Andrea Dobbs wasn’t much of a cannabis consumer until her late 40s, when she started experiencing symptoms of perimenopause like depression, sleep issues, and loss of libido. Before legalization, the Vancouverite visited a dispensary to try cannabis edibles. She remembers those early experiences to be lacking: Stores were poorly lit. There were unsealed jars of cannabis, filled with products with what she laughingly calls “a robust terpene experience” — and the almost always male staff didn’t know much about how she might use cannabis to ease her symptoms.

“At that time, people didn’t invest in their spaces because they didn’t feel they were long-term,” she says. Since learning about cannabis as an overall health aid herself, she opened Village Bloomery with her partner in life and business Jeremy Jacob. In January, they completed the store’s transition to the regulated, legal market in January. She makes it a point to be open with other women about health issues like the ones she experienced, and spends time helping educate customers on what cannabis might be able to do for them.

Dobbs is a rarity in Canada’s cannabis retail scene. Not many women operate weed stores, and the industry as a whole is similarly dominated by men. As the publicly traded cannabis companies emerged and grew, there was a rush of investment from individuals already successful in business, tech and finance, and a male-dominated industry emerged. The result, Dobbs says, has been a deluge of stores conceived and designed like technology stores, where shoppers navigate products on iPads and products are tucked away behind closed stores. Several describe themselves in marketing and PR as being like “the Apple Store — but for weed.”

“The whole Apple thing comes from people who don’t like cannabis,” she says. But she can also relate: Before she knew very much about it, she was drawn to prettily packaged tinctures, creams and chocolates. With time, she learned about the different types of cannabis flower and just how many different products consumers have to choose from. And while the Apple concept keeps cannabis at arm’s length, she’s trying to create the opposite energy at Village Bloomery.

“I fell in love with [cannabis flowers], and I feel terrible about the way they are being treated,” she says. “I hate to see them in plastic tubs, I hate to see them dried out beyond recognition, and I don’t like seeing them branded in a way that removes them from their personalities.”

Superette’s down home approachability

Dobbs isn’t the only woman bucking the Apple Store trend. When Superette’s CEO Mimi Lam decided to open a cannabis company, she did her research first. It was September 2018, a month before legalization, and she and co-founder Drummond Munro wanted to make sure they were addressing a gap in the marketplace. They looked closely at what other cannabis businesses were planning, and while others were excelling in areas like cultivation and processing, they saw room for improvement in the retail experience. 

“A lot of companies were rushing into the space, with the intent of getting as many stores as possible open, and saying, ‘We’re luxury and premium, so let’s put iPads everywhere, put some wood up, and call it a day,’” Lam says. “And then there were also a lot of head shops still around, and a lot of concepts that were not as accessible to new consumers. We wanted to bring traditional retail fundamentals into cannabis retail.”

For Lam, that decision has a lot to do with human interaction and customer service.

“One of the biggest decisions we made from the get-go was to not have technology be the interface for customers,” Lam says. A screen, she says, isn’t the best way for many people to learn about which product will suit their needs — different products have drastically different effects, and some customers have a lot of questions. “We wanted to empower customers. We wanted to let people talk to someone if they wanted to, but also to give someone space if they didn’t want to talk.” 

Ottawa’s Superette won Top Retail Store at the Canadian Cannabis Awards. Photo: Superette

The result is a lo-fi approach. Friendly staff greet customers instead of screens. Shopping baskets are colour-coded: green means you want to chat, red means you’d like to be left alone. The space is sunny and peppered with kitschy art, and paper menus highlight specials, or which products are organic. She wants her shops to be like the corner store where the employees know your name and order and have a little bit of intel on the neighbourhood. Superette also went with more traditional merchandising: Instead of locking everything away behind glass cases, which can feel inaccessible, accessories are out where they can be touched and examined more closely. There’s no reason, Lam says, to treat legal accessories as contraband, or as prohibitively expensive. With a second Ottawa location and two Toronto locations soon to open, Lam’s plan seems to be working. 

“The stigma toward cannabis has improved dramatically over the years, but there’s still a lot of fear. We wanted to take that friendly approach and just be like your other corner store that’s part of your daily routine.”

Inspired by nature

Toronto’s Canvas was designed with a similar philosophy. After a 30-year career in the non-profit sector, owner Helene Vassos won a licence in Ontario’s former lottery system. After visiting cannabis shops abroad, and she knew she wanted to do it a little differently. In some shops in Las Vegas, for example, one has to navigate through several lengthy dark hallways before actually entering the shop itself. That was the opposite of what Vassos wanted to cultivate in her sunny, plant-filled space.

“I have had the experience of walking into other cannabis stores and feeling that it was very gray and blah, with no charisma, no character,” she says. “I don’t feel that a cannabis retail store needs to be a place where you walk into it really fast, and exit really fast.”

“I wanted it to feel welcoming. You needed to walk in and say, ‘Ahh, I didn’t expect this,’” says Canvas owner Helene Vassos. Photo: Facebook

Many clients need time to figure out the best products for them, and Vassos says she designed Canvas accordingly. She says most of her customers are between their late 30s and their 80s, and that it’s common to see groups of women in their 70s and 80s come in together asking about CBD or low-THC products. For many of them, it’s their first time trying cannabis products, and so it’s important to Vassos that they don’t feel rushed, and that her employees can be available to take time with each customer.

“I wanted it to feel welcoming. You needed to walk in and say, ‘Ahh, I didn’t expect this.’”