The store offers fresh bud of many different strains. Above the bud casing, a sheet of paper tells customers the strain’s name, its THC and CBD percentages and its weight. Customers can also hold their eyes up to the center of the bud’s case to look through a built-in magnifying glass that allows for a closer look.
Many of the cannabis strains GoodFire sells come from local cultivators, including Upstate Elevator, best known for its flavored CBD seltzers found in supermarkets across Vermont.
“Laura, their sales representative, dropped off samples of their new THC line while the building was still under construction,” Vallecillo said. “We started a dialogue from there, and they’ve been wonderful to work with.”
Partnerships like that are important to Vallecillo and Owen: They want their dispensary to feel local. For example, prominently displayed are four colorful glass-blown rolling trays made at local glass artist Sam Lightner’s workshop in Middlesex.
“We heard about Sam through word-of-mouth, and she designed these one-of-a-kind trays,” Vallecillo said. “They don’t even necessarily look like rolling trays — they could just be art on your table at home.”
So what does it take to open a business in a whole new retail sector?
As a newcomer to the cannabis industry, Vallecillo found it valuable to enroll in a class at the University of Vermont on the medicinal and scientific properties of cannabis. “One of my main takeaways was people use cannabis for different reasons,” Vallecillo said. “Everybody’s needs are different, and I think it’s important to start slow and move from there.”
GoodFire assistant manager Ben Eirdosh is taking a class on cannabis use, too.
Eirdosh and Vallecillo said they hope to take what they’ve learned and make their own training program for new hires who, in turn, will pass along their knowledge to customers, many of whom have questions about using cannabis.
“Our mantra here is when someone comes in and says they’d like a sativa or indica, we respond with, ‘It’s all a hybrid,’” Eirdosh said.
Eirdosh said one of the store’s main goals is to educate customers about the percentages of THC and CBD in each product displayed on GoodFire’s translucent shelves. “All these strains are hybrids — they have a spectrum of chemistry that either lean towards activating or relaxing effects,” Eirdosh said.
The crew at GoodFire also says they want to make sure their customers don’t feel like they have to buy anything when they visit. And if someone is looking for something Goodfire doesn’t have, Vallecillo said she will send them to Waterbury’s other cannabis dispensary, Zenbarn Farms, just down the road. And so far, the local market doesn’t feel very crowded.
“There’s plenty of room for both dispensaries, so I don’t see it as competition,” Vallecillo said. “If I think they are the better fit for one of our customers, I will and have happily sent them there.”
At Zenbarn Farms, co-founder Noah Fishman shares that outlook. He said he also thinks it’ll be healthy for Waterbury to have multiple dispensaries. “I think it’s great whenever the customer can have a choice for product,” Fishman said. “I hope that [with GoodFire], we can make Waterbury the premiere spot for cannabis in the country.”
