EDITOR’S NOTE: Corrects the hours of operation for Herbal Access Retail and Chimacum Cannabis Co.
CHIMACUM — This rural community is situated to become a marijuana destination with the installation of two recreational cannabis stores a few hundred feet from each other.
“Both of us will establish a level of quality,” said Forrest Thomsen, the owner of Herbal Access Retail at 8962 Beaver Valley Road.
“People will come here from Kitsap and beyond, and I expect that more people will come down from Port Townsend because there are two stores here.”
Herbal Access, operating in Port Hadlock since October 2014, opened its new location last Tueaday while the Chimacum Cannabis Co., 9034 Beaver Valley Road, expects to open its doors sometime in June.
One of the steps that Chimacum Cannabis owner Kody McConnell has taken to increase comfort was to set it back from the road so the customers don’t feel scrutinized.
“I hope this store will be a community asset and not a pariah,” McConnell said.
“As people come to know the place, they will feel the same.”
McConnell said the surroundings are designed to make the demographic of people olden than 55 who smoked in their youth and haven’t done so recently feel safe and comfortable.
Both stores have an abundance of natural light and wood paneling.
“People weren’t comfortable in our other place,” said Brian Peter, an Herbal Access employee.
“It used to be a muffler shop and reminded customers of a dank basement.”
Customer service
Like any retail outlet, both stores are looking to provide quality product at reasonable prices driven by good customer service.
“We want to give the community the experience it deserves and provide a level of customer service that people aren’t really used to,” McConnell said.
Thomsen hopes the stores will complement each other rather than compete.
“We will try to not sell the same products, and we each will be aware of the other’s inventory,” he said.
“If we don’t have a certain strain, we’ll refer customers to our neighbor. Hopefully they will reciprocate.”
“There is enough business to support all the stores,” said McConnell, who estimates that 58 percent of Jefferson County residents smoke marijuana.
“There will be enough different product so people can try them and decide what they like.”
Chimacum School District
Both are 1,500 feet away from the Chimacum School District, which is the legal buffer for marijuana retail stores.
But McConnell and Thomsen are both aware of the proximity and are on the lookout for anyone under 21 attempting to make a purchase, as it is mandatory to ask for legal identification for each transaction, regardless of the customer’s age or if it is obvious they are over 21.
The new stores have drawn the attention of the school district, which intends to approach them to ensure they have safeguards against selling to kids, according to Chimacum High School Principal Whitney Meissner.
“We continue to promote healthy choices and educate our students about rules and laws,” she said.
“We try to talk about and promote the behavior we want to see at school rather than the ones we don’t want to see.”
Thomsen said that pre-rolled joints, costing from $7 to $19, are among the most popular items, while edibles haven’t caught on as much as could be expected.
‘Labor of love’
McConnell has been working on opening his store for two years, which is an effort he calls “a labor of love.”
He said the store tests every product, which one person cannot do more than twice a day because it is impossible to determine where one product ends and another starts.
“I have a staff,” he said. “So I don’t have to do it all myself.”
McConnell plans to expand his offerings where possible as the law changes and sell marijuana starter plants if home cultivation becomes legal.
Both stores expect to operate seven days a week: Chimacum Cannabis 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Herbal Access from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
For more information about Herbal Access, call 360-379-4687.
For Chimacum Cannabis, go to www.chimacumcannabis.com after the end of the week.
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Jefferson County Editor Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or cbermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
