Business
Opinion: How cannabis store design can help lure more consumers
Cannabis retail is becoming increasingly experiential around the country with today’s consumers expecting top-tier, thoughtfully designed stores that showcase a brand’s unique identity.
With more modern marijuana stores cropping up each day, it is essential that retailers make intelligent, creative design choices to help them stand out from the rest and keep customers coming back.
There are several ways that retailers can best tackle these critical decisions on the design of their stores from the ground up:
Using branding to keep customers coming back
The reality in cannabis today is that prices across the board are competitive, no matter the market or the sector.
Simply put, consumers have a choice as to where they want to shop.
With this in mind, a retailer’s branding and physical presence should focus on the complete consumer experience to ensure that every guest has the most fulfilling visit possible.
Customers should enjoy coming into the shop, where they can consult with helpful, knowledgeable budtenders and take in the atmosphere of the brand.
The physical design choices made by retailers throughout the building process are what create this full experience.
Opting for simple self-serve kiosks and efficient point-of-sale systems can make purchases seamless, while stationing budtenders at the counter and out on the floor can guide customers’ choices.
Adaptable lighting systems and color choices work to set the tone of the location, along with other custom design choices made in the build.
For example, one recreational cannabis retail brand in Massachusetts carefully thought out each and every building aspect.
The team leveraged turnkey solutions to realize their vision, tying together unique branding with the physical space to create a location that draws consumers in.
The company’s brand is rustic and connected to nature, so the team chose thoughtful design details such as reclaimed wood, a retail counter that resembles a flowing river and lighting that emulates running water.
The retail floor itself features a lounge setup with tables and chairs for customers awaiting their orders, and self–serve kiosks and budtenders throughout the store allow customers to engage however they prefer.
Such careful choices from the beginning of the build create a peaceful, engaging environment that customers connect with and return to.
Solutions for thoughtful design
The beauty of turnkey solutions lies in flexibility – with a great team supporting them, retailers of all sizes can work through their design vision and pivot as necessary to achieve it.
Turnkey solution providers keep design and construction phases on a tight schedule while still having the resources to secure custom work.
Providers can expedite building processes and help get a store online as quickly as possible, allowing retailers to beat the competition.
In a turnkey setting, key stakeholders and team members have the opportunity to evaluate components and make timely decisions to keep the project moving forward.
Turnkey providers integrate contractors into the build from the very beginning, often preventing problems before they occur.
When design and construction work hand in hand, not only is the constructability of the design ensured but the original intent of the design also remains intact.
For example, many clients want custom work done in their store, whether that includes unique woodwork, tile, painting, decoration or more.
Customized work often alters a construction schedule and slows progress, throwing the entire project off course.
Turnkey providers can keep the project on track by proactively addressing requests and changes before they are realized in the field without sacrificing the quality of the products or the custom work.
In this way, they ensure durability and cost control to keep the build running smoothly.
Maintaining compliance during a build-out
Additionally, with the varying regulations from state to state, turnkey providers are instrumental in maintaining the design vision while adapting to standards.
For example, retailers in New York have specific requirements for potential build-outs that outline rules for various design features.
Among other requirements. such as surveillance and proper ventilation, these conditions include:
- Open layouts.
- Having up to 10 point-of-sale areas at each store.
- Maintaining a secure-space storeroom area and a vault door shielded from customer view.
With contractors involved in every aspect of a build-out, retailers can more easily follow specific design conditions in each market while maintaining their sense of individuality.
In short, a premium customer experience can seal the deal for customer loyalty and lure in newcomers.
However, the pursuit of this goal begins even before the very first brick is laid, with thoughtful planning and design focusing on branding and identity at every stage of the process.
This goal is achievable to all retailers through turnkey solutions that incorporate vision into each decision, allowing for customization without sacrificing quality and timing.
By incorporating these ideas, retailers can get ahead of the competition and connect with recreational consumers and medical patients alike, fostering a welcoming environment created with care.
Source: https://mjbizdaily.com/marijuana-store-design-can-help-lure-more-consumers/
New Mexico regulators fined a cannabis operator nearly $300,000 and revoked its license after the company allegedly created fake reports in the state’s traceability software.
The New Mexico Cannabis Control Division (CCD) accused marijuana manufacturer and retailer Golden Roots of 11 violations, according to Albuquerque Business First.
Golden Roots operates the The Cannabis Revolution Dispensary.
The majority of the violations are related to the Albuquerque company’s improper use of BioTrack, which has been New Mexico’s track-and-trace vendor since 2015.
The CCD alleges Golden Roots reported marijuana production only two months after it had received its vertically integrated license, according to Albuquerque Business First.
Because cannabis takes longer than two months to be cultivated, the CCD was suspicious of the report.
After inspecting the company’s premises, the CCD alleged Golden Roots reported cultivation, transportation and sales in BioTrack but wasn’t able to provide officers who inspected the site evidence that the operator was cultivating cannabis.
In April, the CCD revoked Golden Roots’ license and issued a $10,000 fine, according to the news outlet.
The company requested a hearing, which the regulator scheduled for Sept. 1.
At the hearing, the CCD testified that the company’s dried-cannabis weights in BioTrack were suspicious because they didn’t seem to accurately reflect how much weight marijuana loses as it dries.
Company employees also poorly accounted for why they were making adjustments in the system of up to 24 pounds of cannabis, making comments such as “bad” or “mistake” in the software, Albuquerque Business First reported.
Golden Roots was fined $298,972.05 – the amount regulators allege the company made selling products that weren’t properly accounted for in BioTrack.
The CCD has been cracking down on cannabis operators accused of selling products procured from out-of-state or not grown legally:
- Regulators alleged in August that Albuquerque dispensary Sawmill Sweet Leaf sold out-of-state products and didn’t have a license for extraction.
- Paradise Exotics Distro lost its license in July after regulators alleged the company sold products made in California.
Golden Roots was the first alleged rulebreaker in New Mexico to be asked to pay a large fine.
Source: https://mjbizdaily.com/new-mexico-cannabis-operator-fined-loses-license-for-alleged-biotrack-fraud/
Four marijuana companies, including a multistate operator, have filed a lawsuit against U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland in which they allege the federal MJ prohibition under the Controlled Substances Act is no longer constitutional.
According to the complaint, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, retailer Canna Provisions, Treevit delivery service CEO Gyasi Sellers, cultivator Wiseacre Farm and MSO Verano Holdings Corp. are all harmed by “the federal government’s unconstitutional ban on cultivating, manufacturing, distributing, or possessing intrastate marijuana.”
Verano is headquartered in Chicago but has operations in Massachusetts; the other three operators are based in Massachusetts.
The lawsuit seeks a ruling that the “Controlled Substances Act is unconstitutional as applied to the intrastate cultivation, manufacture, possession, and distribution of marijuana pursuant to state law.”
The companies want the case to go before the U.S. Supreme Court.
They hired prominent law firm Boies Schiller Flexner to represent them.
The New York-based firm’s principal is David Boies, whose former clients include Microsoft, former presidential candidate Al Gore and Elizabeth Holmes’ disgraced startup Theranos.
Similar challenges to the federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA) have failed.
One such challenge led to a landmark Supreme Court decision in 2005.
In Gonzalez vs. Raich, the highest court in the United States ruled in a 6-3 decision that the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution gave Congress the power to outlaw marijuana federally, even though state laws allow the cultivation and sale of cannabis.
In the 18 years since that ruling, 23 states and the District of Columbia have legalized adult-use marijuana and the federal government has allowed a multibillion-dollar cannabis industry to thrive.
Since both Congress and the U.S. Department of Justice, currently headed by Garland, have declined to intervene in state-licensed marijuana markets, the key facts that led to the Supreme Court’s 2005 ruling “no longer apply,” Boies said in a statement Thursday.
“The Supreme Court has since made clear that the federal government lacks the authority to regulate purely intrastate commerce,” Boies said.
“Moreover, the facts on which those precedents are based are no longer true.”
Verano President Darren Weiss said in a statement the company is “prepared to bring this case all the way to the Supreme Court in order to align federal law with how Congress has acted for years.”
While the Biden administration’s push to reschedule marijuana would help solve marijuana operators’ federal tax woes, neither rescheduling nor modest Congressional reforms such as the SAFER Banking Act “solve the fundamental issue,” Weiss added.
“The application of the CSA to lawful state-run cannabis business is an unconstitutional overreach on state sovereignty that has led to decades of harm, failed businesses, lost jobs, and unsafe working conditions.”
Alabama regulators are targeting Dec. 1 to award the first batch of medical cannabis business licenses after the agency’s first two attempts were scrapped because of scoring errors and litigation.
The first licenses will be awarded to individual cultivators, delivery providers, processors, dispensaries and state testing labs, according to the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission (AMCC).
Then, on Dec. 12, the AMCC will award licenses for vertically integrated operations, a designation set primarily for multistate operators.
Licenses are expected to be handed out 28 days after they have been awarded, so MMJ production could begin in early January, according to the Alabama Daily News.
That means MMJ products could be available for patients around early March, an AMCC spokesperson told the media outlet.
Regulators initially awarded 21 business licenses in June, only to void them after applicants alleged inconsistencies with how the applications were scored.
Then, in August, the state awarded 24 different licenses – 19 went to June recipients – only to reverse themselves again and scratch those licenses after spurned applicants filed lawsuits.
A state judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by Chicago-based MSO Verano Holdings Corp., but another lawsuit is pending.
Source: https://mjbizdaily.com/alabama-plans-to-award-medical-cannabis-licenses-dec-1/
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