Industry veteran David Alport shares his experience as a multi-store operator and the lessons he’s learned after years of running two successful dispensaries in Portland’s competitive marketplace.

Peter –

First, tell us a little bit about how you got into the industry?

David –

I started out as a professional cultivator, went from a novice grower to a professional grower back in 2009 when I made it my full-time job.

We moved into a warehouse and started cultivating at a larger scale. And then in 2010, founded Bridge City Collective as a direct to patient resource.

So initially, it was going to be kind of a gray market center but we waited until the first licensed framework came online in Oregon, and that happened in 2014.

So that’s when we opened up the first two brick and mortar stores that we have here and those stores are still open today.

Being one of the first stores in Portland is worth pointing out, not everyone can say that. We were one of the original top 10 stores that were licensed right at the outset. There’s only maybe one other one that’s still in the market with the original operators.

Peter –

Portland’s definitely a crowded market. Would you say that is the main reason why you’re one of the only last few standing of the original licenses?

David –

Yes, it’s a saturated market. There’s a lot of competition out here. We’re in the middle of, or middle to end of the second major down cycle we’ve had in Oregon since the regulated market came online.

So yeah, just a lot of turbulence in the market, M&A activity, and people really needing to get focused and lean to be able to weather these storms. That has been really important for us.

Peter –

Yeah, and that’s obviously happening industry-wide now.

David –

Absolutely, yeah. So I started out as a cultivator then started these stores and realized pretty early on that we had some expertise and knowledge that may be beneficial to other states as they bring their cannabis programs online.

And so we started entering other markets by way of partnerships and structuring deals as isolated entities to capture opportunities and bring what we know to the Midwest and the East Coast.

we first did that in Ohio, and then we went to Missouri, Illinois, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New Jersey.

So parts of the Bridge City Collective ecosystem have a presence in all of those states. And then we’ll also have some involvement in Florida, pretty soon, hopefully.

Peter –

And is that for your company, is that a for profit initiative or is that just being a good actor in the industry?

David –

Those are for profit initiatives, but we think of ourselves as conscious capitalists, right? Like we feel like it’s really important to be aware of our impact in the communities that we’re engaging in and try to get involved at the community level.

Education is really important to us. There are people on our team that are teaching at community colleges in Illinois and New Jersey and we help facilitate mentorship opportunities for people who just want to learn.

So as we build a business in a new place we think about what kind of community organizations are in our immediate sphere wherever we’re operating.

We think about how we can engage with them and give back as a company These are things that we’re constantly thinking about as we carve out our path.

But in the end, yeah, they are for-profit endeavors.

Peter –

It’s now been many years since you’ve been operating two dispenseries. What do you wish you had known kind of before you started the first one?

David –

Understanding the impact of 280E is critical. And at the outset, we were spending a lot more on marketing than we needed to.

So over the years, that’s something that we’ve really gotten good at.. understanding what works for us and what doesn’t. we tried many different things, but on a really small scale and to see what works and then ramping up where it’s effective.

If we had known earlier how much of an impact 280E would have on the bottom line, we wouldn’t have spent as much on marketing right away.

Peter –

That’s a common theme I hear from people, the impact of 280E is often underestimated when getting started.

David –

Also, I think it’s really important to note that when you’re thinking about spending your marketing dollars or devising your marketing strategy to not get too wrapped up in what your competitors are doing.

And that’s true from an operational standpoint in general. It’s really important to understand the landscape and the nature of the industry and what people are doing, but it’s also important to not let that overly impact how you’re making your strategic decisions to operate the company and spend your marketing dollars.

You really need to figure out what works for you, what works for your business and what works for your business’s mission and lean into that.

Peter –

Over the last couple of years, how have you adapted the dispensary based on feedback you got from customers?

David –

Sure, I think, product and pricing are really important. Offering products that suit the needs of the neighborhood that the store is in.

These two stores in Portland are in drastically different neighborhoods, and the people that are frequenting our stores have different needs.

So being aware of that and offering what they need is something that took us a little bit of time to figure out.

Peter –

Do you have a practical example of an adjustment that you made based on customer feedback?

David –

Sure, at one of our stores, people have a pension for more top shelf flour. At the store, people have more of a pension for affordable flour.

It’s a challenge for us because we are so focused on quality, the challenge is finding the right flower to offer at a cheaper price.

But we’ve been able to do that, typically just through smaller buds. So we’ll buy what’s called B buds from top shelf producers so that we can offer top quality flower at a cheaper price to our customers.

Peter –

How have you dealt with the challenges of payments over the years?

David –

we’ve gone through everything from just cash to at one point to taking Square, to now having ATMs and a compliant merchant processor that’ll do debit cards.

We’re leaning into that debit card transaction more and more. That drives up the average basket price. And it takes cash out of the store, right? The more cash we have in the store, the more of a security risk there is.

So trying to encourage people to use the debit card machine is important to us.

Peter –

And have you tested out or do you use kind of any loyalty programs, frequent shopper programs, and kind of how have you found those to work or be valuable, I guess at all?

David –

Yeah, we’ve had several programs over the years. When we were first starting out, we had a program that was 5% on cash, point accumulation that our customers could use to purchase products that are not infused.

So shirts, lighters, paraphernalia, books, .. we have like a huge book selection. That’s pretty unique about us.. And at some point we tried out something called SpringBig.

And that’s mainly a text messaging platform, but we also used it as a loyalty program. And in Oregon, that actually allowed us to offer points for products that actually have THC.

And it’s been tough to really maximize those programs for us and get the most out of them.

So we’ve been backing off of that. It’s just in Oregon, the market is so saturated and there’s so much convenience that its tough to use those tools to build loyalty.

You build more loyalty, I think, just by having good relationships with your customers. and treating them really well and just, you know, building a welcoming atmosphere for them.

Peter –

What are some kind of creating market of efforts that you’ve tried that have been, you know, pretty successful in driving some new business in?

David –

Event-based marketing works really well. Having a party at your store and getting people out, getting them into your store and letting them know, hey, we’re here, we’re in the community, that really helps.

Peter –

And how do you let people know you’re having a party?

David –

So over the years we’ve… We amassed an email list, which is probably one of our biggest strengths, of around 12,000 people here in the Portland market.

And when we send out emails, we get a really strong response rate from those. So that’s not just for events, but also if we have promotions or are trying to raise awareness about something.

So that’s our biggest tool that we use.

Peter –

Your budtenders are the people on the front lines. How challenging is it to keep kind of like your best people on staff or to find new people?

David –

It is very challenging. especially in this market. People are always looking for job opportunities, and so you have to work really hard to make sure that they feel comfortable and at home.

We pay above average wages. We treat our staff really well. And for the longest time, that’s all we really needed to do.

I mean, we have one of the highest retention rates in Portland but now we need to think about the other attributes that make a good employee and plan for that.

Nowadays, we might hire someone who doesn’t have the industry experience but has everything else that we need and then we will train them on the products and what we’re offering our customers.

And I think for any operator, it’s really important to just make sure that you have open channels of communication with your team and your staff.

And that if they have something that they need to say, that they can say it, and that they know they’re going to be heard.

Peter –

Do you have any hopes or thoughts on what you’re thinking might happen this year, in regard to the industry conditions and any potential reform?

David –

I’m hoping that by the end of 2023, we get to the end of this down cycle. In the industry, I think that we’ll start to see the market kind of loosen up a little bit.

People will have a better understanding of what’s happening with the economy, the impact of the war in Ukraine and kind of where we stand there.

And so I think there’s going to be less fear around job security which will create more spending. So for that reason, I’m optimistic.

I think by the end of this year, we’ll start to kind of level off and get back to normal.

I think we’ve gotten through the worst of it.

Peter –

What advice would you give a brand-new dispensary owner?

David –

You don’t know what you don’t know, right? So, try to talk to people who have been through it before and listen to what they have to say.

At Leafwire, we enjoy 4/20 as much as everyone else and view it as a day to celebrate the advances that have been made after decades of work by advocates world-wide. Cannabis is now more accessible to the general public for medicinal and recreational use than ever before.

But, we also realize we have a long way to go.

We’d like to use our ‘platform’ on 4/20 to recognize the powerful work being done by one of our favorite not-for-profit organizations, right here in our home-town of Denver, Colorado, The Cannabis Impact Fund. Cannabis Impact Fund’s mission is to promote racial justice, heal the planet and support communities in need by leveraging a conscious cannabis sector.

It was my pleasure to recently have the opportunity to learn more about the Cannabis Impact Fund directly from the visionary founders, Courtney Mathis and Kelly Perez.

Leafwire: What initially drove you to found the Cannabis Impact Fund?

Courtney & Kelly: Since our inception, CDG has been working to support communities and prioritize racial justice in our sector. After Mr. Floyd’s death we knew we needed a bigger, more impactful vehicle; a way to galvanize the industry towards supporting the movement for Black lives and make the right thing, the easy thing. 

Nearly every single Black person killed by police in the last few years, from Trayvon, to Sandra Bland, to Philandro Castille to Micheal Brown has a direct cannabis connection to justify (in the minds of law enforcement) these race-based murders. This is not the story we want to continue; the war on drugs was and continues to be about race. We had relationships with national efforts supporting the movement for Black Lives and we wanted to help cannabis to easily be a part of that. Nothing is easy in cannabis, not racial equity, not being a nonprofit, not doing good. In our many years crafting CSR for companies we knew the barriers and had some ideas about solutions. 

After deep conversations with Sensible Colorado and with rapid support from PufCreativ, we founded, the Cannabis Impact Fund in July 2020. We, as a cannabis community, have enormous power to shift our narrative from one of harm to one of repair and equity. We believe CIF and our 5 grantees are an easy, meaningful way to support the movement and make social change. 

LW: Why is it especially important to shine a light on your organization’s mission on a celebratory day like 420?

C&K: 4/20 was historically a moment for cannabis activists and consumers to gather and protest against prohibition and the injustice of cannabis policies. Today, it has largely become a day to celebrate and to party. We all love a party, especially now, but a party with a purpose–that is a real celebration.

Our collective cannabis story is rife with racial injustice. To party without an understanding of the weaponization of cannabis and how drug policy in general has been used to harm Black and brown communities is not a celebration, not unless we use our collective gatherings to continue highlighting the injustices still happening today.

There are folks getting arrested for drug crimes daily, whole communities’ capacities for self care historically have been destroyed, families destroyed, resources pulled or only used for policing even now. We want to celebrate progress, and to create real change in our dynamic space. We are change makers and disruptors who have used this medicine for ourselves to heal, to work, to create financial health and community health. CIF helps us to invite our whole community to activate in a way that matches our intent with our impact. So today on 4/20, while you gather, consider that while we can celebrate the end of prohibition (in some places), we must still bring awareness to the ongoing decimating effects of the drug war and the long road we have ahead to make repairs. 

CIF does this by driving cannabis dollars towards our 5 grantees, working on racial justice, nationally. We are not done advocating for what is right; cannabis is still a nascent industry. It’s our privilege to operate here; let’s use that to continue influencing the social change that can meaningfully save lives. Together, we can create a celebration that shifts from extractive policy towards models of business and policy that are truly liberating, and racially just. Our work isn’t done – so let’s be sure today and every other day – we party with a purpose.

Click here if you’d like to take action today to stand-up for Racial Justice on 4/20 and beyond, your support WILL make a difference today AND for future generations.

LW: Have we made much progress over the last 5 years?

C&K: Absolutely, Mr. Floyd’s death provided folks with the language and a deeper understanding of systemic racism. It’s not about how you and I relate to one another, but a self-perpetuated system of interconnected systems, (education, public health, criminal/legal etc.), that none of us chose to be born into. We live in a racialized capitalist society, but if we can get past the shame about that, the defensiveness, and be brave, we can dismantle it and build something that honors the plant—cannabis can be a leader for other industries to learn from. We can interrogate the ideas, institutions, banking/capital, education, public health and beyond and begin to craft and retrofit policy to include our whole community, centering on those who paid for our privilege with their lives.

This moment in time has never happened. We are a special group of people; it makes a lot of sense for us to understand being anti-racist as something that is good for business, and improves operations and function in the world and is humane and just. DEI efforts have cost traditional US sectors–about $8B without meaningful change. Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) are metrics to be measured, tracked and impacted to determine if we are becoming the anti-oppressive (anti-racist). If your DEI is not centered in anti-racism, it won’t be successful. They are not the end game. When BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, and women are seen for the value that we bring, not as a check mark, that is when we belong. As the People’s Ecosystem likes to say, “are they making P/L decisions? That is when change happens. That is when the power of the Black dollar, the Latinx dollar, the power of female leadership, and the value of power-sharing come to life–and impact your revenue. Being anti-racist is good for your bottom line. We know it is hard for folks to do. Our for-profit sister, Cannabis Doing Good, supports companies with how to do this.

In the last 13 months, CIF has deployed nearly $50k to our 5 grantees. We have activated businesses previously unsure of how to participate in the racial equity movement. We have created our Anti-Racism Guide for cannabis businesses, a landmark collaboration that provides accessible tips and tools for deploying racial equity throughout your business. We have trained hundreds of people with our premier Anti-Racism training and are training companies who seek to have antiracist Human Resource efforts–it’s much beyond DEI efforts. We have a lot of work to do – but are actively curating a committed cannabis community to do it with. Let’s see what the next 13 months bring. 

LW: How did you select the grantees that you chose to support through CIF’s efforts?

C&K: CIF contributes to the efforts we contribute to because they are part of the larger movement for Black lives, and we see the application of a racial equity lens to cannabis as one of our time’s most compelling opportunities. 

Michael Brown’s murder was partly justified by the police because they smelled marijuana—Alicia Garza and others created the Black Lives Matter movement from their base in Ferguson protesting Mr. Brown’s murder. What erupted in Ferguson (St.Louis, MO) brought much attention to many criminal legal irregularities that were examples of systemic racism—like the rates of Black people arrested, detained, and held because they were unable to make bail. A federal investigation unveiled systemically racist practices by the criminal/legal system in MO. The Bail Project came out of that deep need to get people out of that (found to be illegal) system that drastically impacted Black folks in St.Louis by racial profiling and holding folks in jail. Black Futures Lab is the policy/think tank arm of the Movement for Black Lives, Alicia Garza founded it to develop solutions to what was happening in Ferguson and beyond engaging the community in policy solutions. The Color of Change was the organization President Biden called when the Capitol was being stormed as one of our nation’s most trusted contributors to moving people through digital campaigns to engage in racial justice in the way that miliennials and Gen Zers engage. We support Hood Incubator and Minorities for Medical Marijuana because from within our sector these two national nonprofit efforts have since the industry’s inception focused on racial equity. They have never moved from being actively engaged advocates seeking policy and business approaches that support racial justice (economic, social equity, etc.,) 

LW: What do you think the biggest preconception people have about social equity programs in the industry?

People think that social equity programs will be enough to create a racially equitable industry, or enough to repair the harm done. Policy is necessary, but not sufficient to make change. Folks think the goal of social equity is a social equity program. Nope. The goal is BIPOC folks benefiting from the sector we built and repairing whole communities harmed. Let’s take the unique-ness of this moment, the cultural sea change available for us to help to lead. What would a racially just sector look like? 

We meet white folks daily in our work, who when we make the connections between their business outcomes and being actively anti-racist, they immediately see the connection. It’s the HOW that has been so elusive. Not being racist isn’t enough. We need system disruptors to inform investors, banking, real estate, etc. We can honor our legacy by helping to create actively anti-racist HR practices–working with our sister company,  Cannabis Doing Good. We have a racial equity self assessment that is very high level to help folks objectively measure how they could become more racially just. If 90+% of the industry is white-owned, we need to call those folks in, show them these racialized systems (none of us built) and undo them. It’s good for business. It’s good for humanity. It’s good for business. Let’s start by calling people in, not just calling them out. None of us were well educated in what anti-racism looks like. No other industry has done it. Being shame resilient and understanding perfection isn’t required, but progress is. Let’s match our intent with measurable impact. We can save lives, grow businesses, infuse communities with regenerative wealth, and build a sector that prioritizes people.  

Social equity alone won’t do this. But an activated business sector that curates purpose-driven consumers? Now we’re talking about new economic models that demand purpose, demand equity, demand better. It will take policy, private sector and consumers to hold equity accountable. Looking for partners? Check out Cannabis Doing Good and Cannabis Impact Fund.

C&K: How can the average person who works for a cannabis business, whether its plant-touching or ancillary, do something to make a difference?

Lift up the work of folks doing it. Commit to being actively anti-racist. Accept you will likely need to rinse and repeat. Educate yourself and make different choices based on what you are learning. It’s not the glamorous work, but it is the community work we are privileged to do. Know our cannabis history if you are in this space and join in the movement of continuing to free the plant and the people (as Hood Incubator likes to say). Do not stop making change because you have access to cannabis. Think about folks across the country, and the world, and use your power for good. Each of us can’t do everything, but each of us can do something. Contribute to CIF. When we understand all the ways that it has been orchestrated for us to be separate and imperfectly use our power for good…well that changes the cannabis world and beyond. Activate. Engage. Rest. Renew and do it again; in community.

Check out the recently created our Anti-racism guide for Cannabis Businesses (with the help of 9th Block and PufCreativ, which lives on our website, link here

Cannabis Impact Fund’s 5 Grantees:

Click here if you’d like to take action today to stand-up for Racial Justice on 4/20 and beyond.