o New Vansterdam, 6515 E. Mill Plain Blvd., http://newvansterdam.com, 360-597-4739.
o Main Street Marijuana, 2314 Main St., www.facebook.com/pages/Main-Street-Marijuana/260064520854852, 360-828-7737.
About the only consistent thing throughout the first week of marijuana sales in Vancouver was that nothing remained consistent.
Main Street Marijuana, 2314 Main St., and New Vansterdam, 6515 E. Mill Plain Blvd., were both overwhelmed by the amount of customers wanting to purchase marijuana legally in Washington.
Main Street Marijuana temporarily sold out on July 11 after opening with a street fair and ribbon cutting on July 9. New Vansterdam completely sold out of product on Sunday night after a calmer opening on July 11.
“We never had one down second,” said Brian Budz of New Vansterdam. “From the minute we opened the door, it was nonstop. It was just beyond our expectations.”
Main Street Marijuana also had a hard time keeping product in stock, selling about 8.5 pounds of product rationed to customers over three days, said Ramsey Hamide, a manager. He declined to share revenue figures.
“A busy store in the Washington state system right now could probably sell 20 pounds a day if there were no weight restrictions,” Hamide said. “We could have sold everything we had in half a day if we didn’t limit purchase amounts.”
Main Street Marijuana adjusted its hours a few times over the week. Hours will generally be 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., but that could change, he said.
The store restocked Monday and should have about 10 pounds worth of marijuana packages ready for sale when it opens at 11 a.m. today, Hamide said.
The store should receive another 10 pounds on Wednesday or Thursday, and expects a 15-pound shipment in the next two weeks.
“I’m going to spend this week on the road, shaking hands with growers, looking people in the eyes and trying to build up relationships so we can secure more products for our customers,” Hamide said. “We’re also going to try to knock prices down by about $5 a gram from what they were when we opened. We just want to show people that the prices are coming down.”
The store expects to sell packages for $20 and $25 a gram, depending on the product, he said.
Demand surprises
At New Vansterdam, Budz said he was truly taken aback by the demand. The store had planned out a steady supply that owners thought would keep the doors open through the week.
“We’ve learned one thing — you don’t know until it’s checked into the store how much stock you’ll actually have,” Budz said.
The store expects several shipments this week, he said.
New Vansterdam will reopen to the public at 11 a.m. Friday and will probably stay open from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. each day through the weekend, as long as supplies hold, he said.
Some of the shipments the store got for opening weekend were less than expected, Budz added.
“It’s a tough situation for the producers,” Budz said. “We’re grateful for everything we got. We aren’t mad at anybody, we’re just really happy with the way things are moving forward.”
The store could easily sell several times the amount it had for opening weekend, Budz said.
“We had a system we thought would never sell out,” Budz said. “We were very wrong. We thought we’d make it to Friday (July 18) and we just made it to Sunday (July 13).”
He refused to say how much money the store made on opening weekend other than to say it was very successful.
With two stores, Vancouver is faring better than some other parts of the state. Between Main Street Marijuana and New Vansterdam, customers have been able to buy product on every day of legal sales since they opened except Monday.
“It’s kind of cool, when we were shut down, (New Vansterdam) had product; now ,when they’ve shut down, we have product,” Hamide said. “It almost looks like we planned it. It’s good with the irregularities in the market so far that there are two stores here in Vancouver.”
Main Street Marijuana will have three strains from Farmer J’s for today’s opening: Famous J’s, Sour Kush and Blue Dream, Hamide said.
