Cannabis customers can queue as they wait to order marijuana at Sweetspot in Voorhees. The medical marijuana customers at the dual dispensary always go to the front of the line, explained Sierra Robinson, lead budtender. Price lists are on the lighted boards (center) on the wall.
Subdued like at a jewelry store, customers quietly wait, inspect locked glass display cases, order, and leave with customized, small paper sacks that otherwise might hold an engagement ring or tennis necklace.
Inside these bags at the store on White Horse Road in Voorhees, however, are products that quickly will disappear — to be burned, ingested or inhaled.
Sweetspot Dispensary opened in late November for medical customers and in April was given permission by the New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission to expand to the new adult recreational marijuana market.
The retailer's soft launch began a couple of weeks ago at a store in the same building as the FedEx Office store, next to the Olive Garden restaurant on White Horse Road.
An official, celebratory opening for the recreational cannabis store will be held from noon to 4 p.m. on Saturday, June 10, at 903 White Horse Road with food and music.
Sweetspot, with its parent medical marijuana dispensary based in Rhode Island and others in Maryland and Maine, is one of the recreational cannabis pioneers in the 70and73.com region.
But the handful of places today to buy cannabis flower, marijuana vape cartridges and edible gummies will over the next several months likely explode with the state licensees, in some cases, within shouting distance of each other.
In Mount Laurel, the daylite cannabis store expects to open this month. If they win New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission licenses, another will open next door and yet another a few hundred feet away — all on Route 73 in the town.
J.R. Johnson, the marketing coordinator for Sweetspot in Voorhees, said business has been strong during the soft launch before opening celebration "Summer Daze" on Saturday, June 10.
J.R. Johnson, the marketing coordinator for the Sweetspot dispensary, told 70and73.com in an interview that recreational customers typically spend an average of $80 each time they visit. The average wait time has been about four minutes and queuing for 10 minutes is considered a lot in the store.
"Flower predominantly is what people are looking for," Johnson explained. Customers also buy edible gummies, vape the marijuana or take low-dosage tablets that, Johnson said, have just enough THC, the active ingredient, to relieve anxiety.
Like other retailers, Johnson said Sweetspot is "trying to end the stigma" that has for decades surrounded marijuana. Gov. Phil Murphy and the legislature legalized recreational marijuana use in 2021 and last October the first retail store licenses were awarded.
All of the product must come from New Jersey, Johnson explained. Other state licensees can include cultivators, manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors, delivery companies and testing laboratories.
At Sweetspot, the workforce consists of mostly budtenders, with a few supervisors and managers. The cannabis is kept in a vault, with budtenders opening cubbyholes in the showroom wall to take delivery for walk-in customers.Â
Customers who order medical or recreational marijuana online can go to a special express desk where their purchases are rolled out in a locked cage and then given to them.
Best way to describe the mood? Mellow.
Sierra Robinson, lead budtender at Sweetspot in Voorhees, reaches into one of the cubbyholes that lead to the cannabis vault. After a customer orders, the product is prepared and handed through the little window.
On Friday, Sierra Robinson, the lead budtender, moved swiftly around the room, welcoming customers who had been checked in with their drivers' licenses or passports in the outer office.
"Medical patients are our first priority," Robinson said, waving one such customer to the head of a line to quickly be checked out.
Marketer Johnson said recreational customers are limited by law to buying one ounce of cannabis a day.
Johnson grew up in Audubon and worked in the cigar industry for years. He said he never touched marijuana until he was in his late 30s and he and his new wife visited a cannabis shop on their honeymoon in Napa, California.
Anxiety was an issue, he said, and he found it was quelled by cannabis.
Johnson worked at Curaleaf, a major cannabis company, and joined Sweetspot last September.Â
Now is an exciting time to work in New Jersey's infant recreational cannabis industry, Johnson said.
It is a challenge anytime that "you get the opportunity to be on the forefront," he added.Â
Colorful cannabis-related products on display near the customer order area at Sweetspot Dispensary in Voorhees.
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