My first time in any dispensary ever. I went because a longtime family friend who worked in a dispensary herself recommended it. I got my card in the mail and immediately called to see if they had someone who could be patient with someone who had never been in a dispensary before. The guy on the phone said certainly, that was their job, and they would be happy to help me. When I got there there were few empty spaces in their small parking lot, so that was convenient, and there was a security guard at the door, so that felt safe. My first steps were pretty much as expected – give them my card and my photo ID, fill out some paperwork, and sit and wait to be called on. No problem there. I did note that the orange fabric on some of their chairs in the waiting room was stained, but no biggie.
In short order someone opened the door for me and Jerad introduced himself and told me he would be my budtender. He didn’t seem keen on the fact that it was my first time ever; in fact, he seemed kind of distracted. I told him about the symptom relief I was looking for and how I needed to stay unimpaired for work. For the first few minutes we were together, he kept fiddling with my MMJ card. By the time he was flicking it and spinning it quite avidly, I finally said, “Wow, you’re really playing with my card, there.” At that point he stopped. I swear, I felt like I had to do all the work to connect with him, to get him to take an active interest in me as a unique individual. Not my idea of a good first time.
I got several things and he started to ring them up before I had finished shopping. I had to stop him twice from ringing me up until after I had selected all my items and was ready to pay. It seemed like he was more interested in serving the next customer than he was in getting me everything I needed or wanted.
Now, as far as what he did right: he answered all my questions, he waited for me while I indecisively smelled flower to pick what I wanted, gave me three presealed packs of each flower strain to choose from (telling me this was a service they offered), and even brought me out a couple of free samples of edibles when I said “I know you can’t medicate at a dispensary; it’s too bad I couldn’t taste one of these edibles before I bought them.” He warned me about the potency of their tinctures and capsules, and told me about special offers for new customers, birthdays, etc. He seemed to warm to me slightly, but only after I called him on twiddling the heck out of my card. He told me about their offers of a free preroll for writing a review on Leafly, so here I am writing it. Jerad does a decent job; I just hope he will make a conscious effort to give each customer the personal attention they deserve. As for the dispensary, I have no problem going back or recommending it.