The Biotrack Cannabis Dispensary Spotlight Series is shinning on burb dispensaries and their unconventional store design. John Kaye joins Dan Humiston to talk about why their British Columbia dispensary do not have big screens or ipads. He explains his company's philosophy and discusses it's current expansion plans. Produced by PodCONX https://podconx.com/guests/john-kaye
The Biotrack Cannabis Dispensary Spotlight Series is shinning on burb dispensaries and their unconventional store design. John Kaye joins Dan Humiston to talk about why their British Columbia dispensary do not have big screens or ipads. He explains his company's philosophy and discusses it's current expansion plans.
https://podconx.com/guests/john-kaye
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John Kaye: [00:01:10] So exciting partnerships potentially potentially Ontario have seen too much more on that right now. We basically want to take easy but doctored up for global export and sort of represent that B.C. culture wherever you take verb doing our best to try to position ourselves that way.
Dan Humiston: [00:01:37] From MJBulls Media, it's the Raising Cannabis Capital show.
Dan Humiston: [00:01:45] I'm Dan Humiston. And on today's show, we're continuing the Cannabis Dispensary Spotlight series with another Cannabis retail pioneer. Stay tuned for exciting insight into the techniques that this entrepreneur is using to expand and succeed.
Dan Humiston: [00:02:07] Today in Raising Cannabis Capital, we're continuing this month's Cannabis Dispensary Spotlight series with John K for Burb.
Dan Humiston: [00:02:14] John, welcome to the show.
John Kaye: [00:02:16] Hey, man. Thanks for having me.
Dan Humiston: [00:02:17] Well, I appreciate you taking time out to speak to us today about herbs, Cannabis stores. You're based in British Columbia. And while I was preparing for the show, I noticed something very unique about your stores. There's a complete absence of technology. No big screens, no eye pads. It's completely, as you put it, a D tech environment. You're kind of swimming upstream here, but you've had an amazing success with this. Why do you think that is?
John Kaye: [00:02:46] Yes. So we're very traditional up here in the land of B.C., but it's kind of how we're used to buying Cannabis in the old system, in the legacy market. Black market, whatever you want to call it. We really just chose to do what we know and decided not to put any screens or any iPods or the store in favor of more authentic variants for the customers.
John Kaye: [00:03:08] And that's kind of worked out well in our advantage and gives you a little break.
John Kaye: [00:03:12] Yeah, it was glued to their screens all day long. Stuffing in the bird. We really wanted to create a environment that was calming and relaxing and we look forward to as sort of a getaway or an escape from from the. So a little bit contrarian, but so far so good.
Dan Humiston: [00:03:28] Well, I think it's more of a commitment to the customer, to the patient in it. You're people that are working there are not distracted by looking at their phone. It's one and one these conversations the way it should be. I know you say it's old school, but I think it's the way it should be.
John Kaye: [00:03:44] Yeah, I totally agree. We want to keep that tradition alive, for we're unsure at what point it went for sterile environments with screens everywhere because it's not how it was. And we've tried to keep the conversation alive. Obviously, people have lots of questions and purchasing canvasses, very different than purchasing alcohol or tobacco. And I think we all know that by now there's a different process and obviously a different culture associated with that.
John Kaye: [00:04:11] So, yeah, we're quite happy with that decision.
Dan Humiston: [00:04:14] Like I said, you're swimming upstream. But I think you're going in the right direction. The other thing I noticed about your company that is a little bit I would say unique is that you have a really, really serious commitment to Ansley products. And I was on your Web site and from branded apparels and pipes and pongs and bags and grinder's. And I'm just assuming the probably provide this ancillary products to enhance the customer's overall experience. Is that the key?
John Kaye: [00:04:39] Yeah, I think so. We're fans of lifestyle brands and that's what we wanted to create with burb. Cannabis for us is very much lifestyle and it bleeds into all kinds of different areas, whether it be music, art. We wanted to create more touchpoints for people and for the brand. And yeah, you know, another thing we did was we looked at the apparel merchandise space, a lot of people doing swag bags and sort of cheap giveaways, free T-shirts, things that typically end up in the gym bag, in the trash. We wanted to do it differently. And so we did a full cut so program from day one where we start with a roll of fabric that we die. You know, we create our own that's our own patterns. And then what you're left with is, you know, quality apparel that represents this Cannabis culture that come very quickly coming into the mainstream, becoming pop culture. I mean, it's actually something you want to hang on to if you want to wear and hopefully, you know, wear with pride out and about.
John Kaye: [00:05:38] And, you know, it's going to last for the soul mate. Cannabis overall quality garments, we have people on our team that, you know, this is all they do is they much apparel. So that business for us, so very fortunate to have good partners here in Vancouver will reproduce everything. And we're gonna continue doing that. The accessory business is also very exciting. We'll keep growing that grind versus Dastyari's lighters, ashtrays, that side of the world. We want to keep building on that. Then the third thing we're doing is hosting a podcast of culture.
John Kaye: [00:06:08] Yeah, I saw that David much under Paper magazine.
Dan Humiston: [00:06:12] Yeah, I saw that. That's kind of goes hand-in-hand with the whole lifestyle thing. Muslims. GUEST on the show, a real sort of influential people live the Cannabis life here.
John Kaye: [00:06:23] We've been trying to curate an interesting group of guests through David's network, through our own channels. You know, ultimately, we believe that there's a strong tie between Cannabis and the arts. We kind of feel like we exist to keep that alive while obviously promoting B.C. But and the heritage of D.C., it's traditionally not to talk about here. But I think we're in a position to tell the stories and the heritage of B.C. That's really a special sort of culture that we will.
Dan Humiston: [00:06:54] I take a short break to let you listen to a quick preview of our next episode.
Pankaj Talwar: [00:06:59] Our first two have been extremely successful and we've exceeded our Capesize in our business plan. So we are very much in the process of trying to find other opportunities either to partner with current dispensaries and create almost a joint venture where they join us or simply acquire and buy out any individual on those that are looking to perhaps exit after they've had their run. There's a few paper licenses that have not been put into action that we're open to.
Dan Humiston: [00:07:26] Also seeking the right opportunities to in on Thursday to hear the next episode of the Biotech Cannabis Dispensary Spotlight series with punk Toha from Soul Flower. And now let's get back to today's show.
Dan Humiston: [00:07:42] Whether it's a branded apparel or podcast or just the experience that people have in your stores, you're spreading a positive message. And speaking of the positive message, what are your plans for expansion?
John Kaye: [00:07:55] Well, we have the two stores right now in the trust that is more mainland part of Vancouver. We just got approved for a third in a city of Port Moodier Super Village, which is a growing and vibrant little community. So we'll continue to grow our retail footprint here in B.C. and then we're gonna be announcing some exciting partnerships that will take bourbon to the US and potentially into Ontario.
Dan Humiston: [00:08:20] Nice. Okay. Can't say too much more on that right now.
John Kaye: [00:08:24] We basically want to take DC, but package it up for global export and sort of represent that B.C. culture wherever we take verb doing our best to try to position ourselves that way.
Dan Humiston: [00:08:36] Are you going to need to raise some capital in order to do these projects?
John Kaye: [00:08:40] Yeah, the U.S. expansion is kind of in part with a capital raise which will be announcing very sort of exciting partnerships there.
John Kaye: [00:08:48] Yeah, I mean, the brand that's doing well and start to get more inquiries about licensing and all kinds of interesting deals that we're looking at right now.
Dan Humiston: [00:08:56] Okay. When you announced this, how will people find out about it into the ground?
John Kaye: [00:09:01] Okay. No good people will need to follow you on Instagram. Shopper Yep.
Dan Humiston: [00:09:06] Shopper Well, we were speaking with John Kay from Burb and you can find all of his information or burbs information in the show notes or at MJBulls.com. And don't forget to check out like culture podcast on Apple or Spotify, wherever you will listen to a podcast. Jon, thanks for being on the show today.
John Kaye: [00:09:26] Thanks so much for having me. I really enjoyed us and love what you guys have done. And if you're BC, give us a show.
Dan Humiston: [00:09:33] Next time I'm up skiing at Whistler, I'll make sure we definitely stop in. Thanks for having me on.
Dan Humiston: [00:09:41] Today's show is made possible by the generous support of our sponsors like Sencion Pixel, the Cannabis and CBD Hemp Industries leading marketing and design agency For over 3-years Sentient Pixel has been working with CBD Hemp companies and developing personalized strategies to create authentic brands and grow a real audience that engages with your content and converts to sales go to a Sencion pixel dot com or click on a link in the show notes to learn how Sencion pixels hireable all in one marketing and design department can amplify your company's communication.
Dan Humiston: [00:10:16] Today's podcast was produced by MJBulls Media, the industry's premier Cannabis podcast network with original music produced in part by Jamie Humiston. I'm Dan Humiston and you've been listening to the Raising Cannabis Capital podcast.
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