MJBizMag May-June 2023 - 44

Reimagining Retail
At the 2022 event, Olive deployed
six budtenders and three
managers-including one very crucial
inventory manager.
" You have to set aside a separate
inventory channel for just the event
and do your inventory-management
there. Everything is kept in locked
containers, and you restock your
booth from those locked containers, as
needed, " Olive said.
While overstaffing might appear to
be a big overhead expense, having two
or three extra workers costs only a few
hundred dollars more and will improve
customer service while safeguarding
against more costly mistakes.
" It pays for itself in spades knowing
that you can trust your staff to be
diligent, to be present and not be
exhausted, not be overwhelmed, " Olive
said. " You want to be able to provide the
same customer service at the event that
you do at a dispensary. These people are
entrusting you to offer them something
that's going to help them continue to
have a good time at this festival.
And when employees are happy (or
unhappy), customers notice.
" Make sure employees stay
hydrated and energetic and enjoying
the experience. Because if they're
not enjoying the experience, your
customers are going to feel that, " Olive
said. " The overriding ethos that we
had going into this was: This is a great
opportunity to reach out to people that
we wouldn't normally get to put our
name in front of. And if we're having
fun, then that's going to translate into
their experience as well. "
Product Selections
At the past two Grass Lands, the Vapor
Room has offered 13-15 products,
Olive said.
" You don't want to carry a whole
dispensary. You don't want to have 50
to 100 to 200 SKUs. You want to have a
tightly curated selection, " Olive said.
When picking what he wants to sell
at Grass Lands, Olive's first criteria is
42 May-June 2023 | MJBizMagazine
Grass Lands runs concurrent with the Outside Lands music and arts festival in
Golden Gate Park. Photo by Alive Coverage
giving exposure to small businesses.
As a small, local and independent
business, Olive said he wants to
" highlight brands and products that
are in a similar vein. "
All the products the company
sells at Grass Lands are made by
small businesses owned by people of
color, women and LGBT community
members, he said.
After identifying the businesses he
wants to highlight, Olive then seeks
products that festivalgoers will most
likely use at the event. That means an
emphasis on pre-rolls and edibles-no
topicals. There are few concentrate
requests, but he still keeps one
concentrate and a cold-water hash
variety on hand.
Pre-roll offerings include singles,
infused and multipacks, which were
among the more popular sellers.
" That was something we've used as
a sales pitch. Instead of passing joints
around at a festival like you did three
years ago, make friends and give some
away. It's more like share the box, not
the joint, " Olive said.
The Vapor Room also carried
individual edibles and multipack
edibles with pieces dosed in smaller
amounts, such as 5 milligrams and
2 milligrams.
One multipack edibles brand Olive
likes is Rose Delights, which produces
Turkish delights infused with strainspecific
rosin from sun-grown flower.
" This was an opportunity to highlight
a higher-end but accessible brand
that really offers a unique edibles
experience, " Olive said. " It's a cute little
box, and people were really excited
about that. "
He also likes selling packs of
2-milligram gummies by Canna
Munch, a woman-owned brand.
" That was really great for the guy
that came up to buy a joint and he had
his wife or girlfriend with him, or his
buddy that doesn't really smoke weed
but wanted to try it. It was for the
canna-curious. "
The takeaway, Olive said: " Use the
opportunity at an event to highlight
local brands, to highlight brands
that need the opportunity to get eyes
on their packages. ... You can really
help somebody that could use it. It's
a responsibility that some cannabis
retailers should consider more often. "
Olive said he hopes to get more
opportunities to participate in events
now that COVID-19 is receding.
" We're looking forward to doing as
many as we can, " Olive said. " There's
this novelty to it that's really fun and
exciting, and it reaffirms why I do this.
... I'm helping people feel really good
in an environment where they're used
to having to treat (cannabis) like it was
some illicit thing that they had to sneak
in. And now they're buying it right
next to their nachos. That's the fun
component of it. "
MJBizMag May-June 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of MJBizMag May-June 2023
