‘Phones are ringing off the hook’: MO weed sales met with enthusiasm at KC dispensaries
When you walk into Local Cannabis Company at 45th Street and Belleview Avenue in the West Plaza neighborhood of Kansas City, you will likely hear the phones ringing.
There was a steady stream of customers coming into the local dispensary Friday morning, many who were coming for the first time to purchase recreational weed now that at least 207 dispensaries across Missouri have received their licenses to start selling bud to anyone 21 years old and over.
“Phones are ringing off the hook,” Local Cannabis Company Partner Lee Hoffman said. “They’ve never rang like this before.”
Within the first hour of opening, the dispensary was starting to fill up with about 10 people in the showroom and another three in the waiting room.
“I came as soon as I heard it on the news,” one customer, who asked not to be named, said as she handed the host her ID.
Fresh Green dispensary on Wornall Road in Waldo has been packed all day. The dispensary served nearly 240 customers before 1:30 p.m. — that’s more than twice the amount of customers they see in an average day. Staff plan to keep the sales going until 10 p.m. tonight.
The average wait for customers a Fresh Green on Friday afternoon was 30 to 40 minutes. Customers who spoke to The Star said it was worth the wait.
“For the first day it wasn’t so bad. It was like a 30 minute wait,” Everett Carson said after picking up some gummies and a vape cartridge. “I had no idea this was happening. I just drove down here and googled dispensaries and someone told me it was opening day…I’m excited to see how this affects Missouri and I’m glad to see the weed game coming up.”
Dispensary owners were just as surprised as customers about the start to recreational sales.
Most dispensaries and customers were prepared for recreational sales to start Monday, Feb. 6. On Thursday night, the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services announced that it was set to approve licenses three days earlier than expected.
Fresh Green and Local Cannabis Company both got their license to sell recreational marijuana around 6:30 a.m. on Friday morning.
“I’m feeling great, I just wasn’t expecting to be open today. We did expect to be super busy on Monday,” said Fresh Green co-owner Bianca Sullivan.
What to expect walking in to a dispensary
The process at Local Cannabis Company is simple, and similar to some other dispensaries around Kansas City: Customers show their ID at the door. Once they are checked in by the host, there is a waiting room, and then customers are called into the showroom one by one where they can shop around, ask questions and pick out the product they like.
The process looks the same at Fresh Green, where there were at least 30 people waiting in the holding room waiting to get called back by one of the trained budtenders.
In the last few weeks, Hoffman said that his dispensary doubled its offerings from 105 products to 220 products. Within the last week, his team also hired 10 additional employees. The team is still growing too. Local Cannabis Company is hiring both budtenders and people to help tend to marijuana plants at its cultivation facility in Smithville.
Fresh Green hired two additional people Thursday night and plans to keep hiring as needed as well.
So far, the average customer at Local Cannabis Company is buying around $106 in product, which is equivalent to 7 to 10 grams of flower. Customers at Fresh Green are also stocking up on products.
At least two people who stopped by Fresh Green on Friday picked up their entire legal limit, which is 3 ounces of marijuana flower or a product equivalent.
Fresh Green budtender Caleb Verner said most of the customers he’s seen have come in buying in bulk because they are concerned that local dispensaries will run out of supply.
“They’re buying in bulk for the simple fact that they’re thinking if they don’t buy a lot there won’t be none tomorrow if they try to come tomorrow,” Verner said, adding that supply is not an issue at Fresh Green.
“They’ve been ready for this for a couple months,” he said.
Verner said that other than that, most customers want to learn more about the prices.
Most of the flower products at Local Cannabis Company start around $35 to $40 for an eighth or 3.5 grams of marijuana.
The prices at Fresh Green are the same. Flower starts at about $35 for an eighth. Other products like gummies can be cheaper than that though.
The surprise of early sales
Hoffman was prepared to start recreational sales on Monday, Feb. 6 but quickly pivoted Thursday night after he found out that the state Department of Health and Senior Services was set to approve licenses three days earlier than expected.
“We called all our employees in and we had to redo the whole schedule,” Hoffman said, adding that he even had to do an emergency training session with his employees Thursday night to make sure they were prepared to start on Friday.
Although the start date changed, Hoffman and his team at Local Cannabis were ready.
Sullivan said that her employees all expected to have the weekend off but were quick to jump in when they found out Fresh Green’s license was approved Friday morning.
Local Cannabis Company is also planning a larger celebration for Monday, Feb. 6, when they originally expected to start selling to adult users that will include a DJ, food trucks and giveaways for customers.
There will be giveaways all week long from Monday, Feb. 6 until Sunday Feb. 12. The prizes include anything from bongs to a Play Station 5.
Marijuana info sessions and jobs
Customers who are worried that they don’t understand marijuana products or who want to learn more are welcome to call ahead and set up an appointment where they can have a one-on-one session and discuss what they would like out of a product, according to Hoffman.
Those who are interested in working at Fresh Green, can visit the dispensary’s website or shoot an email to bianca@freshgreen.com to learn more.
If you are interested in working with Local Cannabis Company, applicants come stop by any location and ask for an application. Both budtender and cultivation roles start at $16 an hour and there is no experience needed.
“We’ll train you up,” Hoffman said.
This story was originally published February 3, 2023 at 3:54 PM.
