IIDA – Perspective Fall/Winter 2019 - 53

THE CANNABIS
MARKET

A welcoming storefront design helps to normalize the dispensary
experience and is key to making customers feel comfortable.

Also, to be more profitable, dispensaries often house an ATM-something
typically shoved against a wall like an eyesore. We try to thoughtfully integrate
ATMs into our retail environments.
PERSPECTIVE: How do security concerns impact design?
Stone: Cannabis products have to be returned to an on-site vault for overnight

storage. That impacts visual merchandising and order fulfillment-the procedures
for opening, closing, restocking, and unstocking. If you don't design for that
properly, it can handicap your store.
We've been doing more and more showrooms that are half-stocked with fake
packaging like gummy products without THC, and a lot of clients are now moving
toward a back-of-house system, like a hybrid of a pharmacy and a restaurant. The
advantage of that is that the inventory isn't moving all over the store.
PERSPECTIVE: How can design help people feel more comfortable
about cannabis?
Stone: We pay a lot of attention to the storefront. Someone skeptical of cannabis
can look into a space that seems just like a coffee shop, and that helps normalize
it. When novice customers come in, they can be overwhelmed by the choices-
tablets, patches, edibles, beverages-so communication and demonstration helps
them figure it out.
PERSPECTIVE: How does design differ for medical versus recreational
dispensaries?
Stone: Most medical dispensaries require you to register patients and check to

Photos by: Richard Cadan

make sure they haven't over-purchased in a certain amount of days. Most states
also say that you cannot allow a view into the space where the cannabis product
is displayed or sold. Some states say you can only have cannabis on display in the
retail showroom-not in the lobby.
For recreational spaces, we're often not dealing with lobbies anymore.
A lot of our clients have a host stand, similar to a restaurant, with a security
guard at the entrance to check ID. Then the rest of the ID verification process
happens at checkout.
PERSPECTIVE: Where do you draw inspiration?
Stone: I take a lot of inspiration from boutique hotels. Also, quick-service
assembly-line restaurants like Chipotle are incredible at planning customer
throughput and displaying choices behind glass. They have really interesting
cues that dispensaries can take advantage of, especially when they're trying
to serve their more experienced clientele and get them in and out of doors as
quickly as possible.

In 2012, Colorado and Washington
became the first two U.S. states to
legalize cannabis for recreational use.
Nine states have since followed suit-
helping to ignite a marketplace that
has wide-reaching impact.

33

U.S. states that allow medical
cannabis use

34%

Expected increase in cannabis
employment in the United States in 2019
over the previous year

815

Active cannabis dispensaries (retail or
medicinal) nationwide as of 2018

215,000

High estimate of jobs in the cannabis
industry in 2019

$39.2 billion
to $48 billion
Estimated total economic impact of the
cannabis industry in 2019 in the U.S.

7.7%

Approximate average increase in
the sale price for new homes built
within a half-mile of a cannabis
dispensary in the Denver area
Sources: USA Today, Vox Media, Marijuana Business Daily, High Times,
and Contemporary Economic Policy

fall/winter 2019

perspective

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IIDA – Perspective Fall/Winter 2019

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