National media and large crowds gathered at the first cluster of pot shops to open in the state of Washington on Tuesday, but Vancouver remained quiet.
The city’s licensed recreational shop owners and marijuana grower found it hard to pay attention to the noise as they prepared for their own openings and first shipments this week.
Clark County’s first marijuana store, Main Street Marijuana, will hold its grand opening today at 11 a.m. at 2314 Main St.
“We are very busy setting up shop,” Chris Stipe, a manager at the store, said Tuesday. “We’re doing employee training, learning how to use the computer system. We’re just scrambling.”
Managers and employees of the store also spent Tuesday stocking shelves, finishing up painting, decorating and waiting for the first marijuana shipment to arrive. That didn’t leave much time for watching the world outside of their doors.
And, although it had been announced several times that the store would open today, many eager customers came to the door Tuesday to see if sales had begun, Stipe said.
“I’m not sure why but we’ve had literally hundreds of people come by thinking we’re open,” he said Tuesday afternoon.
At a grand opening at 8 a.m. Friday, New Vansterdam, 6515 E. Mill Plain Blvd., will become Vancouver’s second recreational marijuana store.
Employees and managers there have also been working like mad to get things ready, said Brian Budz, one of New Vansterdam’s owners.
“We really just haven’t had time to pay attention to anything because we’re so busy just keeping our heads above water,” Budz said. “We haven’t had time to watch anything (going on outside of the city).”
Budz laughed at the irony when he was told that a Kansas man was the first person to buy legal marijuana in Washington.
Cale Holdsworth made that purchase at Top Shelf Cannabis in Bellingham at 8 a.m. Tuesday.
“That’s absolutely classic,” Budz said.
Stipe said he thought the purchase by a Kansan was a good sign for the state’s new marijuana industry and economy.
“That’s awesome,” Stipe said. “It’s going to be people from out of state, out of the country, bringing money into our local economy. We’ll get affluent travelers from all over spending money at our businesses, hotels, eateries.”
Main Street Marijuana has secured 7.5 pounds of marijuana and several hundred prerolled joints for sale when it opens today. The store expects to sell 672 2-gram packages and 399 4-gram packages of marijuana buds and 90 packages of five prerolled 1-gram joints.
After tax, the 2-gram packages will sell for $50, the 4-gram packages will sell for $100 and the 5-gram packages of prerolled joints will sell for $60, he said. The joints are cheaper, because they are rolled from trimmings and leaves rather than buds, said Ramsey Hamide, a manager.
New Vansterdam anticipates it will have about 30 pounds of product from various growers available to sell when it opens its doors Friday, Budz said.
That includes a few pounds of the first small batch harvested by Vancouver’s CannaMan Farms.
“I have about five pounds total, with two in the making,” Stroh said of his opening week supply. “And next week I should have another six pounds or so. By August, I hope to be averaging about 30 pounds a month.”
CannaMan Farms’ Brian Stroh, who’s a small Tier 1 grower, could have had more available this week but there are only two testing labs so far approved by the state and there have been delays and backlogs, he said.
“I have product I could put on shelves today but I can’t because (the process is so slow),” Stroh said. “I think the state dropped the ball on licensing labs.”
Testing takes about five days once a sample is received, and product can’t be packaged until the results are back, he said.
“Part of the problem is without the information for the labels, I can’t put the product into the bags because they have to lay flat when I put them on,” Stroh said.
Stroh said he also didn’t have any time to pay attention to Tuesday’s first-day-of-sales festivities across the state.
“I have not even looked,” he said.
