A local man walked into our Durango dispensary about ten minutes before I started writing this. He was wearing his puffy coat even though it’s a bit early for down, he parked his Subaru right outside our front door, and he walked in with a comment about tourists, so I knew immediately he was a Durangan. But he also said that he had “no idea a dispensary was tucked back here in Bodo park” even though we’ve been here for years, which I hear frequently.
You see, The Greenery was the first recreational-only shop in town, and we’ve been the best Durango dispensary for almost five years, but for some reason, there are still people in this small city who don’t know we exist. How’s that even possible? Small towns are glorified knitting circles, and word travels quickly amongst our 19K residents, so how has our secret been kept? Don’t get me wrong, our regulars love the fact that we’re the best-kept secret in Durango because there’s always plenty of parking in our large dedicated lot (we even have room for RVs), and they never have to wait long before service, but I wish everyone knew about us because this shop is awesome (and I’m not saying that because I work here; I was a customer before I was an employee). So, we do our best to always be on the radio and out in the community sponsoring events to spread the word. We offer discounts to veterans and we have special deals for members of our Loyalty Program; we do everything we can to be an integral part of the Durango community and I think we’re succeeding.
However, there are still plenty of you Durangans out there (and a couple tourists) who don’t know anything about The Greenery, just like this morning’s man in a puffy coat. Frankly, that’s what we get for having the most discreet location in town. So, this week, I decided to write about our history so you could get to know us. Here it is…
The Greenery opened on April 10th, 2015, and we still have the first $20 we made hanging in the boss’s office. But to know our origin, you’ve got go back a bit further because it’s not like opening a pot shop takes a day: just like all good business origin stories, ours starts with two men sitting in a garage back in 2013, Joel Cameron and Brian Capsay. Joel was a world-class kayaker who’d recently graduated from Fort Lewis, and Brian was a hockey-playing fisherman that was on the US Fly Fishing team, who also called Fort Lewis his alma mater; our humble beginnings were straight-up Durango. And the two gentlemen made an awesome team because Joel was the hungry business type while Brian was the even-keeled type. Yin and yang came together. At the time, Joel was thinking about an MBA as his next step, but he decided to skip the education and to go the real-world route by becoming a cannabis entrepreneur. That, and he loved our town enough to never leave it for something like a piece of paper that’s forgotten after it’s framed and hung on a wall.
See what I mean? All the greats like Zuckerberg skipped the tail end of their graduate schools, and teams like Jobs and Wozniak started in a garage before achieving great heights, so our origin story is off to a good start.
Anyway, Joel and Brian knew they couldn’t do it alone, so Joel’s future wife (who is now his baby momma) came into the picture. She’s our house counsel now, but back in the day, she helped our owners navigate the mazy regulations that stand in the way of opening a recreational marijuana dispensary (because ours is the most heavily-regulated industry on earth). After the endless paperwork was signed and filed, our retail and cultivation licenses were approved, and we started slanging legal pot.
But that wasn’t good enough because Joel and Brian also wanted to grow the best weed in the southwest, so we opened The Greenery Grow, and we started cranking out the best pot period, just as planned. Granted, it took us some time to get it dialed, but we navigated the art and science of cultivation, and our pot is unparalleled as a result.
And then came our Hash Factory. Joel and Brian couldn’t find any decent solventless concentrates on the wholesale market, so once more, they took the pioneer route and opened their own factory to supply our store. That’s when I came along to spread the word across Colorado (and to start writing these blogs), and we’ve managed to get our hash into about 20% of all the shops in the state. The only thing left at that point was to start helping other likeminded business people across the nation open their own dispensaries, so The Greenery Cannabis Consulting firm was opened; we’ve guided teams in multiple states towards successful marijuana operations, and it feels incredible.
Really, it’s quite incredible to sit back and see the scope of our operations when you compare it to our timeline. Six years ago, two men were sitting in a garage—today, our Dispensary is the highest-rated in Durango, our grow is producing some of the best flower in Colorado, our Hash Factory supplies around 100 other dispensaries, and our consulting service is helping other marijuana businesses across the nation get into the game. Crazy, right? Either way, if you’re a local or a tourist in our beautiful town, and you’ve still never experienced what we have to offer, it’s high time (pun intended) you come to 208 Parker Avenue and check us out. We’re tucked away discreetly in Bodo park, we’re Durango’s best-kept secret, and We’re Your Best Buds!
