Cannabis Dispensary Manager on Staying Open During COVID Lockdown and Society Rewriting the Rules

Vance Crowe [00:00:01] As the crow flies on the Vance Crow podcast, Kyle Bolen, welcome to the podcast

Coronavirus Perspectives [00:00:11] Vance Crow. How we doing bud?

Vance Crowe [00:00:12] I'm really well. So you work at a cannabis dispensary over in Illinois and today is strange days because with coronavirus going everywhere, the state of Illinois has gone on pretty much a total lockdown and really the only people that are allowed to be out and about are essential services. And I was shocked to see cannabis is considered essential services. Were you guys surprised when, when that came up?

Coronavirus Perspectives [00:00:41] You know, I wasn't shocked that we were, I knew we were essential for medical purposes, however, I did not think that we'd still be serving the general public. That was kind of a shock to me. But I guess it's the same thing with like liquor stores being open and stuff like that now too. So it's kind of, I mean, you know, my question is what's essential and what's not at this point. But yeah, we are still serving the general public, so that's kind of, kind of where the, if iffy part comes from me. Illinois Supply provisions is a dispensary that I worked at and it's in Collinsville, Illinois. And we're actually the number one dispensary in the state and have been since this has gone recreational since January one. With that being said, where I'm located in Collinsville, I mean we're right across the river from St. Louis, as you know. I mean, we serve the entire state of Missouri. I mean, they all come over there. We do have a location in Springfield, Illinois, which doesn't do near the volume we do just because they're so close to Chicago and there's so many within that, you know, a certain mile radius and us, we're the only one within 400 miles. So it's nonstop open to close, like go, go, go. I mean, we serve anywhere from one to 1500 people on a daily basis and that hasn't changed since this coronavirus has gone on. So it's, it's still go, go go business as usual. So,

Vance Crowe [00:01:45] So people are still lining up. I mean, I know when I went over there to see what this was all about, there were giant lines, there were people Yes.

Coronavirus Perspectives [00:01:52] You

Vance Crowe [00:01:52] Know, being corralled up and down into this like little station, that's still happening right now, correct?

Coronavirus Perspectives [00:01:59] Yeah, so we actually have, per the state, we have a different setup how we operate on a daily basis. So we have a shuttle service that brings our recreational people to and from our dispensary. So there's a shuttle service probably about a mile down the road. It's a gateway fun park. It's an abandoned parking lot that I guess we are renting out through the state. I'm not sure how that's working out. So a shuttle brings 'em there, brings 'em back. You can only have a certain amount of people in dispensary in the, on the dispensary floor, which is 10. And then we have 10 in the lobby where they kind of wait to till the other people ring out and then they leave and then they, the next wave of people comes in and they're only bringing about eight people on the bus. 'cause you can't have two people on a seat. It's 1, 1 1. And I think that bus holds about eight people if that's, if that's how it's being set up. But yeah, it's crazy man. So we're still doing a thousand transactions a day, if not more, which is great for business. I love it. However, there's a lot of concerns with, you know, this whole virus and this pandemic and stuff like that. So,

Vance Crowe [00:02:51] So you're seeing a lot of people both on the medical and then the recreational side whose lives have just been completely upended, right? They, I, I don't think anybody thought this was gonna happen a week ago. What's the mood like when they're coming in there?

Coronavirus Perspectives [00:03:06] Very standoffish. I mean, they're kind of quiet. Everybody's got mask on, they're wearing gloves, you know, they're being super cautious and so are we as staff, you know, we're cleaning and disinfecting it every single hour. I mean every surface, every doorknob, like anything that sees the public basically. I mean, we're disinfectant every single hour. So I mean, we're doing what we can take as much precaution with this whole pandemic though it's kind of limited our staffing as far as like people that have kids that have to take 'em to school and they're not in school right now, so they're kind of missing work 'cause of that. A lot of people are just being caught. A lot of staff's being cautious just because of the whole pandemic. They don't wanna catch anything it home to their elderly family or children and stuff like that, which is totally understandable. However, that's not decreasing the amount of volume we're doing every day with, you know, customers and stuff like that. So how it's set up too is normally we have like in the dispensary floor, I don't know if you went in there when you saw there's like a, there's stanchions for the recreational people and then there's also a medical side. Like there's a line for strictly medical 'cause medical's first come first serve their top priority. There could be 3000 people in line, they, they jump the entire line. It's just how it works. But how it's set up now is, there's xs on the dispensary floor, everybody's six feet apart, you know, there's about 10 of them in there. So we can have 10 people in the lobby and there's no like first come, first serve as of right now, just the way we have to have it set up. We can't have more than crowds of people and stuff. So it's kind of limiting the, well we do Medical Mondays never really considered too, because we have like a literally a day tailored for our medical people. So you see a lot of them more on Monday than you will throughout the week as well. But you'll still see 'em come in and stuff like that. But there's no separate lines. It's all straightforward.

Coronavirus Perspectives [00:04:37] I mean, six feet apart go like that. So,

Vance Crowe [00:04:40] And as you're thinking about, you know, what, what people are doing when they're coming in there, are they stockpiling cannabis? Are they, I mean like how are they doing this?

Coronavirus Perspectives [00:04:50] Yeah, so I guess before the governor announced everything on Friday with the whole state lockdown and stuff, everybody was kind of back and forth on whether we're gonna be open for recreational use or not. So we actually, we saw an increase in business and you also saw an increase of like point of sale sales. Like people were buying more at one time. So versus when they'd come in once or twice a week, they're stocking up for two, three weeks to a month at a time. So they're spending a lot more money too, so.

Vance Crowe [00:05:14] Wow. Yeah. So tell me what it's like to be interfacing with that many strangers right now. I mean, you're, you're right there among a whole lot of people. It's gotta be kind of a weird experience for you.

Coronavirus Perspectives [00:05:25] Yeah, it's, it's definitely weird. It does raise concerns as far as like, you know, my health and you know, the safety of our staff and everything. Like I said, we're doing everything we can. I look at it as, i, I feel that panic is spread faster than a virus. I feel like a lot of people are panicking, you know, like when the governor announced this ordeal on Friday, it's not the end of the world. You can still go to the gas station, you can get gas in your car, you can go to the grocery store, you still have all your essential businesses like your pharmacies and stuff like that. I did, I did notice a lot more customers were panicking and freaking out and if somebody were to get real close to 'em, they would kind of do the whole like back away kind of thing. So it's a weird time, man. It's a very interesting time right now. However, that it hasn't impacted anything as far as our business. I would just say that people are kind of more cautious and, you know, they're wearing masks, hand gloves, stuff like that. So, which we are too, at the, at the dispensary, it's kind of mandatory for our staff. You don't have to wear glove or you don't have to wear masks, but you do, you are forced to wear gloves. So doing what we can, man. So

Vance Crowe [00:06:20] Yeah, I mean I'm, I'm struck by the idea. So my buddy Jared McDaniel put out a tweet and I did not know how it would do, but he said, do you think that through this crisis that the government will say, Hey, we need more money so we're gonna, we're gonna open up legalization of marijuana. And a ton of people said no. Whereas I would've said, not only yes will they do it for the tax dollars, but if you're forcing millions and millions of people to stay in their home all day, smoking weed might be a little bit better than than drinking

Coronavirus Perspectives [00:06:53] I, correct.

Vance Crowe [00:06:54] I mean, I, I don't know. What do you think there?

Coronavirus Perspectives [00:06:57] No, and I feel the same. I mean, I don't know if it's, you know, what's the, what's the big picture here? Is it concerns and safety of everyone or is it, is it tax revenue and stuff like that? So, I mean, as far as us is con as far as we're concerned as a business, I mean, if we're still allowing the general public, I mean, A that's great for business B, it's, it's, it is rough though because of the short staffing that we're dealing with right now. So we're dealing with a lot less hands on deck and we're not forcing people to come to work. So it's not like, Hey, you're scheduled, you have to be here or anything like that. I mean, their safety is our number one concern as far, and especially medical too. That was our, that was our biggest concern is we do have a lot of autoimmune deficiency patients that come in there. I mean, there's just a lot of sick people that we deal with that are actually on the medical side. So that was our big concern, like, hey, is this the right thing to do? Should we just go off what the media's saying? Like, you know, it's kind of up to the company, but you know, it, it, it is what it is basically. So I mean, until further notice we're gonna serve both medical and adult use. So

Vance Crowe [00:07:51] Yeah, I mean I think the medical part is a very interesting one because when I lived in California, this was before you could get weed in the rest of the country, but they had that you could grow your own six plants and you could, and I remember when I first got there being like, this is ridiculous. These people don't, you know, they're just pretending to have these medical things. But then you start seeing like, no, there are people that legit, if they don't have that, they are gonna go on some hardcore painkillers. They're gonna have some pretty serious Yeah. Other things that they're gonna do. So I, I can definitely see the medical being an essential service. It makes total sense to me.

Coronavirus Perspectives [00:08:28] Absolutely. As far as serving the general public. And it's not like we're serving, you know, 150, 200 people a day. I mean, we're serving a thousand to 1500 every day and it hasn't slowed down. And well if, if anything it's probably increased. I haven't been there the last three days, but I'm sure it's, I'm sure the numbers are still there, man. So, which, like I said, its a

Vance Crowe [00:08:44] Good thing. What, like, what, what is yeah, what's your day like? You're going in at what time and what time are you getting done?

Coronavirus Perspectives [00:08:50] Yeah, it just depends man. So like we usually have like an opening and a closing shift. Like we'll split it up, up like one week I'll do all, all opening shifts, kind of hang up for the whole day, manage the whole place. And then I will do the second shift, which is one to close. So 10 o'clock at night basically. And, and a day to day is crazy 'cause it changes so much, especially with this whole pandemic going on. Like, we literally got a call from the state on Sunday night at eight o'clock this previous Sunday before we went into our medical Monday, which was last week. And ba we had basically had to change the entire operation of how we operate in the facility. Like everybody's gotta be six feet apart and we gotta figure it out basically. And we only had about eight hours until we opened the next day to get it all figured out. So we were on conference call. So 11 30, 12 o'clock the night before trying to figure out how we're gonna operate the next day. It was, it was a little chaotic. It did get it, it did improve throughout the week 'cause we got better processes in place and stuff like that. But to completely change how we operate within less than 10 hours before we open is a very stressful thing. So Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday we're very stressful and hectic, but we got through it, we're here. So,

Vance Crowe [00:09:48] And the, and the supply mechanism. Do you guys, you guys have a supply chain, you're not growing cannabis right there on, on site. So do you foresee challenges with getting cannabis in the future?

Coronavirus Perspectives [00:10:00] I do not. I did talk to a lot. So we get deliveries just about every day throughout the week. And all of our cultivators are within the state of Illinois. It's illegal to transport across state lines, but we've talked to all the guys that delivered to us this week and they don't have any signs of like slowing up or closing down and stuff like that. They're kind of, they're taking precau precautions, just like all of us. Little different setup there though. It's just in a kind of like a warehouse steam room. There's not a lot of people coming in and out. There's really no public people coming in. So it's all the same workers, same processes, the sanitary and the, the suits that they wear when they're in the grow rooms and stuff like that. So

Vance Crowe [00:10:33] I don't foresee that all, yeah, I have a chance to go visit a cannabis facility in Las Vegas and you realize like that place is so tight on their controls on things. That's probably one of the safer

Coronavirus Perspectives [00:10:41] Places

Vance Crowe [00:10:42] To be on earth. Very

Coronavirus Perspectives [00:10:43] Sanitary there, man. For sure. They got like stuff to put on your shoes, like, or they make you change, like they'll give you shoes, outfits to wear. Like it's, they're they're on their game for sure. They're, they're very cautious for sure. So,

Vance Crowe [00:10:53] And so now just, just kind of where you're at, you're in southern Illinois for the, for the people

Coronavirus Perspectives [00:10:59] Who are living

Vance Crowe [00:10:59] In other parts of the country, what's it like there? What, what's not outside of the cannabis place? What, you know, what are your friends and what are your family saying about, about Coronavirus?

Coronavirus Perspectives [00:11:11] It's funny you say that 'cause some, my mom's a nurse practitioner at Wash U and my girlfriend that I live with and that's kind of my whole idea on if I'm gonna get it, I'm gonna get it. I'm at risk no matter where I'm at because my girlfriend's in nurse at Barnes and she doesn't work in the ICU, but I forget what floor she works on, but it's secondary to the ICU. So a lot of those patients that are testing for it or feel like they have symptoms of they go to her floor. So I feel like I'm just exposed to it no matter where I go. If I'm gonna get it, I'm gonna get it. That's kinda like my philosophy on it. But it's something like, I've talked to my, my mom, my girlfriend, I've talked to one of the guys we train with Doc and it's something that you definitely don't wanna turn your head away from and just kind of completely ignore. 'cause it is a global pandemic right now. I mean there's, I I, I think there was 26,000 cases of, in the US alone there's like 340 deaths in the us 13,000 globally. Like it's definitely, it's definitely something serious people, like people have their opinions on it, if it's like a political thing or if it's, you know, if it's really, I don't know, it's, it, it's, it's a really interesting time to be alive, but for the most part, everybody's kind of doing the same thing. Like being cautious only gonna the grocery store and getting out when needed. It's funny, I went to the grocery store this morning at like 6:00 AM or 7:00 AM and there was like absolutely nothing. Nobody on the road like it. It's, it's, it's interesting man. It's very interesting for sure.

Vance Crowe [00:12:22] And so the question that I've been asking everybody I've interviewed so far is where do you think the world will be in two weeks from now?

Coronavirus Perspectives [00:12:33] I don't think you would see a significant change in two weeks. I think you would see more like if, if this prolongs for four to eight weeks, I think that's when you'll start really seeing a, a real change I guess you could say is because I don't think a lot will happen in two weeks. I know it's a financial deficit for a lot of people that like are local mom and pop shops, bars, you know, people in the restaurant industry and stuff like that. 'cause you know, they live off tip money, you know, that, that minimum wage that they make and stuff like that. And they're not making any of that now. Most places are just doing a carryout service. So I'm sure they've cut their staff to a skeleton crew. I think that, I think that'll be the biggest impact on the economy as far as like, I mean I don't know if this check's coming in every, every month from Trump for a thousand or how that's gonna work, but I mean, I don't think a thousand's enough to live off of for a month, especially if you have families. I mean, if you break that down, it's probably like 10 bucks, nine 50 an hour. And most people, most people make that honestly, but it's, we'll see man, it's gonna be, it's gonna be very interesting. But I don't think they'll see a dramatic change in two weeks. I think it would, if it prolongs to four to eight, I think that's when you'll start seeing a little bit more chaos throughout the economy. But

Vance Crowe [00:13:36] So I think that if we do go the four, six weeks that you're talking about, we will see a, a significant part of society change, right? And the and rule absolutely will get rewritten as you're thinking about people that'll be holding the pen and writing the new rules in a society. If we've had four, six weeks of, of restrictions, what, what do you hope people keep in mind as they're setting things up again when we restart

Coronavirus Perspectives [00:14:02] And that, and that that'd be a good question too, is like, you know, when they restart, will they have to cut, you know, labor hours down? Will they have to let people go? Will people get laid off due to the amount of revenue that was missed out for the two to eight weeks or whatever this is gonna be? That'll, that'll be my big question. I mean, can you just go back to a normal society after this? Is everything okay? You know what I mean? Like, I don't, I don't know, this is a, this is a first time thing that's ever really happened in my lifetime. I mean, I didn't really look in, I don't really look into much stuff like this. Like I don't get into politics or anything like that just because like, it's just not my thing. But I did look into a lot of this, especially when they started cutting off like major sports. Like I saw the, what was the first, it was the NBA that was first shut down. I saw that post on Facebook, I'm like, man, this is what, what is this whole coronavirus thing? And then it started going to MLB, the NHL, and then everything's cut down like no concerts, like, no nothing. I'm just like, okay, now it's time to start looking into this. But it it, it's interesting man. It's, I, I don't, I don't know, it's, well I guess we'll just have to see how this whole thing rides out and hopefully the magic number is April 6th and everything just goes back to normal. There's it gonna be April 19th because I know like Vegas is shut down. New York City shut down, like Time Square is like a fricking ghost town right now. And you never see that la I know San Francisco's on a lockdown till like April 19th and stuff like that. It's just, we'll see what happens. We'll

Vance Crowe [00:15:16] See. Yeah. I mean, and, and that lockdown, you know, I, my wife and I, so my wife is pregnant, so we've been really very careful and, and on our own kind of self quarantine. Even before it was, even before it was cool we were quarantining, but then now last night they put in a, a new order for St. Louis County and it really hit

Coronavirus Perspectives [00:15:36] Me. Yes.

Vance Crowe [00:15:36] Yesterday, last night before I went to bed. Like it's no longer my choice to be self quarantine. We're now suspending the first amendment, right? You're not allowed to go out, you're not allowed to assemble with other people. And while I think that public health, the very important, very good thing, the other side of that, by restricting these freedoms, like those were freedoms hard fought for people died to get those freedoms. And what happens when you give them up? Do they, do the people in power give them back up easily? I don't know.

Coronavirus Perspectives [00:16:07] I keep seeing people post on Facebook and like social media, it's like, man, this is the first time my work's ever called me off. I usually call off work and I'm like, that's, it's kind of funny. I never thought about it like that. It it, it's, I don't, it's interesting man. It's, it's what what have you guys been doing? Have you just been going to the grocery store and going home? Like do you, do you have a nine to five that you go to or?

Vance Crowe [00:16:25] No. So my job is, is traveling around giving a lot of talks and doing consulting.

Coronavirus Perspectives [00:16:28] That's what I

Vance Crowe [00:16:29] Figured. I have a little bit of my consulting still going on. And then I realized that I have all of the equipment to be talking with people like you that are, that are seeing the world from a different place. So I decided I'm gonna keep my brain active and I'm gonna keep, I'm gonna try and produce something that helps people get a full view. My biggest fear right now is that because of the way that this has grabbed people's attention, it will get them to fall into a gravity well, of just certain types of media, certain types of mainstream media, maybe only the things they see on, on Facebook or, or Twitter or whatever that is. And that they'll hear it things over and over and over again and they'll begin to believe that the things they've heard many times are the things that are true. And so I wanted to find where are people with different ideas that are doing different things so you can hear the way that other people are thinking that are outside of your gravity. Well, so that, that's what I'm trying to do because I think that I do think society's gonna be rewritten and I wanna make sure that they, we have as big of a view on that as possible.

Coronavirus Perspectives [00:17:29] I strongly agree and it's, and it's still fascinating to me, like even working in the cannabis industry and with all this whole pandemic going on, it's, it's still such an attraction. One plant, all these people still come like, it's like, hey, stay inside. Don't go anywhere. But if you look at a cannabis dispensary, I mean, there's a line out the door no matter if there's a tornado brainstorm like snow, whatever, they're out there. It's amazing. It's kind of fa it's kind of fascinating to me, honestly. What do you, it's a

Vance Crowe [00:17:51] Really cool thing. Is it, is it the, is it the high, is it the fun that they're after? Is it, what is it, what is it that people are willing to risk themselves for?

Coronavirus Perspectives [00:17:59] Yeah, and it's, you know, that's a good question. I, I talk to, so as a manager, I do a lot of talking to the customers on the, I'm on the floor. I'm engaging with them and I'm just kind of seeing what they like, what they don't like about how our operations work in the store in general. Kind of just picking their brain. And a lot of them that are recreational don't have a medical card, but they do it for medical reasons, like their chronic pain or they got fibromyalgia or rheumatoid arthritis, anything main list goes on. And a lot of 'em are there for that reason. And it's a lot of elderly people. Like surprisingly, half our clientele is probably 45 and older. I get, it's funny, I'll talk to a lot of the people in line, a lot of the elderly people and I'm like, how long did you wait in line today? You know, just kind of seeing how long their weight was and I'll be waiting 42 years for this and all this stuff. So it's, it's kind of funny, man. But yeah, a lot of our clientele is actually a lot older. I mean, you still get your 20 ones to 30 year olds. I mean, it's all different ages. I mean, 21 and older, like it's all spread out. But a lot of 'em are elder and a lot of our patients that are medically are elder. It's kind of like, it's kinda like their last resort. They've been on all these pills and all this medication for the last 10, 15 years. They go from 15 prescription pills and they, they get into medical cannabis and they're down to two. Like, it's just amazing stuff. It's amazing what cannabis actually does from a medical standpoint. It's, it blows my mind all the every day. So it's, it's an amazing thing. I love working there.

Vance Crowe [00:19:09] Well, you're right on the edge of chaos right there. That's a new world. And now we're together on the, on this edge with Coronavirus. Man. I know how busy you are. I know you don't have very much time off, so I'm grateful that you took the time.

Coronavirus Perspectives [00:19:20] Appreciate you.

Vance Crowe [00:19:21] If people wanted to know more about, you know, whatever you guys are up to, how would they, how would they do it? You guys update stuff on Facebook or how do you do that?

Coronavirus Perspectives [00:19:30] Yeah, we do a live menu on our actual website, which is Illinois supply and provisions.com. And you can follow us on any social media site, Instagram, Twitter. We do a lot more on Facebook and Instagram than anything else. We post our live menu on there every single day. We're updating our menu on our actual website every 10 to 15 minutes as product comes in, as things change, as things go off the shelf, new stuff comes on. I mean, it's updated spot on every, every 10 to 15 minutes.

Vance Crowe [00:19:55] Well, for the people that are brave enough to go out. Good luck and thanks man for, for taking the time to do this. I

Coronavirus Perspectives [00:20:02] Appreciate you coming on man. Hopefully I can get you on my podcast soon. Appreciate you.

Vance Crowe [00:20:05] That'd be great. See you man.

Coronavirus Perspectives [00:20:06] We'll see you man.