Publisher’s Note:
What can I say? Greenside has been a Seattle icon for many years, and they have a crew that’s both knowledgeable and friendly. Kristina Green is an amazing manager and highly respected in the industry.
We highlighted their company in a 2022 cover story, focusing on everything that had been done to make it one of Western Washington’s leading retailers.
The following story is from the September 2022 issue of Marijuana Venture.
Greenside Recreational
When Washington state began accepting license applications for its recreational cannabis market in 2013, Seth Simpson immediately began to think about the potential for a property he owned in Des Moines, a small city south of Seattle with about 32,000 residents.
This property, originally purchased to house a medical marijuana grow, had several key factors going for it, including its location on Pacific Highway, a quarter-mile from Interstate 5. It also had a huge adjacent lot that could be used for parking and was just minutes away from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
When Simpson, who had been running businesses in the medical cannabis industry since 2010, obtained his retail licenses in 2014, Greenside Recreational became one of the first adult-use shops in the state to open. Greenside opened two stores in King County, with its flagship store in Des Moines proving itself to be one of the best retail locations in all of Washington.
In 2018, Simpson brought on Kristina Green as his chief operating officer, and she propelled Greenside into its next stages of growth. Green and her team started homing in on supply and demand, paying close attention to their customers’ experience and growing as demand started to take off.
When Green joined the company in 2018, the sales floor only had five registers — doubling that to 10 registers keeps the flow of shoppers moving through the store efficiently even on the busiest days.
As the cannabis industry braces itself against the ups and downs of an uncertain economy and the perpetually changing nature of the business, Greenside Recreational appears to have the foundation in place to remain one of Washington’s top cannabis companies, with an excellent location, a welcoming atmosphere and a stellar leadership team.