Our foray into the cannabis economy started with a cultivation facility in 2009. Then, later that year, the State of Colorado decided that growers must be required to sell 75% of their inventory. We had no experience in the retail space, so it was a bit of an “oh shit” moment for us. We lucked out, though. The building where we had our cultivation set up was also zoned for retail. We even had a space in the front of the building that we could use for retail. At the time, it was where my cousin Frank was living full time as our on-site security guard, but that’s a story for another day. Sprucing up the place The space was about 1,000 square feet. We had no idea what we were doing, but we did our best to quickly transform the space. We purchased a few counter tops and display cases from a used display case joint. The walls got a slap board treatment. I bought a few cash registers. In an attempt to make it look really nice I bought some matching chairs for the waiting room. I purchased posters for the wall. We thought the space looked pretty slick, but looking back, I think the aesthetic was more college dorm room, to be honest. Then we opened the doors. At that point, so early on in the legalization journey, people didn’t really care where they were buying their weed from. The sentiment was more along the lines of, “Hey, I can …
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