Investor Ideas #Potcasts, #Cannabis News and #Stocks on the Move; Episode 426 - Interview with Chris Gayford, Owner/Operator of Mary Jane’s Headquarters and Cheeba Cheebas Premium Cannabis
Delta, Kelowna, BC, June 10, 2020 (Investorideas.com Newswire) www.Investorideas.com, a global news source covering leading sectors including marijuana and hemp stocks and its potcast site, www.potcasts.ca release today’s podcast edition of cannabis news and stocks to watch plus insight from thought leaders and experts.
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Today’s podcast overview/transcript:
Good afternoon and welcome to another episode of Investorideas.com "Potcast" featuring cannabis news, stocks to watch as well as insights from thought leaders and experts.
In today’s podcast Investorideas interviews Chris Gayford, the Owner/Operator of Mary Jane’s Headquarters, a cannabis accessories store with two locations, one in Kelowna and one in West Kelowna and Cheeba Cheebas Premium Cannabis, a cannabis dispensary with two locations, one in West Kelowna and one in Kelowna. In this interview we discuss the many hurdles to getting a dispensary license in B.C. as well as industry trends being noticed on the ground floor.
Gayford’s career in cannabis started in humble beginning “I moved to BC a little over a decade ago with all of my possessions fitting into a Honda Civic. I was a radio salesperson and one of my customers was Mary Jane’s Headquarters. I came in one day to pitch them a commercial and they said they were selling the business to go scuba diving in Honduras and I looked them in the eyes and told them I was going to buy it. When I first went into Mary Jane’s just to check it out I ended up spending $90 on stuff that I didn’t necessarily need, just spontaneous purchases. I then reflected back on my first purchase and thought this was a good business and went after financing and when I purchased it they had just opened up the West Kelowna location so I started off with two stores. How I transitioned to Cheeba Cheebas started about 5 or 6 years before Justin Trudeau started talking about legalization. It was a really nerve racking time. My wife Jackie and I, we looked at the changing landscape and thought to ourselves that we were operating at a certain level of income and we anticipated that with 20 stores (dispensaries) coming in they would all be selling accessories and we guess that they would dip into our accessories market. So in defence of that loss of income we thought we should try to go after a dispensary license.”
Chris then went on in great detail to describe the entire licensing process from his end discussing the many meetings with lawyers, city council members and building landlords and some of the difficulties with regards to the strict regulations within the BC cannabis industry.
Mary Jane’s Headquarters Kelowna Location
Cheeba Cheeba’s Kelowna Location
Though Chris faced many challenges to get where he is today, now he operates two fully licensed dispensaries and two cannabis accessories stores in the Okanagan, all of which saw steady sales throughout the COVID-19 Pandemic which Chris discussed this in more detail as well as overall trends being noticed.
“Before I opened I had never sold a gram of weed in my life. I wasn’t overly knowledgeable about weed, though I’d consumed it for years I never really asked what the strain was so I was very uneducated. I started to use the sales reps that came through, once I received my license, and I’d pick their brains. We had one rep from Namaste named Tyler, he came into my office and he came to pitch his product but I didn’t give him the opportunity because I was busy picking his brain on all the other meetings he’d had. He explained to me that right now the industry is Grade 1. Grade 1 is what is the THC percentage. He then said there’s also Grade 2, Grade 3, Grade 4 and 5 and there’s so much to learn and so much to talk about and eventually the industry will get there. As someone who has worked on the floor I have seen a small minority of people begin to talk more about terpenes and specific strains and ask more educated questions. That being said, we're still in Grade 1. They want high THC and low prices. You’re seeing that as well with a lot of producers, I’m not going to name anyone in particular, but there was an LP who I had high expectations for and then they came out with a new product that was 14% and that was their thing. It was probably great weed but no one was buying it. We have a sheet that shows the “Highest of the Highs” and since having that we’ve seen a lot of our consumers bypass our tablets just to look at that sheet.”
“I remembered one of my budtenders mentioned having a sort of “aha!” moment where she tried a Tangerine Dream that was only at 14% but was full of terpenes, and ones that apparently speak to her, and she had a great buzz off of a 14% and was pretty shocked by it. I think more and more consumers are going to start to have those moments and will start to realize that THC isn’t everything and will start asking more questions from their Budtenders. I also think that Budtenders are what’s going to drive this industry forward. I think they will be what pushes that knowledge forward.” Chris continued.
Gayford also went on to discuss how technology has aided both of his businesses with tablet menus being implemented in his dispensary, utilizing an online marketplace for his Mary Jane’s accessories stores as well as how brand building has progressed on the dispensary side.
To find out more information about Cheeba Cheebas visit their website here: https://cheebacheebas.com/
To view Mary J|nae’s Headquarters online marketplace, carrying one of the largest online accessories inventories in Canada, visit their website here: https://www.maryjaneshq.com/
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