Pubdate: Wed, 26 Nov 2014
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Copyright: 2014 The Denver Post Corp
Contact:  http://www.denverpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/122
Author: Ricardo Baca

POT SHOPS SEE BLACK FRIDAY IN GREEN LIGHT

The marijuana industry will jump on the "doorbuster" bandwagon, with 
dirt-cheap prices on products.

While some might recommend a calming strain of marijuana to deal with 
the mania surrounding Black Friday, others will be lining up for 
"doorbuster" deals on that same Colorado pot this weekend.

The eager-to-normalize marijuana industry is ready to cash in on the 
weekend after Thanksgiving-just like everyone else.

"It's our way of fitting in with more mainstream businesses and the 
businesses that are normal for Black Friday," Grass Station owner 
Ryan Fox said. "We also want to insert ourselves into the commerce 
involved from a retail perspective. It's a great gift idea. And for 
some people, it's an outlet to deal with Black Friday. So maybe we'll 
turn it into Green Friday someday."

Fox's shop won't be alone in its Black Friday sale Friday through 
Sunday, but his store, at 4125 Elati St. in Denver, will mark the 
shopping holiday with surprisingly cheap deals.

What is his shop's equivalent to Walmart's dirt-cheap flat-screen TVs?

"It'll definitely be the $50 ounces," Fox said. "Right now, our 
cheapest ounce is $250, and some of those ounces in the $250-$325 
range will be selling for $50 an ounce on thatweekend."

Across town, in the historic Five Points neighborhood, the Denver 
Kush Club on Friday will sell a limited number of ounces of Chunky 
Diesel and Alien Dawg for $100 to medical patients and $150 ounces of 
Midnight Train on the recreational side. (The shop will sell 15 
discounted ounces medically and another 15 recreationally.)

"People are going to Best Buy and Walmart at 5 a.m.," said Kush Club 
budtender Ryan Garvey. "So by the time we open at 8 a.m., they'll 
have already spent a lot of money, and they'll be looking for some relief."

Celebrating Black Friday with loss-leader deals in the hopes of 
luring more regular customers is a pot shop's way of saying that 
legal marijuana businesses are normal businesses. Like Best Buy and 
its ilk, supplies will be limited. The short list of the Grass 
Station's best deals, which will be available each morning Friday 
through Sunday:

$1 joints and cones: 60 per day.

$5 grams of marijuana flower: 10 per day.

$10 eighths of flower: Eight per day.

$50 ounces of flower: 16 per day.

$2 10-milligram edibles: Until they're sold out, "and we're 
well-stocked on these," Fox said.

$15 150-milligram O.pen Vape vape pen cartridges: Until they're sold 
out. "We will not be selling out of these cartridges," Fox said, 
noting they normally cost $30. "We're very wellstocked."

$20 grams of wax concentrates from TC Labs and Venom: 5 grams per day.

$25 grams of shatter concentrates: 5 grams per day.

The Grass Station also is honoring all of its competitors' coupons 
now through the end of the year.

The shop did a similar promotion in 2013, when it was still a 
medical-only dispensary, and those lines of 50 to 60 people told Fox 
that the shopping holiday is also applicable to the marijuana 
business. Now that his shop is selling recreational cannabis, he's 
expecting significantly longer lines this holiday.

"If we could we'd just stay open 24 hours all three days, but since 
we can't ... ," Fox joked. "Last year's lines were as long as a few 
hours long. ... We're ramping up on staff this year, and we'll have 
more security, extra security and crowd control there."
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom