Customers Get High Treatment at Royal's Cannabis

An interview with Royal's Cannabis Manager Perri Davenport about the recreational dispensary's regal design, customer perks and the ongoing (somewhat bumpy) road to riches.

Royal's Cannabis Manager Perri Davenport

Royal's Cannabis Manager Perri Davenport

When Royal's Cannabis opened its doors March 11 in Spokane, Wash., it rolled out the red carpet, so to speak. Its high-design—one that creates a joint experience of an art gallery, dispensary and elegant living room serving coffee and cookies—aims to make customers feel like guests, while they peruse the dispensary's range of sativas, indicas and hybrid strains, pre-rolls and edibles, as well as bowls handcrafted by Washington artists. The dispensary's motto, "Fit for a King," is prevalent everywhere from the dispensary's name to its logo, from to its decor to its website and its "Royalty Program" (for returning customers).

But, as for any kingdom (and any dispensary), the road to riches can be paved with some darn big rocks. And while not all dispensary owners will aim for a monarchal environment, at the heart of Royal's concept and strategy is an age-old truism: the customer is king.

Here, Royal's Cannabis Manager Perri Davenport talks with Cannabis Business Times Editor Noelle Skodzinski about the dispensary's design and overall concept, the hurdles the team had to jump getting up and running (including a real estate hunt that took much longer than expected), their ongoing challenges, how the "weed out" their product selection, and more.

Noelle Skodzinski, Editor, Cannabis Business Times

 Noelle Skodzinski: What were some of the biggest challenges

you faced during startup?

Royal's Cannabis Manager Perri Davenport

 Perri Davenport: This is such new territory. Washington State had many challenges in implementing the I-502 initiative,  as did the applicants. The application process was a bit of a paper tiger, and it still wasn’t a guarantee to receive a license. Many sleepless nights for the owner waiting to hear if he won the lottery. He applied for three (the limit) and got lucky with one!

Noelle Skodzinski, Editor, Cannabis Business Times NS: Did you encounter any challenges

with staffing?

Royal's Cannabis Manager Perri Davenport

 PD: We thought it was going to be difficult finding the caliber of people that we wanted for budtenders—we were wrong. We  had over 100 applicants, from every walk of life. We settled on the best five in the bunch and have been thrilled ever since with their dedication to the customer and the industry as a whole.

Noelle Skodzinski, Editor, Cannabis Business Times NS: Was there anything major for which you

were unprepared?

Royal's Cannabis Manager Perri Davenport

 PD: Finding a location was downright painful! The zoning left very limited areas to search, and most landlords would not  rent to us for a wide variety of reasons.  Mainly they were afraid of the Federal Government, who could, conceivably, swoop in and confiscate the property if there was known federally illegal activity, which this would have been.

This one thing put us a good seven months behind. It took almost five months to find a place that was properly zoned—and not a smelly, old dump of a place—that we could afford. Then we still had to do major remodeling. We had two landlords back out at the very last minute; I guess they got spooked. Other landlords were willing to rent, but at an exorbitant price.

[caption id="attachment_7135" align="alignright" width="226"]Royal's Cannabis' logo reflects its motto: Royal's Cannabis' logo reflects its motto: "Fit for a King."

Noelle Skodzinski, Editor, Cannabis Business Times NS: Can you share what type of investment was required to launch

Royal's Cannabis?

Royal's Cannabis Manager Perri Davenport PD: No, but we probably invested more in the tenant improvements than most. Again, we wanted to be “fit for a King,” and that meant a great décor. We also planned for an extensive menu that had something for everyone; that was an investment that has paid off.

Noelle Skodzinski, Editor, Cannabis Business Times NS: What are some of your biggest ongoing challenges?

Royal's Cannabis Manager Perri Davenport PD: Banking—or the lack thereof. Having to deal in cash at all times is very difficult. There  are major roadblocks in dealing with cash that I would never have thought. But most agencies understand the dilemma and are working to resolve the problems.  Congress needs to get together and resolve this in order for this industry to really thrive.

Taxation. This is going to change very soon. Switching from a multilevel excise tax to a higher-percent sales tax is going to be such a burden off of the growers, processors and retailers  The customer is going to benefit as well, since it is expected that prices will drop.

This transition into legitimacy is unprecedented. There is no road map, no model and much disagreement. Colorado’s implementation was very different from Washington’s, so many of the challenges and their solutions didn’t transfer to Washington.

There was, and still is, a "Wild West" feeling to the industry. Everything was new to everyone: attorneys, accountants, security companies and so on. All of the professionals that a business relies on didn’t know what was where, and the rumors were flying. One attorney would tell you something, another would say the opposite. The rules would change daily—at least it felt like it. We are still finding our feet with operational and regulatory issues; things are still evolving for the better to create a solid industry. It is just going to take time to get it all ironed out.

Noelle Skodzinski, Editor, Cannabis Business Times NS: What inspired the concept for Royal's Cannabis—the modern, art-gallery-reminiscent design, serving  coffee to customers, with a seating/lounge-style area and ‘fit for a king’ tagline? Did you use a designer or design the space yourself?

Royal's Cannabis Manager Perri Davenport PD: The owner’s mother (my sister and the assistant manager/buyer), Jane Marlow, came up with the concept of “fit for a  king,” and chose the artwork and overall look and feel of the place based on her son’s desire to be “a cut above.” The vision of a classy, comfortable, professional and welcoming setting with friendly, knowledgeable and informative budtenders was established from day one. Spokane loves its coffee, and it is just a nice welcoming gesture to let the customer know that we consider them more of a guest than a customer.

Noelle Skodzinski, Editor, Cannabis Business Times NS: Do you feel this impacts your business/

sales?

Royal's Cannabis Manager Perri Davenport PD: Well, I don’t think it inspires people to spend more, but we have gotten lots of good feedback that it is so nice coming in,  grabbing a cookie and something to drink while they think over their selection. I think that, combined with our quality product and fair pricing, keeps them coming back. There are also people who are not comfortable in the “old-school headshop” environment; they are more comfortable in a place like ours. One person did mention that it is nice coming here because they can pick up free munchies for later as well.

Noelle Skodzinski, Editor, Cannabis Business Times NS: On your website, it says you will host cannabis events on your patio. What type of events? What’s the  idea behind hosting these?

Royal's Cannabis Manager Perri Davenport PD: We want to promote artists who focus on cannabis-related products. There are many talented, local glass blowers and  other artists who use cannabis as the focus of their work. We want to support them as much as possible. Part of our mission is to educate the public about this plant, its many uses, and to promote responsible use. Our summer events will be focused in these areas.

Noelle Skodzinski, Editor, Cannabis Business Times NS: You seem to be very selective about where you buy your product. What is most important to you in  selecting growers? How do you find new cultivators from which to buy?

Royal's Cannabis Manager Perri Davenport PD: Trust is very important to us. Part of that "Wild West" feeling I mentioned earlier are the rumors being spread about  who is cheating the THC tests and how, etc. While I have come to believe most of that is trash talk, there are shady people in every industry, and we are very careful.

We have a “weeding out” or “screening committee” of about seven people that look the samples over, decides which ones are worth trying, then they fill out a review form for the products that they are assigned. The buyer then purchases the favored products. We also solicit feedback from repeat customers on the products they purchase.

Noelle Skodzinski, Editor, Cannabis Business Times NS: Is it important that your staff is well-educated about

the product?

Royal's Cannabis Manager Perri Davenport PD: Yes! It is very important. A major part of our screening process was picking out the people who truly knew their weed!  We have little training sessions, and share the latest news with the staff, or they with us. There is so much to know, and there is so much misinformation out there, it’s hard to get to the facts, but we give it our best.

Noelle Skodzinski, Editor, Cannabis Business Times NS: Do you sell any edibles? If so, what percentage of your sales

do they comprise?

Royal's Cannabis Manager Perri Davenport PD: Yes, we do have a nice selection of edibles. They are a little over 10 percent of sales right now. We are still figuring out  what people like and why.

Noelle Skodzinski, Editor, Cannabis Business Times NS: You sell a number of ancillary items, such as pipes from

local artisans.

Royal's Cannabis Manager Perri Davenport PD: We buy mostly from local or at least Washington-based

glass artists.

Noelle Skodzinski, Editor, Cannabis Business Times NS: Is it important that everything you sell fits in with your

overall vision for RC?

Royal's Cannabis Manager Perri Davenport PD: Yes. We would rather not carry an item than carry a cheap version of it. Our customers deserve the best.

The customer is King!

Noelle Skodzinski, Editor, Cannabis Business Times NS: Do you do any customer loyalty programs (or maintain any type of customer database for marketing)?

Royal's Cannabis Manager Perri Davenport PD: We have our “Royalty Program." It is a punch card that gives the customer 15-percent off once they fill the card. Our  Facebook page is growing (like a weed, you might say), we can hardly keep up! It is our intent to have a database or email list, but people seem reluctant to join so formally, so for now we are cultivating Facebook to communicate with customers.

Noelle Skodzinski, Editor, Cannabis Business Times NS: Can you share any revenue figures? If not, can you say whether your revenue has increased?

Royal's Cannabis Manager Perri Davenport PD: We have only been open for around 13 weeks … but we are comfortable with the growth and are looking to bring all of  our budtenders into full-time status, and hire a few others.

Noelle Skodzinski, Editor, Cannabis Business Times NS: Anything new or soon to come for you or

Royal's Cannabis?

Royal's Cannabis Manager Perri Davenport PD: There are several bills before the state legislature that are going to allow Medical and Recreational to merge, or at least  work together, hopefully. We have begun looking into this and hope to make the medical side of cannabis part of our product mix. It is so important that medical marijuana be regulated and monitored like recreational. Medical patients are the most vulnerable to poor product quality and need to be protected, so that their medicine can have the best effect. We have medical customers that come here to purchase instead of a medical dispensary. They like the fact that our product has been monitored and tested from seed to sale, so the quality is there.

Noelle Skodzinski, Editor, Cannabis Business Times NS: Can you offer any advice to others looking to open a recreational

marijuana dispensary?

Royal's Cannabis Manager Perri Davenport PD: Be clear about your vision, and stay on track.

Learn to live with ambiguity; the states are still trying to figure this all out.

Learn about retail. You are not just selling pot, you are running a business.