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.
Listen to the podcast:
Read this in full
at
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/
Investor
ideas reminds all listeners to read our disclaimers and disclosures on the
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