o Legal marijuana sales begin in Vancouver: Store opening draws hundreds to Uptown Village store
o Cannabis Chronicles blog post: New Vansterdam’s stock list for Friday
And then there were two.
The shelves are stocked, product bagged and staff is ready to roll at New Vansterdam, Vancouver’s second recreational marijuana store.
The shop at 6515 E. Mill Plain Blvd. will hold its grand opening at 8 a.m. today. Hours will be from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. through the weekend and into next week, but could change after the opening rush settles down, said Brian Budz, one of the owners.
Despite shortages around the state, New Vansterdam doesn’t expect to run out of stock anytime soon, he said.
“Stock is good,” Budz said. “It’s still coming in due to the issues everyone around the state is having, but we should have just under 30 pounds at the opening. We are way above where we wanted to be to get through the weekend.”
Prices will be about $20 a gram, and the store plans to sell 2-gram and 3.5-gram bags of buds through the weekend. So far, the store has 15 different marijuana strains from four growers: CannaMan Farms in Vancouver, Monkey Grass Farms in Wenatchee, Peninsula Cannabis in Port Angeles and Nine Point Growth Industries in Bremerton.
Edible products and other items are not yet available because the state is still wrangling with how to handle dosages and labeling.
Budz said he’s not sure what the opening day scene will look like, but if there are long lines, the store will have portable toilets and water available for customers.
“We’ll see what happens,” Budz said.
Budz didn’t have much time to watch the city’s first marijuana store opening on Wednesday, but he said he wishes those at Main Street Marijuana the best of luck.
“I respect the heck out of how they do their business,” Budz said. “We have a little different approach, but neither is wrong. We hope they do very well.”
Main Street Marijuana, 2314 Main St., opened Wednesday in uptown Vancouver with a street fair and large media presence. New Vansterdam has taken a more low-key approach, Budz explained.
Main Street Marijuana was able to stay open from 11 a.m. until 7 p.m. on opening day Wednesday. It had less supply to start with and will ration the rest to customers in allotments of about 150 marijuana products per day — at least until the next shipment comes in, said Manager Ramsey Hamide.
“Every morning at 11 a.m., we’ll have product, and if we sell out, we plan to stay open until 7 p.m. each day so people can still buy paraphernalia,” Hamide said.
Between 1,200 and 1,300 customers came through the door on opening day. About 900 of them bought marijuana and about 75 just bought items such as bongs and pipes. At the end of the day, the store had 466 marijuana products left.
About 100 people lined the street on Thursday morning waiting for Main Street Marijuana to open at 11 a.m.
The store expects another shipment sometime on Saturday and yet another on Monday.
“We’ll be fully restocked again on Monday,” Hamide said. “We’ll have 15 pounds then.”
Hamide said opening day for the store was a huge success, and he hopes New Vansterdam sees similar success at its opening Friday.
“New Vansterdam’s going to kill it this weekend we hope,” Hamide said. “From everything we know, they’re a well-oiled machine. I think with this industry starting off, we’re all trying to be supportive of each other. I think they’re going to knock it out of the park. We wish them the best.”
