
This article originally appeared in the April 2018 issue of Cannabis Dispensary. To subscribe, click here.
Sonny Langdon was broke.
He had coughed up nearly his entire life savings to open a dispensary in Millwood, Wash. And while owning a business had always been Langdon’s dream, he wondered if he had made a mistake as he sat inside his empty shop.
It was Sept. 20, 2014, the grand opening of his dispensary, Green Light, and business was slow. There were no lines out the door, no news cameras, no giant ribbon-cutting scissors.
“I spent so much money on building it out and on product and all these things that … we couldn’t do any advertising. … So, we basically just opened the doors,” and rolled the dice, Langdon says.
Then it happened. A man named Jeff cautiously opened the door and popped his head in, almost as if to ensure a DEA team wasn’t waiting to pounce. “Do you guys sell weed?” Langdon looked up. His mouth curled into a smile. “Yeah,
Jeff returned to the store frequently (he would later become an employee), and the staff nicknamed him “Number One.” Every time he came in, according to Langdon, the staff shouted, “Hey, it’s Number One!”
“That’s really kind of how our dispensary feel is,” Langdon says. “We have so many regulars, we’re almost like counselors for happy people. They know us; we know them. It’s kind of cool.”
Green Light prides itself on these types of positive customer interactions, which have helped make the 1,000-square-foot dispensary No. 1 in sales in Spokane County since 2014, according to 502data.com.
Such a feat might seem difficult in Washington’s competitive market, but for Langdon, the formula is simple: provide great customer service, have tenured, knowledgeable budtenders and offer a wide selection of products at fair prices. “We put the customer first. Also, the budtenders are top notch. … We have
Indeed, that knowledge is crucial considering that Green Light works with roughly 30 vendors; has 60 strains of flower, 100 different edibles and 100 different concentrates on its menu; and serves anywhere from 500 to 1,000 customers daily, according to Langdon. While most customers are locals because, as Langdon says, “We don't really have a lot of tourism in Spokane …,” the shop still sees its share of out-of-towners. “We're only about 30 miles from the Idaho border and then we have a lot of Montana people,” Langdon says. “… If you live in [Western/Southern] Montana, Spokane is the biggest, nearest city to it.”
The days of an empty sales floor are well behind Green Light now; however, there was a period when the city issued Green Light the red light, and Langdon wasn’t sure if he would be able to open. That led to one of the most important meetings of his life.
To read the full article in Cannabis Dispensary's February 2018 issue, click here.
Top photo by Mike Franklin