I live in a medium sized city in California, I moved here in 2010 and have been buying weed from dispensaries consistently since then, although it has been a rollercoaster of pros and cons to the whole medical/recreational system in CA. For the first five years it was the wild west, 30,000+ recommendations in the county, 35-50 dispensaries, massive variations in price, quantity, atmosphere and quality of product and customer service from their employees. The laws changed a few times, shitloads of shops get raided and shut down, some survive but most never come back. For the past five years it has been at least three times I have pulled up to a dispensary and seen Police SUV's with K9 units in the parking lot. The cops shake the weed shops down for their cash to allow them to stay open while still periodically raiding them for 'breaking the county's strict rules'. Some places are still being dumb keeping a high profile with an online presence and making it obvious what they are doing. Since recreational passed only certain places still require recommendations and only a few have to check your State ID. For most of 2019 I was buying weed from this place close to my house, shitty as fuck ass shop- crack house vibe. Totally obvious and visible from the street, smells like weed from yards away. Decent prices but mostly shitty chemically-grown weed that is so harsh you can barely hit it. Rude ass budtenders who are constantly fucking up because they have been taking dabs since 9 AM, some straight up ripoff artists. Plastic CoVid tarp separating customers from staff making things awkward as fuck, can't smell or touch the weed total guessing game. Armed security making everybody nervous, and the employees are on watch for the police knowing they could be charged with felony distribution any day of the week for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. This situation slowly filtered all the decent budtenders and now all they have left are the dudes who think they are Tony Montana making minimum wage and collecting face tattoos. The shithole used to be a rub-and-tug massage parlor
In September I get a text from a homie who used to work at another shop I was going to in '17-'18, telling me there is a new dispensary in town and I've been loyal to this place ever since. It's discreetly located in an office building in an industrial park, tucked away and hidden from the street. The dudes who run it are cool, clean-cut smart dudes with checkered pasts (gang-related shit) but have moved on to be family men and health and wellness-oriented guys. Their 'front' for their business is that they liquidate overstock pallets from big box stores, and they sell high-quality CBD products too, ironically now they make more money from CBD than they do from selling flowers. Behind the counter is the secret stash of flowers and wax, some heavy Hybrid Indica (my shit) in stock all the time, strong Sativas if you want a head buzz, and if you want cheap they got bomb nuggy shake for $20 an eighth. Almost all is organic. They even got scented candles going to mask the smell and a fountain with lights in the lobby looking classy. These guys and their wives are so cool, such nice people and they hook me up just because I use to come to them all the time back in the day. They give me extra buds for trading clothes and shoes with them. I smoke a lot along with all my family and most friends so I am seriously ultra stoked that I have a place to cop my dope now that is clean, safe, reliable and trustworthy. Place just looks like a plain old office, if you didn't know you would never guess that they were selling bud in the CBD product room, they got a warehouse in the back for the trucks to unload the pallets everything looks legit. These dudes are killing it, they're in their late twenties and have already got it all figured out with how to get money without slaving away for the Man. A little more expensive and a little further from the crib but this place has got my support from here on out.