Success fuels Rhode Island dispensary’s expansion
By Patrick Wagner
WARWICK, R.I. – Many dispensaries across the country have adopted themes to attract their clientele, including design cues from speakeasies, Haight-Ashbury or even steampunk to differentiate themselves from the competition.
Summit Medical Compassion Center in Warwick, Rhode Island has taken the opposite approach.
“We have a very nice, pleasantly boring, professional atmosphere,” said Jessen Nichols, Summit’s director of operations. “It’s a doctor’s office with a Pandora soundtrack.”
That is not to say Summit Medical is boring; the retail space has a remarkably clean design to serve a single purpose — dispensing medical marijuana. And although it’s great fun to have themed costumes, elaborate retail spaces and wildly expensive glassware, there’s something to be said about a “straight down the middle” approach like Summit’s.
“We’re in a very modest, low-key retail area,” Nichols said. “We don’t have any flashy signs and we try to keep our glass products to a clear, medicinal, beaker style.”
Since Summit’s launch in November 2014, its staff has doubled in size and its patient base has tripled to more than 2,500. Sales growth has warranted expansion, so Nichols said the center is expanding with a new cultivation facility ready to drop seeds this winter.
“We exceeded (expectations) in sales and so the board had to open the purse strings faster than anticipated,” Nichols said.
Paramount to Summit’s success, Nichols said, was the key roles the staff has been playing since opening.
“What I’ve got is a fantastic staff here,” he said. “Everybody wears multiple hats. I don’t have anybody that isn’t willing to pitch in elsewhere.”
As the third and final dispensary allowed in Rhode Island, Nichols said Summit was established with the intention of being completely transparent within its community. The general manager and investors all reached out to local community, police and politicians as plans to open Summit transitioned into reality.
“We’ve worked very hard at being a good neighbor,” Nichols said. “We’re renting one unit out of a very large building, so we’re sharing a lot of the same space with our neighbors.”
Summit has definite plans for the future expansion of its business as well as looking ahead to the potential of a recreational market opening in the near future.
“We’ve already far exceeded expectation,” Nichols said. “I think we’re all a little stretched, but in a good way.”