Cranbrook’s first retail cannabis store officially opened its doors on Wednesday, a government-operated BC Cannabis Store.
For the first time, residents can now enter a storefront location and purchase cannabis for their own consumption.
Cranbrook is the third BC Cannabis Store in all of British Columbia, joining two existing locations in Kamloops and a new retail location in Campbell River, which also opened its doors on Wednesday.
“We’re excited for our efforts rolling out throughout the province, definitely looking forward to doing business within Cranbrook and happy to be here,” Jamie Martin told MyEastKootenayNow.com, BC Cannabis Regional Manager.
Located at #102 425 Victoria Avenue South, right next door to Panago and nearby Save-On-Foods, the store officially opened as of 10:00 am. The store will maintain operating hours of 10:00 am to 7:00 pm Monday to Thursday, 10:00 am to 9:00 pm on Friday and Saturday, and 11:00 am to 6:00 pm on Sunday.
“The store has about 17 cannabis consultants that will be interacting with customers on a one-on-one basis, so it’s very customer-facing,” explained Martin. “We have 90 strains, so about 20 to 30 on each table. Selection is made through purchase and then obviously we try to keep as much selection onto the tables for offerings for our customers.”
Martin said each of their staff has extensive training in order to be educated about their offerings to customers that do enter the store, having to be 19-years or older to even gain entry to the retail location.
“Our consultants do go through a pretty rigorous training program – our management as well,” said Martin. “They will be learning products throughout the process but the initial state of training gives them quite a lot of information to set them up for success within their role.”
Although cannabis is the primary focus of the BC Cannabis Store, Martin said they also have a wide variety of other related products and accessories.
“What we do offer is the dried flower or herb, we do have oils and capsules, we do have seeds on site – a small section of seeds. We do offer a large variety of accessories so right from vapes to bongs to small one-hitters, we have grinders, rolling papers, quite a few different items.”
The B.C. Government plans to open 15 total BC Cannabis Stores by the end of 2019, Cranbrook being the third store to open its doors to the public.
Background: BC Cannabis Store Opening in Cranbrook (July 26, 2019)
