When Arizona voted to legalize grownup use in 2020 after a decade as a sturdy and profitable medical state, it unleashed one of the thrilling markets within the nation. The market has united main multistate operators and sensible native entrepreneurs to the tune of $1.6 billion in gross sales in its first yr.
Of all of the sturdy retailers within the Grand Canyon State, The Flower Shop stands out as distinctive. As one of the artfully designed dispensaries in Arizona, the shop combines considerate structure, elegant furnishings, and a curated product choice to deliver a luxurious expertise to the prosperous Phoenix suburb of Ahwatukee.
The holding firm that owns the shop, TFS Manufacturers, operates 5 dispensaries and 4 cultivation websites throughout Arizona and Utah. TFS has developed a status for having a few of the state’s best flower, grown in a 100,000 square-foot cover dubbed The Flower Mine within the former copper-mining city of San Manuel close to Tucson.
TFS bought the Sky Dispensary chain in 2017 and rebranded as The Flower Store two years later with the aim of reflecting a renewed, elevated imaginative and prescient. Renovation of the Ahwatukee location was accomplished in April 2022, with firm president Greta Brandt, a licensed company legal professional, working carefully with the architect and designer to create a heat, inviting dispensary setting.
“Quite a lot of hashish retail experiences had been off-putting to ladies and older generations as a result of previous smoke-shop tradition and stereotypes,” Brandt stated. “I needed to reimagine hashish retail in a extra subtle method that displays the trendy hashish shopper.”
The distinguished retailer embodies an suave stability of marble, hardwood, gold, and considerable vegetation, giving the impression of a verdant, tranquil spa and shattering any lingering assumptions that dispensaries have to be pungent, dingy pot outlets.
“We needed to create a lightweight, open, and ethereal flooring plan and idea that will really feel protected and approachable, highlighting the merchandise in a means that showcases the standard and variety of our choices and brings our model ethos to life in a memorable means,” Brandt defined.
The Flower Store makes use of delicate lighting and pure components like wooden and steel to create a refined, stress-free buying expertise that appeals to the discerning group it serves. Brandt performed an energetic position within the retailer’s inventive route, borrowing components from the corporate’s company workplace, which she additionally helped design.
“I really like inside design,” she stated. “It offers me an opportunity to faucet into my inventive facet.”
One of many retailer’s extra instantly putting options is a big residing wall brimming with lush greenery and boasting the corporate’s brand in a wealthy, subtle typeface. “Being The Flower Store, we knew we wanted this signal to be inexperienced and pure, with a number of greenery accompanied by a clean-cut, whitish marble,” Brandt stated. “This drives residence that the hashish retail buying expertise is akin to a spa.”
Merchandise are displayed on cabinets across the perimeter of the room, organized into classes—cartridges, flower, edibles, drinks—every lit brilliantly and stacked artistically to convey a cultured, pure vibe. Manufacturers like Stiiizy, Choose, Cresco, Chic, and Jeeter are on present, whereas jars of the shop’s eponymous flower model are organized into little pyramids.
Brandt stated The Flower Store has stringent necessities for manufacturers to get on the cabinets and emphasised in-depth coaching for budtenders (dubbed “wellness consultants”) to allow them to advise clients, significantly ladies, about the appropriate merchandise for particular person wants.
“We view hashish as part of one’s general wellness journey, and we do our greatest to satisfy [customers] the place they’re, whether or not they’re medical sufferers, heavy shoppers, or canna-curious newbies,” stated Brandt. “Traditionally, ladies have been pass-through shoppers, topic to no matter their mates and companions buy for them. As a woman-led model, we’re invested in welcoming and nurturing ladies who wish to incorporate hashish into their way of life in a means that actually serves them.”
She was fast to level out her crew by no means upsells or pushes offers that don’t meet the wants of their visitors, nonetheless. “We’re targeted on cultivating belief and long-term relationships, providing worth by way of our loyalty program and the standard of the expertise,” she stated.
One other arresting characteristic of the shop is the grand marble and hardwood islands that stretch from flooring to industrial ceiling, brimming with potted foliage in addition to a curated collection of infused merchandise, dab rigs, and bongs.
Like most design-minded dispensary operators, Brandt and The Flower Store had to determine find out how to mild the shop adequately whereas avoiding glare from glass show instances and shelving. The crew pulled off the feat through the use of overhead lighting with putting pendants to offer depth from eye stage to ceiling—all with out sacrificing readability within the buying expertise. “This permits folks to focus, lookup, and actually absorb not simply the product however its packaging, as effectively,” she defined.
At current, round 15 p.c of the shop’s gross sales are on-line orders, although The Flower Store is within the means of upgrading its web site with a aim of making an internet buying expertise that compares to the high-touch and engaged in-store expertise.
“Subsequent yr we’ll have two drive-throughs at our dispensaries, which we estimate will help an extra 7-10 p.c of on-line orders,” stated Brandt. “That stated, clients have actually taken to our in-store expertise. They like coming in and connecting with our employees, who know their favourite merchandise, make suggestions, and provides recommendation based mostly on their distinctive wants.”
Regardless of the headwinds working towards the business on a nationwide stage in the mean time, the long run appears to be like brilliant for TFS. The corporate will launch a pair of recent manufacturers in February: LadyLike and Excessive Selection. TFS additionally plans to proceed increasing in its Arizona and Utah strongholds and expects to increase to the East Coast with a serious deal with cultivation.
By bringing its imaginative and prescient to each newly authorized markets and wealthier, influential neighborhoods like Ahwatukee, The Flower Store cements its place as an rising drive within the aggressive, fast-evolving world of hashish retail.