Dazed Cannabis Continues Retail Expansion, Turns Iconic Strip Club Into Dispensary

As the first adult-use cannabis market on the East Coast, Massachusetts quickly grabbed the attention of Rhode Island natives Rich Rainone and Chris Vianello, as well as their partner, Harlem, N.Y. native Keshawn Warner.

The trio went on to found Dazed Cannabis, a Black- and veteran-owned company that opened its first dispensary in August 2021 in Holyoke, Mass.

After a successful launch in the Bay State, the Dazed team secured a retail license in New York and opened a pop-up location in April 2023 before relocating to a permanent location in Union Square, New York City, in November.

For its third and most recent retail launch, Dazed turned its attention back to Massachusetts and opened a storefront Jan. 16 in Monson, about 10 miles east of Springfield.

The company has brought its signature pink décor and disco balls to the newest store, which replaced the Magic Lantern strip club, which shut down in 2022.

Photos courtesy of Dazed Cannabis

“The way this worked out in Massachusetts is that there was a strip club, the Magic Lantern—that establishment has been around since the sixties, and I think at the time it was an iconic place in Western Massachusetts,” Rainone tells Cannabis Business Times. “But … everyone kind of had enough of the things that were going on, … so the town was thrilled to hear that we would potentially take that location over and change it from a strip club to a dispensary. That's kind of how the talks began.”

The local community has continued to support the dispensary since it opened Tuesday.

“Every day's been a little bit better than the last, so things are going well,” Rainone says, adding that the Monson dispensary was recently featured on the local news, sparking a new surge of interest and customer traffic.

Rainone says Dazed has “a good grasp” on its product selection at this point, and the Monson store offers a wide variety of products, including flower, prerolls and edibles.

Massachusetts is a more mature adult-use market and regulations allow for indoor cultivation, whereas New York’s newer adult-use industry has been limited to outdoor- and greenhouse-grown cannabis. As such, Rainone says the products in Massachusetts are “a little bit more colorful” when compared to New York, which still has room for innovation.

Still, he says the retail stores in New York tend to outshine those in Massachusetts as New York dispensaries try to make more of a splash in the nascent market.

Committed to the Community

While he acknowledges that every market, every city and every store is different—and offers new lessons to learn—Rainone says one thing must remain consistent no matter the location: a commitment to the local community.

Dazed has reinvested into the Holyoke and Springfield areas, in particular, through holiday charity drives, donations to local organizations and podcast sponsorships. The company has also sponsored Holyoke-based boxer Denzel Whitley.

“Now we're going to attempt to do the same thing in the Monson area and get involved in this community,” Rainone says.

Dazed launched its second dispensary last year in Union Square, New York City.

The company plans to host a grand opening celebration in early March to allow time for the Monson dispensary to first find its place in the community.

“That's going to allow us to really get seated into the community, understand what this community needs, find out who the influencers are in this community and who we can help in the local area,” Rainone says. “For us, being a part of the community is the most important thing.”

Dazed hires locally for positions at its dispensaries and allows the budtenders to create the culture of each store.

“It's like a local establishment, like the local restaurant,” Rainone says. “You get those repeat customers and get to know everybody.”

The grand opening in Monson will be “a big party,” he says, including appearances from influencers, celebrities and town leaders.

The First 90 Days

All cannabis businesses have their share of growing pains during a new launch, and Rainone points to the first 90 days of a store’s operations as the most turbulent as the team finds its footing.

“The first 30 days for us is to get our employees established, get their routines down, [get] the operating procedures down, things of that nature,” he says. “And then the next 30 days is when we try to fix the first 30 days’ challenges, … whatever they might be, and work on consistency, overall attention to detail, those types of things.”

The final 30 days of the initial 90-day period is when the Dazed team really tries to excel in the new location; managers are conducting business largely on their own, making their own decisions and assessing how everyone works together.

“Each store, we spend 60 days of micromanaging, if you will, and then 30 days of macro-managing,” Rainone says. “And then we always try to take a step back and let our managers do their thing because that's what makes each store unique: the employees.”

Each dispensary is meant to reflect its local community, but Rainone says it is critical for each store’s team to follow basic protocol and procedures to help create a consistent customer experience.

Rainone respects Starbucks’ business model, which ensures a consistent experience at each location with friendly, professional and respectful staff.

“You're going to get the same cup of coffee through and through at every Starbucks,” he says. “We model ourselves after that Starbucks franchise, and that's kind of what we're trying to do.”

‘A Vibrant Bunch’

Dazed has tried to differentiate itself in Massachusetts and New York through its unique retail experience, which Rainone describes as a party.

“We're definitely a vibrant bunch,” he says. “We're a fun party brand. When you come to our stores, you have music playing, the budtenders are greeting you, ‘Welcome to Dazed.’ We have a meet and greet when you first walk in versus security. We softened it up when you first walk in, [so it’s] a friendlier face. I think when you come in here and you hear the music playing and you check out the vibe … and the friendliness of our staff, … people walk in and they're taking pictures and doing selfies and they're sitting on our pink couch and they're posting things. And I don't think you see that a lot at a lot of other stores.”

The interior of Dazed's newest dispensary in Monson, Mass.

Dazed kept the Magic Lantern’s center stage as décor for its Monson store, an attraction that has so far received a lot of attention.

“Who else has a stripper pole in their dispensary?” Rainone asks. “What separates us is letting our guard down a little bit and just having fun. Cannabis is supposed to be fun. … That's the theme we went with.”

The Dazed team hopes to extend this theme to three or four more stores by the end of the year, a goal that Rainone says can be accomplished with the help of the company’s very talented and capable management team.

“As a growing company, … we've always promoted from within,” he says. “Our success is their success, and we always treat our employees like partners. We never tell them to do something without explaining why we're doing that from a business perspective. So, I think that they see that, and they respond really well to that, and they're excited for our growth, as well.”