" in a way that sparks your appetite for cannabis?
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42 comments:
Wow, that's just a different version of ugly. I would think a pot shop should appeal to men more than anything, but those curtains, lighting fixtures and rocking chairs are not very manly. Also, I would never frequent a place that has words painted on the wall like that. Top Shelf? No thank you.
I suspect this is a case of the reporter not getting out of her own neighborhood. And/or depending on the view of others who have seen only what's in theirs.
I've gone to a dispensary in my neck of the woods and it is slick, stylish, very modern, almost minimalist, in design. No lava lamps. No bullshit art from the 70s. Nicely displayed product in a brightly lit, tastefully designed space. If they weren't selling pot, it could be used for a high-fashioned hand-bags.
I was there for a friend.
This category is quickly growing in Omaha. Big Money.
The interior designers are smart. They are following the money and copying the TV show with the make over.m
No, it doesn't say quality. It says today's equivalent of the hippie aesthetic. In 50 yrs it will feel as stupid as a lava lamp.
Timeless quality is, let's face it, LL Bean. Get some mission furniture, an oval rug, and an autumnal leaf motif. Have a cozy dog bed by a fire and plunk a retriever on it. Repurpose a Bean boot as a planter. I have no interest in shopping for cannabis, but that's a store I would visit.
Delay the psychosis until it cannot be ignored.
That should work.
If legalized, why does anyone at all buy it? Why not keep a plant in your own home and harvest it for free?
This is a silly story anyway, as bars and coffee shops succeed or fail with all sorts of themes too. I guess the author desires the corporate mediocrity of Starbucks everywhere. But isn't that the Techno-urban culture's essence: "We all use Apple. We all love Apple stores. We all reject anything but Apple bland."
The spaces look like they have deliberate flare which would make me think money was spent on the design, furnishings and finishes. I could see it inspiring confidence that the products being sold within aren't just street corner run of the mill quality. It's probably important that the behind the counter help reflects the ambiance of the design. But, then again, when it comes to cannabis, to quote Sgt. Schultz, "I know nothing."
The customer is always right, in matters of taste. And retailers can cater to that taste. Or they can avoid dealing with the poor taste of their customers by running their brand in a manner designed not to be so yucky.
Words. What used to be a dealer is now a dispensary.
On the personal side, I am a boomer (69 years old) and when I see a peer still hanging on to the Dead as some magical cultural icon I run as fast as I can. Some of the music is ok, in a jazz type of way, but most is self indulgent dreck that can only be appreciated when stoned, which I guess the the connection to the, uh, dispensary.
We are all so screwed. It’s like society is consciously choosing multiple paths to do the most damage while sanitizing their intentions and the results.
I like the Nova Scotian way. Attached side by side with state run liquor stores. Both simple, if not austere, and to the point.
Neuroscientist Huberman on the effects of cannabis smoking or eating on the brain and body. Like anything else, the dose makes the poison. What I learned was the harmful effects of THC (psychosis, memory, motivation, etc) were also present in CBD.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gXvuJu1kt48
What’s with the bee shitting honey all over the bear?
Blogger Heartless Aztec said...
I like the Nova Scotian way. Attached side by side with state run liquor stores. Both simple, if not austere, and to the point.
Kind of like Nick’s bar:
"We serve hard drinks in here for men who want to get drunk fast.".
They're not "dispensaries." They're stores. Why cling to the fiction that this is somehow a medical product?
Jefferson's Revenge said...
Words. What used to be a dealer is now a dispensary.
Pretty much, especially since they're pretty much in the same parts of town the dealers used to inhabit and have the same old clientele.
Honestly, if they want to get more people to come it they'd be better off doing something about combatting the stench.
They're No Trying to spark ones interest in dope, they're trying to make you no mind paying their outrageous prices for it. As long as bootleg (non-taxed) dope is available people will consider buying bootleg. Especially if, the legal stores look sketchy
A family member uses medical cannabis to mitigate advanced cancer symptoms. They have a counselor who consults re symptoms and recommends appropriate products. She uses different strains for nausea, pain, and to help sleep. It is all surprising to her as a child of the 70s (and to me). Very positive experience for her, and very helpful. She never mentioned the decor of the dispensary. I think for most of the pandemic it was online with a drive-through pick up. I will have to ask now that she goes inside. She has mentioned that they grow/harvest their own at that site (which is in an urban industrial park) and it smells like weed for many blocks nearby.
I know everybody likes to jump in with the snark but it truly has been very helpful.
Legalizing pot doesn't make it easier to get, but it does enable better quality control and dealer reliability. Those are the indicators I'd want to see in my dispensary.
At this stage in my life, I wouldn't buy pot either way, but given that it is at heart an agricultural product and there are many strains with many effects that only a real connoisseur could distinguish by look and smell, I'd want a shop that indicates knowledge and professionalism. The last thing I want is what I dealt with in college--some hippy's garage. You don't need to legalize pot to get that.
Central planners try to heavily control supply. Heavily taxed by new government agencies. Government controlled prices to simulate the old pricing when it was still illegal. Ger, I wonder if all this central planning makes for a robust and sustainable market. Maybe we ought to look it up…
Stick it to the man with some mylar and grow lights…like you’ve been doing all along you potheads…
Shorter NYT: Smoke a bowl before you head to the polls!
If legalized, why does anyone at all buy it? Why not keep a plant in your own home and harvest it for free?
For the same reason most people don't grow their own tobacco, or brew their own beer: the cost is more than the benefit. Why go through all the trouble to grow and dry a couple plants' worth of pot, just so you can smoke a joint on Friday night?
from today's WSJ
Legal Grass Isn’t Always Greener for Cannabis Companies
four years after opening up on Oct. 17, 2018, one-third of Canada’s cannabis sales still happen in the black market.
In Ontario, cannabis costs just 2% more than what is available in the illegal market,
There is no buzz to legal pot. Sure, you can get stoned but what's the point without paranoia?
There are so many of these outlets popping up in SE Michigan that I can't see how they'll all survive. There can't be that many people partaking, can there?
Everything about marijuana culture is vile and repulsive to me, no matter how much you try to dress it up.
It's just another way to get people to numb themselves to oblivion while they're getting raped six ways to Sunday by their betters. And most people don't even care. As long as there is neverending weed, Netflix, and porn, whatever, right?
Wilfred Owen: "All a poet can do today is warn."
My wife and I have visited a couple of outlets in MA and they match what Temujin said...
"...slick, stylish, very modern, almost minimalist, in design."
My wife and I have visited a couple of outlets in MA and they match what Temujin said...
"...slick, stylish, very modern, almost minimalist, in design."
Like the Kardashians, I've never been in one. But I'm sure everyone else has. Alas. My days of getting high are behind me.
Very slightly OT, question for connoisseurs perhaps better represented among the commentators than I had thought: how does pot get celebrated while ordinary tobacco/nicotine gets vilified?
Is anything being done about the potency issues? I understand today's stuff can be MUCH stronger than years ago with serious medical/mental issues arising.
That pressurized wood over Woody Harrelson's koi pond is going to give the koi a high they don't want.
Rusty, to your point, as it turns out, my days of getting high are behind me as well. I tried it. Didn't love it like I did as a young man. The older I get, the more I like a clear mind, a productive mind.
Except when it's Single Malt Scotch Fridays! Heh.
In Michigan, the highway billboards are overwhelmingly advertising pot dispensaries. They all have different and modern logos, names, photos, and taglines.
Also, the pot smells coming out of cars next to me on the road are alarming. We outlawed drinking while driving, and tightly control how much you can drink before you drive, but people are baking and driving all over the place.
Flamin’ Hot Cheetos is 21st century, not the 60s hippie era.
If legalized, why does anyone at all buy it? Why not keep a plant in your own home and harvest it for free?
Or just walk down any street here in D.C., where it has been essentially legalized. The entire city reeks of pot. Everywhere you go. So much for "what people do in the privacy of their homes...." Like most things left, it has ended up being imposed on everyone, want it or not.
"Flamin’ Hot Cheetos is 21st century, not the 60s hippie era."
Good point.
Real hippies ate Screaming Yellow Zonkers when they had the munchies.
Here in Vegas, they mostly look like a cross between a jewelry store and a pharmacy. Lots of glass and wood and indirect lighting. Tasteful and possibly timeless.
The sacred Church of Pot.
Got 3 within walking distance.
With armed guards. Peace!
I have enough problems without adding drug addiction to the list.
My general philosophy about shopping is I want to go there, get what I need, get out. That said, there are some stores that I consider experiences and I just want to wander about to see what is available. I suppose if marijuana is your life then the experience could matter. That said, when you are shopping for something that messes with your head and are probably already stoned, I would think being aware of your surroundings is a lower priority. Drunks generally do not care about where they are vomiting.
Pot stores should be required to have cigarette-like warnings about the harm from smoking pot. There is an epidemic of brain damage among young people that no doubt extends to a lesser extent to older people. Emptor caveat.
Tommy's on Roscoe near the 405: double double for the munchies.
"Do you care about buying legalized marijuana? If so, do you want to buy it amidst hippie trappings or do you want to shop in a more up-to-date setting? What would that be?"
I have only purchased weed in WA and OR - but there's no 'shopping' in the general sense. Everything is behind the counter. You look at a menu on paper. You tell the budtender what you want - then leave. I can't say any of the shops I've been to have any theme - just lots of glass to separate you from the budtenders, maybe some bongs/pipes and glass on display. I'm usually in and out in a few minutes.
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