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Opening day booming for Shuswap cannabis store

Customers from Revelstoke, Sicamous and Saskatoon visit Green Canoe Cannabis
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Nicole Bumstead, Jeff Phillips and Leah Hermann pose for a photo behind the counter at Green Canoe Cannabis on Monday, March 11. (Jim Elliot/Salmon Arm Observer)

Business is booming at Salmon Arm’s first legal cannabis store.

Green Canoe Cannabis, which shares a building with Canoe Village Market, served customers for a full day Monday, March 11 after a soft opening the day before.

Owner Jeff Phillips said a couple of hundred people came through the store’s doors on Sunday, and business remained steady on Monday.

Read More: Province green lights Green Canoe Cannabis

Because the store is the first one to complete the licensing process and open its doors in Salmon Arm, and is one of only 14 privately-owned, operational cannabis stores in the province, the customers who visited were both numerous and from a variety of places.

Phillips and his staff said people from as far away as Sicamous and Revelstoke came to the store on opening day. An older couple from Saskatoon also came in after hearing about the opening while stopping for gas.

Read More: City to support two of first three retail cannabis applications

“People are thrilled,” Phillips said.

He noted there has been no negative feedback to the store’s presence in Canoe so far.

Phillips said he wouldn’t call the application process smooth, but recognized it is new to everyone involved, including the B.C. government staff who he described as very helpful. He said it was a five-month process to get the store open.

Green Canoe Cannabis is open from 10 a.m. until 8 p.m., six days a week and from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sundays.


@SalmonArm
jim.elliot@saobserver.net

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Jim Elliot

About the Author: Jim Elliot

I’m a B.C. transplant here in Whitehorse at The News telling stories about the Yukon's people, environment, and culture.
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