A Village Green Society employee uses a laptop to check out a customer Monday, April 14, 2014. The Village Green Society expects a large crowd on the 19th in anticipation for Colorado’s first legal 4/20. (Nate Bruzdzinski/CU Independent)
This Sunday marks the first 4/20 where marijuana enthusiasts over the age of 21 will be able to legally purchase marijuana at recreational pot shops in Colorado — and local dispensaries expect them to take advantage.
With such easy access to marijuana and an increasing number of stores that offer a relaxed environment to purchase the drug, several dispensaries in Boulder will spend the week getting ready for the holiday.
“We’re expecting quite a bit as far as crowds,” said David Pilcher, the general manager of The Village Green Society, a recreational dispensary located on the corner of Spruce and 16th Street.
The Village Green Society, located on the corner of Spruce and 16th in Boulder. (Nate Bruzdzinski/CU Independent)
General manager Colin Ruvle of Fresh Baked Dispensary, located off of Folsom and Pearl Streets, is also expecting an inflation of about 250 customers on the day of 4/20.
This doubles the rate they typically serve on a Sunday. Fresh Baked Dispensary usually sees about 120 customers.
With the spike of foot traffic in the store, Fresh Baked Dispensary will be scheduling an extra person on staff to accommodate customers. The dispensary is also ordering more products and pre-packaging them to help make the transactions smoother.
“We’re ordering extra edibles and having 4/20 sales in regards to the packaging that we offer,” Ruvle said.
Back at The Village Green Society, all four employees will be on hand and plan to bring in laptops in order to expedite the checkout process.
They have taken some of the more popular strains off the shelf this week in an effort to keep a wide selection available for 4/20, but also in anticipation for the day before.
“Actually, 4/19 is going to be bigger than 4/20,” Pilcher said. “They all have events they’re going to, they want to be sorted out before the day of [4/20].”
The Village Green Society has been a licensed retail marijuana distributor for four weeks and is seeing an average of 75 customers per day. Similarly, Fresh Baked Dispensary has been an established recreational dispensary since March 8.
According to Ruvle, as of last week, Fresh Baked Dispensary had “around 950 customers visit the store.”
Starting on Jan. 1 of this year, retail marijuana shops have been springing up across the state and generating a considerable amount of tax revenue. Colorado.gov, the official state web portal, states that recreational marijuana tax revenues in January and February have generated a combined total of $4,226,324 not including the revenue from licensing and application fees.
Tax revenues from February were more than the revenues produced in January, suggesting that the revenues are steadily rising on a month-to-month basis.
As Boulder recreational dispensaries prepare for more customers and products this weekend, chances are that the month of April will continue the booming trend in this fledgling industry.
Contact CU Independent Staff Writers Kevin Joyce and Stacia Sellers at Kevin.joyce@colorado.edu and Stacia.sellers@colorado.edu.
