As we close another great year of cannabis features and b2b journalism at Cannabis Dispensary, we wanted to take a look back at some of our favorite stories this year. Earlier this week, we ran the top-10 most read stories, according to pure web traffic and audience engagement. Now, the editors of CD reflect on what they liked best this year.
Ashley Anderson
Hip-Hop Homage—Great Ideas, September/October 2018
This is one of our favorite dispensary concepts that we’ve come across: An adult-use cannabis store that seeks to educate customers on the shared history of hip-hop and cannabis. More often than not, that type of pairing spells trouble in the mind of many (especially prohibitionists), so to see a company try to flip the script and use shared history as a tool is yet another example of how the cannabis industry is determined to make a lasting difference in the world.
Mike Franklin
Getting The Green Light—Cover Story, March/April 2018
In our third issue of CD, senior editor Scott Guthrie reported on the trials and tribulations of Sonny Langdon, who opened Green Light in Millwood, Wash., at considerable expense. After misinterpreting the state’s cannabis rules and spending nearly his entire life savings to open his business, Langdon’s work was only just beginning. As he built Green Light into a community gathering spot, he kept his focus on his customers’ needs and his employees’ development. “I try to keep it a true open-door policy where they give me input. … Because they deal with the customer every day, they know more than I do about what each customer that comes in wants,” he said.
The Vexing Issue of Vape Recycling—Feature, September/October 2018
In a recent feature, we went deep on a common problem that many dispensary owners and their customers face: What do you do with empty cartridges and disposable vape pens? For an industry saddled with the demands of environmentally sustainable business practices, what’s the plan here? It turns out, the issue is complicated and the regulatory conversation is slow to get off the ground. This is an example of one of those issues that we’ll continue to follow in our digital reporting on the cannabis industry.
Bradley Lanphear
Gold-Medal Marketing—Cover Story, July/August 2018
We often report on the importance of good, meaningful branding in a business strategy. In the case of Oregrown, co-owners Chrissy and Aviv Hadar used athlete sponsorships to distinguish their company from the increasingly crowded marketplace. This combination of engaging customer service and outdoorsy athleticism has been working for Oregrown. “We were seeing people coming into our store after a long day on the mountain, or after suffering a mountain biking injury, looking for alternative treatments for pain or athletic recovery,” Chrissy told us. “So, we put our brains together, and we realized there was something there.”
Photo courtesy of Origins Cannabis
Perspectives of the Pacific Northwest—Guest Interview, January/February 2018
For our first issue of 2018, CD gathered Origins Cannabis Product Curator Jon Sherman talks with Jayne Store Manager Briana Burke and Owner Robb Arnold for a guest interview that covered the differences and similarities between Oregon’s and Washington’s cannabis markets—as well as their reactions to the big news that kicked off the year (remember the Cole Memo repeal?). These two state markets have set many examples for the cannabis reform legislation that has followed elsewhere in the U.S. As business in both Oregon and Washington continue to help mold the market with their state regulators, more lessons on how to succeed in a competitive landscape will emerge. This interview is a great starting point.
