Tommy Truong: [00:00:00] BudsFeed. I feel like the industry has a third degree of separation with you. We've, I've met you somewhere before. I, I did, you know, I, I did an interview on BudsFeed and here we are.
Justin Johnson: Yep. Several, a couple years ago,
Tommy Truong: Yeah.
Justin Johnson: Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, it's uh, that's kind of the goal. That's kind of the point of BudsFeed, right? The um. The industry. You know, I think a lot of people wanted to build apps and websites that would be the Facebook or the Instagram of cannabis. And I feel like it's a smaller community, right?
And so I tried to create something that offered a little bit more utility to that smaller group of people, which, you know, created again, that third degree of separation, you know,
Tommy Truong: Yeah. The industry is small too, so everybody knows
Justin Johnson: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Tommy Truong: That's cool.
Justin Johnson: Yeah. Yeah, it was cool. It's, it's been good. It's been a good journey. It's, it, it definitely has panned out different than how I anticipated, but I guess that's just entrepreneurship really.
Tommy Truong: So why did you start, [00:01:00] and where is BudsFeed today?
Justin Johnson: Uh, yeah. So I had worked in advertising, mostly social media marketing, really, uh. The front of that whole wave and kind of wrote it through to the influencer stage of the industry. Ended up leaving the ad agency world and going to tech. And I, uh, you know, working for a consumer app as a director of marketing and I was really interested in a community called, um, because we're launching a new app and it was gonna be a productivity app.
And I was trying to figure out the right audience. And there's a, a website called Product Hunt. Um, that I really liked founded by a guy named Ryan Hoover, and it was all about, um. Developers and designers sharing their new app, whatever. And this is where Slack was discovered. This is where a lot of major notion, um, uh, uh, I'm trying to think of some of these other apps, uh, beehive.
It's where a lot of these, these, uh, [00:02:00] kind of modern day apps, you know, things that are kind of becoming unicorns or, or have become unicorns were being discovered. Right? Uh, really early on I felt like. You know, I think that community got to be like 7 million people. And he had a really nice exit, actually.
It was probably like two or 3 million people and I think he had an exit of like 7 million if I'm, uh, if I remember correctly. And I'm like, you know, that seems like, that seems like about the size of what this industry will be, right? Like 2 million people. So, and everybody's trying to sell stuff. They're trying to make it in an industry where they have very limited marketing.
So can I create a platform that allows. People to share their products. You know, I don't wanna be up there uploading all the products and just trying to sell stuff. So I allow people to add their products to the site. I allow them to submit interviews to the site. So 90% of it is user generated, you know, and it's facilitated by me and a couple other people behind the scenes, including my editor.
Tommy Truong: Awesome. That's, that's so cool. So today, BudsFeed itself is a platform for, for people to [00:03:00] share their product to the industry.
Justin Johnson: Yep. Yep. You can. You can sign up for an account. You can see the product on the site. People vote for their favorite products on a weekly basis, and then they'll top five usually get featured, you know, or always get featured in the email newsletter we've done 314. Email newsletters one every Monday for the last 314 weeks in a row.
Um, and so, and, and yeah, and the site's really grown organically. Uh, you know, uh, a couple years ago I had to take quite a step back to, to take care of another business that I, I own, and, um. And, you know, it was able to kinda sustain on its own as a community, you know, uh, obviously with some support from friends and team.
But, um, you know, uh, and, and it's something that despite it, I feel like the advertising game in, in cannabis is a little rough. And despite me not being able to like, achieve the scale that would get you like the highest CPM advertising. I've been able to make a lot of impact with the community that I've built [00:04:00] and the traffic that I do get right.
Tommy Truong: Yeah. No, it's, it's, it's such a cool ve vehicle that you've created. I was thinking about this the other day, and, and you've created a vehicle for really to, for people to not only. Publish to the world what they have, but also a vehicle for you to really make good connections.
Justin Johnson: Yeah, and discover stuff before anybody else has, you know, like that's the coolest part is some people come to me before they even wanna post the idea, and they ask me if an idea is. Good. And sometimes I'm finding stuff like, you know, chill that my, my other company, chill steel Pipes. That was like a revolutionary idea and uh, like a, a truly original concept, you know?
And so, and that's pretty cool. I think the whole, you know, and I've tried to do Shark Tank thing a little bit. I don't have the dough to be, you know, out here Cubaning it. But, you know, I've, I've, I've put my money where my mouth is. I've definitely invested in some of the [00:05:00] companies that I've become involved with through Buds, feeded, and, and or put in a lot of time that's worth.
You know, a lot of money. And so, um, that's been the cool part and it's very rewarding to have a lot of people trust you with their early ideas and wanna share it on your platform or share it with you before they're even want to willing to put it on the platform.
Tommy Truong: So I know that you've, you know, you're still running BudsFeed, but you've moved on really? You're in Wisconsin now at Elevated the accessories game,
Justin Johnson: Yes. Yes, sir.
Tommy Truong: so.
Justin Johnson: You want me to go deeper?
Tommy Truong: No, no. Let me ask you this, 'cause I, I feel like there's a, there's a strategy to accessories that you are probably very equipped to share. When it, when someone has a dispensary, what should their thought process be on, uh, accessories? I.
Justin Johnson: Oh yeah. I mean, I think. The reality of it is, you know, [00:06:00] when dispensaries first open up, they really try to go, they almost go overly fancy with their millwork and their stuff, and they're really trying to elevate the, the retail environment, right? And what that lends itself to is, um, selling flour. And first and foremost, you really do need to sell.
You know, the weed, the flour, the gummies, the vapes, whatever you can, right? That's, that's your top priority. So accessories in most brand new stores before they really kind of learn to more merchandise, um, is probably about one and a half percent of your total revenue. I feel like most stores should be able to get at up to 5% of their total revenue.
And obviously the margins on that and the tax situation on that is a lot better than what you're getting on the flower. So I think it's worth making a concerted effort. Um. Uh, you know, making those decisions on, on, on, on getting accessories in, in your store.
Tommy Truong: Oh, that's huge. If you're pulling in a hundred grand, $5,000 on accessory probably means maybe $4,000 of [00:07:00] profit.
Justin Johnson: Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's significantly higher, at least, at least $2,000 worth of profit, you know? Um, and so, you know, you, if you're buying small amounts, you're gonna get keystone pricing, but you know, you might be able to get better margins than that. And as you order more volume, you know, especially some of these guys have.
Over time, four or five stores. Um, you know, you just gotta, you know, it's, it is an important part of your mix. And I think if you look at places like Canada, it's gonna become a much bigger part of what you sell. And, and those stores have kind of, in many ways merged up there. And so, like the head shops and, and the, and the actual dispensaries are, you know, a lot of 'em are kind of becoming one-stop shops.
And, um, you know, I always tell people, get a mixture of. The stuff that our commodities, uh, almost consumables and fast movers and the stuff that's gonna elevate your, your store, right? So yeah, you might want a Puffco peak or a chill bong or a Zenko, or you know, a [00:08:00] volcano, one of these really high-end devices and they look cool on your countertop.
And, you know, they're all anywhere from $300 to $700. But I also recommend, you know, 25% of that 1.5%. Or whatever, you know, wherever you're at, a quarter of those accessory cells is gonna be five, 10 batteries. You just need to get five, 10 batteries and every time somebody orders a vape cart. You know, say, did you, do you, uh, have a battery for this?
And most of 'em left it at home. It's some, it's in another pair of pants. It's in a different car, you know, and a lot of people, there's a lot of reasons why people will buy a new vape battery. So that, you know, rolling paper is, uh, an inexpensive grinder. Um. You know, good, uh, good, uh, assortment of, of lighters or, you know, you know, stick to a certain brand like bic.
So have the fundamentals, um, with vaping increasing so much. Have the vape batteries for sure. And then, yeah, and then kind of mix and match things that are going to be affordable, grab and go items, as well as the, the things that are gonna elevate the [00:09:00] presence, uh, of your store.
Tommy Truong: That is actually a good point. The batteries. I, I don't vape, so I'm not in the market and I've never really thought of that about that. I'm more of a lighter guy 'cause I don't vape.
Justin Johnson: Yeah, there is a, a, a consultant, um, Krista Rainer, who, uh, is very, uh, well known on LinkedIn and, um, uh, she, she basically gave me that stat that, uh, 25% of that 1.5% to 5% of sales, uh, on accessories. Literally a quarter of those sales are gonna be five 10 VA batteries.
Tommy Truong: What any strategies on increasing your percentage of sales to accessories?
Justin Johnson: Uh, yeah, I mean, I think a lot of that becomes, you know, make sure that you're using that counter space right at your, your cash register properly. Like if you go to a grocery store, they're selling you gum, you know, uh, breath mints, uh, uh. [00:10:00] You know, uh, halls, throat, lozenges, candy bars, sodas, right up until that last moment, you know, those are things that are under X dollars that are a little treat.
Um, or they're selling things like lighters or, or, you know, these are fundamental tools for consuming cannabis. And if you forgot your lighter at home. Or somewhere else, you're gonna buy another lighter. If you forgot your vape cart and you, or your vape battery and you just literally bought a cart and you wanna rip it on your way home, you're gonna buy, it's 10 bucks, 12 bucks, you're gonna spend the 12 bucks.
You know, you might spend 30 bucks on a really nice one, but you know there's probably gonna be a cheap one at that store for 10 to 12 bucks. And a lot of stores run out of them like all the time. And if they were able to keep a consistent flow. Coming into their store of that, that they would actually make a significantly, significantly more revenue just by keeping those types of things in stock and not, you know, investing ahead of it.
A lot of [00:11:00] people are afraid to spend a lot of money, especially early on, but you will never not sell those.
Tommy Truong: Yeah, and there's no shelf life.
Justin Johnson: There's no shelf life. So if you can buy, if you can afford to buy, you know, $10,000 worth of 'em. Uh, you know, six to eight months down the road as you're getting started, like, you're gonna be glad you did.
You're gonna make a way better margin on those things. So, um. Yeah, it's interesting. We actually, you know, so we just launched dispenser, which is this our, our wholesale platform. Like I literally launched this on Tuesday of this week, um, to dispenser, acquired Buds, feeded, my steak and chill steel pipes, um, and my steak and smoke source, which is our, our basically our sourcing technology for, um, accessories and, um.
We actually have a package that we go out to dispensaries with. It's 1750 and we will, um, build, uh, accessories website as a companion site to your [00:12:00] dispensary. We'll sync it with your POS system, like a Dutchie or a trees, right? And we will put, um, we'll make a kiosk version of it. So if you wanna be able to drop ship any kind of accessory to people in your stores, they can do it right on a tablet.
So if they wanted this new puffco right, they could order it and have it delivered for free to your store. Or if they have it in stock, they can check out right there
Tommy Truong: Oh wow. Dropship from your warehouse.
Justin Johnson: Yep. Right directly to the store. So they, they get a repeat purchase from that customer. And then we also will offer on consignment 20 SKUs.
So we actually are gonna give you that head shop in a box basically, where it's like, we're gonna give you, you know. X number of five 10 batteries. We're gonna give you x number of glass dugouts. We're gonna give you these three types of rolling papers. We're gonna give you these lighters. We're gonna give you these hemp wicks.
So we actually will curate the kit for you. And then we're gonna include some high-end devices. We're gonna include zen codes. We're gonna include chill steel pipes. We're gonna include dy of app. We're gonna include some [00:13:00] Jane West. So we're gonna build a, you know, we're building a solution that allows us to effectively drop, um.
You know, a roughly $2,000 worth of product consignment in your store with a kiosk, with an accessories website. That companion, that will be a companion with your, um, your, your normal homepage where maybe people are buying, you know, pre-ordering cannabis.
Tommy Truong: Oh, that's cool. Co assignment too. So really no risk.
Justin Johnson: So that's, yeah. And that's, and we're plugged into your POS, right? So we can, whether we're processing it on our built in credit card processor, which is an option, or they're processing it through with cash and selling it with cash, along with the, the cannabis itself. We have kind of a an A CH, um. You know, it's a two-way a CH transfer.
So as soon as they hit $500 in sales that they owe us, we capture that money. There's no invoicing them, you know, we're doing that automatically. Likewise, if we're capturing the revenue via the website [00:14:00] side, 'cause we run the commerce on the, that e-commerce component of it. You know, when we hit that $500 threshold, we're a c hing them money.
So very clean. Um, and it's, you know, we're trying to figure out, we spent a lot of time in New York. Um, that's where I'm originally, you know, from, for the last 13 years. And you talk to these owners that are just starting up. You know, some of these big shops are ordering, you know, $50,000 worth of goods from you in a month, right?
But if you're a brand new store and you're just starting up, you gotta go buy it, you know, you gotta pay your rent and you've been probably waiting while you get. Try to get your license, you gotta do your build out, then you actually gotta buy the weed. Then you gotta get customers to come buy it. You know, they're like, getting accessories is not the highest priority and it shouldn't be, but it is a priority and you know, it is a way to drive more revenue and make your store look more interesting.
And so we're just trying to create a solution that allows those early stage shops. [00:15:00] To get in, have something that works. And then once we get past that consignment stage and they're, you know, they're feeling confident, they're getting revenue in their store that they can reinvest, then we have a whole wholesale platform that allows you to buy, uh, at an even better margin.
You know, and, and, and you can start placing, you know, you could buy anywhere from a thousand dollars worth of stuff to us, from us to a hundred thousand dollars worth of stuff from us.
Tommy Truong: I That's, so you guys do dropship to customers too, on the spent dispensary's behalf.
Justin Johnson: Yeah. So yeah, so the, the, it's kind of interesting. The way that it happened was I, I was running BudsFeed and then I started, I took over Chill because my business partner had passed away, right? And there was a company called Cali connected on Nazi Ani and Michael Oliver. Um. They, they owned Cali Connected and, and they, you know, wanted to help me out.
So they started carrying the chill and I became real good friends with these guys. And, uh, you know, I asked them, I'm like, Hey, the way [00:16:00] that you built Cali Connected, 'cause they showed me a little bit about the back, you know, I had to get into the backend to upload my own products and stuff like that and get on, and I'm like, can you, can you port what you've built to something like the back end of BudsFeed?
And so. You know, I don't know. Let's see. And so that, you know, NAS, NAS spent the next, you know, couple months building that, and he built the backend. He built BudsFeed.co our, our commerce side of it. And as soon as I got hit, well, as soon as that went live, and I announced that I. Um, I started getting hit up by dispensaries and people were like, Hey, I, you know, I'm not big enough to get an account with Puffco, but I see you have Puffco.
Can you get me wholesale? Like, people were calling me and just asking me if I could connect them with the brand. 'cause it's like perceivably, I'm carrying all these products, right? Um, and, and I said, yeah, sure, why not? You know, figure I'll just call my supplier and see if I can't just get a wholesale and just negotiate a little bit of wiggle for me and whatever, help somebody out.
And, [00:17:00] um. And it, and we just started doing that and we kept doing that. And then, you know, all this time I was still running chill and I, I was the CMO for Dyna app. Um, and I still am the CMO for Dyna app. And, uh, you know, we had a, a, a distribution company called Dispenser, which was really a carried chill, it carried Dyna app, it carried Zenko.
And I, you know, I kept talking to Eric, the, our chief revenue officer and, and Jason, our CEO, and I'm like, look. Separately, these things can be very distracting 'cause they're demanding of your time. But collectively, I think we could build something very unique and special with all of these components. So, um, yeah, we actually, so we did basically a roll up, right?
So, so, you know, uh, to, uh. Company that's kind of mutually owned by a handful of partners, um, you know, including DY of app. And, uh, yeah, we carry our house brands are dy of App, chill, steel pipe, Zco, Jane [00:18:00] West and uh, pink Formula, which is like a, a, a cleaning solution. And then we carry another 10,000 SKUs and we do that in partnership with, you know, about 70 brands directly as well as five major distributors.
And you know, what we're trying to do is streamline. The accessories, you know, buying process, but also just that early access. Like, what do I need to get started? You know?
Tommy Truong: Yeah, that that will help so many dispensaries kick off.
Justin Johnson: Yeah, I'm hoping so. I mean, that's, that's always been my mo even with BudsFeed, it's like, I wanna help people, you know, like I want, there's so many, you know, so many bad stories and sad stories of like. Dispensary is just not making it. 'cause there's so many, um, so much red tape. You know, this is just, this is just a, you know, people don't have the awareness of this stuff.
You know, they, they, a lot of people, they get the licenses they have to learn about, [00:19:00] they might even know a lot about weed, but that doesn't mean you know anything about buying it from all these regulated sources and, and you're, you're not getting access to the black market and you're, you're buying what's on the market in that state specifically.
So, I don't know, there's just a lot of. A lot of things that are difficult for them. You know, there's a lot, there's a very high threshold that they have to meet just to be in business. So I'm hoping to create something that, you know, improves, um, their business, saves them time, saves them money.
Tommy Truong: Well, definitely the, the $2,000 on co assignment to kick off the relationship is huge. So once, uh. Once a, uh, a dispensary passes that mark and now they're ordering wholesale, you guys carry 10,000 different products under your umbrella that they can just order directly from you.
Justin Johnson: Yeah, roughly. I think probably, probably 7,000 or so are like appropriate for dispensaries. Like there's gonna [00:20:00] definitely be some hemp products and stuff like that for the, the smoke shop side of this that won't be accessible to the accessory side for obvious. You know, compliance reasons, but, um, yeah, you know, like 30 different grinder options and um, you know, a bunch of different torches and a bunch of different, you know, you know, I don't know, hundreds of dab rigs.
Tommy Truong: Do you guys give stats on, Hey, this is really selling in this market. You guys should really
Justin Johnson: Uh, yeah, I think we will, I think, I think we're going to, we will get smarter in that way. Uh, you know, we just consolidated, so we had, we had obviously smoke source, we had, you know, all of these entities a little bit separate and, um, and now all of that sales, um, all the sales are going through dispenser.com and that is.
I think it'll allow us to get this data a little bit cleaner. 'cause you know, they're all disparate companies until now. And so we will though, I mean, [00:21:00] we, we already, already do aggregate data for the purposes of telling them what to buy. Like we know generally speaking, like we'll ask them too, like, are you in a high socioeconomic.
Environment? Or is it like grab and grow, go like, you know, ask them what, what's the most popular flower? If you've got people buying a bunch of shake and pre-rolls and stuff like that, then it's gonna be a lot different. You know, it's gonna be a lot different than if it's like, you know, people that are buying edibles and beverages and, you know, ounces at a time because they have the money to do it.
Like, so you know that I, a lot of that comes down to the demographic of their store. And if they tell us that. I can use some deduction. You know, like we've had, we've had stores in, you know, rougher parts of Chicago. We've had stores in really high end areas of Massachusetts. You know, we have one of the nicest, we're in one of the, we have a massive kiosk in one of the nicest dispensaries in Long Island, New York with two [00:22:00] massive shelves full of product, you know, and those, you know, even, even a store like that, um, is selling.
Uh, the convenience stuff at a clip of like 10 to one. So the good news is like even say you do want one of some of those higher end products, right? Like, we're gonna bring you like a, a, a chill, like one of my bongs, which is gonna retail for one 40, right? That's a pretty high end product. It's a pretty considered purchase.
140 bucks. Anything over a hundred bucks is really pretty considered. So that can sit there for two months. If it doesn't sell, I'm just gonna take the advertising as chill, right? But, um. Uh, in that timeframe, I will sell enough vape batteries to have made up that $2,000. And so if that's the one thing I need to keep replenishing, or if there's a couple items I need to keep replenishing.
It's not that the other ones are dogs, it's just that that market might not be mature enough. And over time, we might need to switch out the higher end items to more lower price items [00:23:00] just because, you know. A lot of these products, like, you know, a volcano is $700, right? You're probably gonna sell one in one every, every three months.
You might be lucky if you sell one or two every month, and you know that if you have a really high-end store, but that means that person's gotta come in with, you know, a g just to buy their weed and that thing, you know? And so, um.
Tommy Truong: that's a, that's a very low volume play. So what do you recommend? Dispensaries due. If I was first starting off, I have, I'm, I'm past the $2,000 co-sign and I've sold everything. How big should my first order be and, and how many different items should I order? And I, I guess that's your, you know, that would go through you for consultation.
Justin Johnson: So we automatically replenish your co-sign by the way. So as those vape batteries go, if, if say we have 24 pack, uh, CDU on the shelf for you. As, as soon as those hit 12, we're gonna [00:24:00] send out a new package.
Tommy Truong: Oh wow. So it's, it's a 2000 rolling.
Justin Johnson: keeps replenishing. Yeah. And that's why I said if that, if that, if that bong sits there for two months, I don't care.
I don't need to replenish that, but I might replenish the vape batteries twice by then.
Tommy Truong: Yeah.
Justin Johnson: Right. So that's fine. So that's, it's really growing beyond that. And honestly, we'll give you better pricing if you, if we get off a consignment and you're, you know, again, it's 2000 bucks at some point. If your business is successful, that is trivial, right?
And you're gonna go, you're gonna be in a place where you're spending 10, $15,000. And that's the hope. We hope we can help people get to that stage. And at that point, if they're ordering this stuff from US Cash, right, then it's, they're gonna get, they're gonna get, um, you know, better, better margins on
Tommy Truong: So what's the difference on top of your head? Or is it, you know, off the, what are the better margins on average, uh, from a wholesale perspective?
Justin Johnson: So on wholesale, um, you usually get Keystone, right, or a little bit worse than Keystone. [00:25:00] So Keystone meaning if something's a hundred bucks, you're buying it for 50 and you're selling it at a hundred and you're making 50 bucks. So you just double, you just make your money. Back and then a hundred percent right.
Um, you just double your money. Um, if you start buying at a distro level, distro level is really like 40% below wholesale. So 40% below keystone. So way better. No single store really has the ability to order distro quantities. But say you're, say you're a dispensary and um, you know, you're normally paying like.
Oh, let's say $8 for a vape battery or $9 for a vape battery, and you're selling it for 18 to 20 bucks. If you order 2000 at a time, you know I can get them for you for like six bucks with your name on 'em,
Tommy Truong: Oh,
Justin Johnson: right? And so there's certain items where it's worth ordering in quantity like that. 'cause [00:26:00] you know you're gonna move a lot of 'em.
And you can also open up. Things like personalization. Um, so, but you know, and then there's other, like for instance, we have, uh, we work with a group called Illicit from the Earth. They have two different brands out in Missouri. They're now in Jersey. They're down in New York. They have about 10 shops in Missouri.
You know, they order a lot. So when we, um, and you know, large orders 'cause they're filling a lot of stores, right. And just with the fundamental stuff that's pretty significant. Um. Uh, purchase with us. And so, you know, we, we go to our vendors and our suppliers and we try to make sure that we're securing the best prices possible.
And if we are getting below, um, what we want to make right? 'cause we know what margins we wanna make. Um, if we're getting below that, we try to pass that on to them and give them, you know, some of the economies of scale too. 'cause that way, you know, they continue to be happy with. Or a service, right? We wanna, we know what we wanna make and what we need to make to be successful in our business.
And [00:27:00] if we can take that extra margin and pass that on to our customers and, and, you know, always be their trusted resource. That's perfect.
Tommy Truong: Oh, that's amazing. Yeah, that's how it should be.
Justin Johnson: Yeah. Yeah, totally. I mean, yeah, there's, there's certain times where you definitely wanna try to take more margin, but, you know, on some of the stuff that's gonna be fast movers, it's about speed and making a deal and getting it to them and, and, uh, being resourceful.
I, you know, the battery side of it, you know, I just, I, I try really hard to just make sure I can get people whatever they need, um, because I know that some of these, some of these items are mission critical. And some of them are there to make your store look good. And you know, there's a handful of them are somewhere in the middle of that Venn diagram where they might be a little bit more expensive.
But they move really well. So, you know, like, uh, a, a nice grinder, right? Like maybe flour mill grinder, really good brand. Um, they have a mini, and I can't remember what the, I don't want to [00:28:00] misquote the MSRP, but it's a good price and it's basically last time you get a flour mill. But at a a, a good price, those things fly off the shelf, you know, because, um, they're really, you know.
It's a, it's a high quality brand and it's, it's, you know, at affordable price point. So there's some stuff that kind of lives in the middle there.
Tommy Truong: That I, I feel that's a game within itself for a dispensary owner to figure out if, if your accessories is 1% of sales and you wanna move it to 10, that's a, that's a neat game to play.
Justin Johnson: Yeah. And it's, it's, uh. Yeah, it's, it's difficult, you know, I think a lot of people too, they wanna, you know, I'm this, I'm the, I'm the person. Like I want everybody to love all the cool gadgets. I know all the cool gadgets, like, that's my thing. But I also, you gotta, you gotta realize what kind of establishment you're running.
You know, a lot of people think that they're gonna just revolutionize and elevate the game in this way, and it's just like, [00:29:00] yeah, but have the basic stuff on hand, don't. Don't, don't act like you're above, you know, a $12 battery and some raw rolling papers.
Tommy Truong: No, let's not recreate the wheel. There's, uh,
Justin Johnson: Right? Yeah.
Tommy Truong: there is a Venn diagram, 80
Justin Johnson: I, there's so many people that have come to me and said that stuff and it's just like, I agree with you and I appreciate your intention.
Tommy Truong: I How often do you see dispensaries incorporate in accessories as part of, as part of their loyalty program?
Justin Johnson: Uh, in some states it's the only thing they can, like, I think one of our clients in Massachusetts. Set up a loyalty program where you'd earn points to get merch because you couldn't actually do one to get weed, which is pretty, was pretty cool and innovative of him to do it. And so we supplied all of that and, uh, I gave him a bunch of free stuff.
I found a bunch of, you know, I, I get a lot of samples and stuff, so I, I helped, he, he was launching and he was one of our first customers and gave us a lot of [00:30:00] feedback on the online platform. So I hooked him up with a bunch of goodies as well. And, um. Uh, so yeah, I, I saw that. I don't know. We are integrated with Alpine iq.
I think it's still so early on. I also think, you know, I think the kiosk in the website component of what we build is really important and it's critical. And, and honestly the, one of the most critical components of it is that we have a, um, we have a thing called simple self checkout built in, and it's a QR code based.
Credit card checkout. So if you don't want to pay cash, you wanna buy that $700, uh, volcano up top. You can literally just buy it right here on the screen and you can scan it with your phone and it will open up that final page of the Shopify. And let you enter the credit card right there on your phone and then you can show the, the, um, the bud tender that you're, the order's confirmed and you can actually buy it.
[00:31:00] You know? So that's actually one of the most important components of that, I think. Um, but I guess getting to what I was saying, I, you know, that behavior is not super. Common right to go into a store and sit there and browse a screen. I guess it's becoming more common though, so maybe we're ahead of our time, but I try to, I try to keep it real.
I try to think about how do we physically get product in your store. People don't, you know, I,
Tommy Truong: Well, I mean, there's, there's only oftentimes people just want in their hands.
Justin Johnson: yeah, especially in America, man, it was mad, madly impatient culture, you know?
Tommy Truong: Amazon Prime. That's tomorrow. I'm gonna go, I'm go grab it today.
Justin Johnson: Amazon Prime has ruined it for every small business that does e-commerce because like I literally fulfill a bong in T within 24 hours it's out the door, no, every day, no matter what. And you know, UPS will take four days to [00:32:00] get it there, five days.
You know, sometimes it takes longer than that and. I swear to God, like people will email me like the second day and be like, Hey, where is this? I haven't gone tracking. It's like, Hey, you should have gotten this email. Oh yeah, I did get that email. Sorry. So when is it supposed to be here? I'm like, just kick on, click on the tracking link.
You know, they're like, four days, what is this Russia? You know? And I'm just like, Jesus Christ, you know? And I'm just
Tommy Truong: guys gotta open up center every, every large metropolitan into what you guys need to do.
Justin Johnson: I know and I'm like that, I'm, I am that person with anybody but a small business though. 'cause it's just like, you know, I know what's done to me. But yeah, it's crazy dude. It's, it's unreal. Um, some, some of the customer service stuff that you have to deal with where people, they're like, I ordered it on Saturday.
Why isn't it on shipped yet? It's like, 'cause it's Saturday and people don't work on Saturday or Sunday. They come back on Monday. Well, I ordered Express. I'm like, I don't know why you ordered Express on a Saturday.
Tommy Truong: [00:33:00] Justin, before I let you go, anything else that we haven't spoken about?
Justin Johnson: Oh man, so much. No, I think the big thing is, yeah, it's, it's, you know, obviously bud's feet and. How that led to chill and, you know, ultimately to these guys at ddy of app and now, and now dispenser. It's been cool. It's been, I'll tell you what, that was a rocky road and, uh, very exciting at first. Like, when I first probably met you, it was probably like a very exciting time and then, you know, the trials and tribulations of running a product company and losing a business partner to cancer and, and then, you know, meeting a group of people that really helped elevate you, lift you back up and you know, that clarity and the ability to kind of bring all this stuff together has been really, um.
A blessing. It's very exciting. You know, it's something that I've had in my head for a long time and to be there for real is, is pretty, pretty cool. You know? And we just, you know, we, no nowhere else to go from here. You know? We gotta start working now. And so that's [00:34:00] exciting. So if you're a dispensary and you need help with your accessories, hit me up.
Let's do a free consultation.
Tommy Truong: Really $2,000 guys of co-sign product. What do you have to lose?
Justin Johnson: Right. Yeah, no. Hit me up. I think, um, yeah, I'm really, I'm really hoping to help, you know, I'm excited about New York. I'm excited about what's happening in New Jersey. Um, you know, Minnesota's about to pop. Ohio's blowing up now. Um, you know, so many of these markets, new growing. Um. You know, Arizona, Arizona's kind of staying stagnant, but good.
I mean, you know, some of these markets are doing better than others, but yeah, it's, it's, it's exciting to see how many new states are coming on. 'cause I don't know, it's just indicative of hopefully getting closer to federal legalization in a true market where we can, you know, get a lot of the restrictions lifted and, and, and, and grow like a normal business.
Tommy Truong: Yeah, it's, don't hold your breath. I've held mine for so long.
Justin Johnson: I know, right.
Tommy Truong: I'm blue in the face [00:35:00] now.
Justin Johnson: Yeah. Oh man. Yeah, it's, uh, it, it will likely not be the outcome that me as an advocate wants, you know, and that's, I've kind of come to terms with that a little bit. Um, but I do feel like, I do feel like, uh, economically it is gonna be difficult to put that genie back in the bottle. And I think it's, it would be, uh, considered, uh.
What is it? Uh, almost, almost like, uh, suicide to any political party,
Tommy Truong: Oh yeah.
Justin Johnson: a little bit in their back pocket, you know?
Tommy Truong: Yeah. It's, it's political. We've gotten to, at least we've gotten to a point where it's political suicide.
Justin Johnson: Yeah, yeah. Like saying, like completely shutting it down again would be, it would be a non-starter for Republicans and Democrats alike, so,
Tommy Truong: Yeah. That's not happening, but I do, I do wonder when the reschedule is gonna happen. I mean, there were hiccups along the way, [00:36:00] um, with this new administration, but we'll
Justin Johnson: I think, I think it's gonna get given away, man. I think, I think you're looking at all the little guys struggle right now and a lot of them fail and along the way they built a lot of infrastructure that can be bought up for very cheap, and I think you're gonna have. The alcohol companies and the pharmaceutical companies and some of the consumer packaged goods companies with a lot of know-how on how to develop scaled, you know, tobacco too.
Um, um, tobacco and liquor, you know, they know how to build scaled. Um. Chemical based products, you know, and I, I think, I think, you know, at some point there will be a position where they're like, well, we, we think this should exist, but right now it's unsafe and you really need a company with the ISO certifications of our businesses to do
Tommy Truong: Yeah, you need the regulation.
Justin Johnson: and there's there, and there will be re there will be legislation that says, yes, but you're gonna have to be able to meet these requirements. And a [00:37:00] lot of these people are not gonna be able to meet those requirements unless you're a company of that scale and. Manufacturing capacity. So I unfortunately foresee that happening that could easily happen under Trump.
Why and why would you reschedule if you did that? Rescheduling would be a formality to building the market that you want under big business. So that's, I think that's the more concerning thing to most people. Most people would rather it go completely illegal again than that happened. 'cause at least when it's really illegal, you make a lot more money.
Tommy Truong: Yeah. You know, having it illegal, but having it regulated to death is kind of the same. Really, it, it just means that there's only a handful of people that that can make it go.
Justin Johnson: Regulation just means people aren't making money, you know,
Tommy Truong: Yeah. Well,
Justin Johnson: other than the government, right? And then if it's completely illegal, then you're making a lot more money. 'cause there's no licensing. There's no testing, there's no, you know, and then your, [00:38:00] your, your supply goes down because. It's riskier to grow it and the demand is maintained.
So I don't know. That's what's happening in California right now. They're saying in California, on average, the average store would need to get 200 more customers a month to survive.
Tommy Truong: It's bananas over
Justin Johnson: make, if you make less than $2 million a year in revenue as a dispensary, you'll not survive in California.
Tommy Truong: Yeah, it's bananas. It's it's bananas. How?
Justin Johnson: it's sad. Yeah, and, and I don't, I'm not mad at the guerilla growers like the, the fact is California was the larger, largest exporter of cannabis in the world. Probably. They were the, they, they are, and they were the Napa Valley of Cannabis. Like everybody got their cannabis, at least where I'm from, either from California or from Canada.
Tommy Truong: Yeah.
Justin Johnson: You know, that was Washington state, but even New York, we were getting tons of shit from California. Everybody was getting the weed from California, Europe's getting the weed from California. And now you wanna sell it just within this one state, [00:39:00] in a state where all these people are allowed to home grow, which I believe in as well.
But, you know, and then there's so many counties that restrict it. Like, how are you, how are you going to contain that? There's no way that the, you know, there's just not enough Californians that are gonna go buy illegal wheat.
Tommy Truong: Yeah, no.
Justin Johnson: And so, so it's, it's, it's becoming unsustainable and that's, I think that's where, that's where federal legalization, or at least one of these states just has to say, screw it.
I'm, I'm going to do, uh, uh, what is it? Interstate commerce. I'm, I'm just gonna do it. And just, I'm gonna just ship a bunch to, uh, uh, Germany, medical grade stuff to Germany. Like, you know, somebody's just gonna have to do it because. I don't know, man. It's, it's without interstate commerce, uh, none of these state, all these states hit that point where that supply supersedes the demand and then the prices start to drop and then everybody just starts [00:40:00] competing on price.
And then you just have a bunch of garbage. And a lot of the good guys end up going down because they can't compete because they only want to grow good product. And, you know, that seems to be the demise of most of these states.
Tommy Truong: Yeah, and then the government makes less money, so they increase their taxes.
Justin Johnson: It is crazy. Yeah. That's California in a nutshell,
Tommy Truong: Yeah, there you go. It's like, oh, we expect to make more money. Let's just increase taxes. That'll solve everything.
Justin Johnson: right? Yeah, totally. So, and then they do grants for, so social equity dispensaries, and I'm just like, how about you just. Don't tax the social equity applicants. Why are you creating, why am I, why are we giving you 20 million and then you create a $2 million grant program? Like how long did it take you to craft and write a grant program?
Like how many hundreds of thousands of dollars did you pay somebody to build that program instead of just taxing those people, $2 million less? Like, what? What the [00:41:00] heck? Dude, it's so backwards. I'm so glad I'm not in politics.
Tommy Truong: Justin, before I let you go, how can our listeners find you?
Justin Johnson: Uh, yeah. Uh, buds feeded.com. B-U-D-S-F-E-E d.com, uh, chill.store. Uh, dot store, not a.com, uh, and then dispenser.com. D-Y-S-P-E-N-S r.com. It's quite a unique name. So, uh, dispenser.com. So those are the three kind of like, those are my things. That's what's going on.
Tommy Truong: Guys, hit 'em up. $2,000 co-sign. What are you waiting for?
Justin Johnson: Yeah, let's do it.
Tommy Truong: Let's go.
Thank you so much for listening to this episode. Before I let you go, let's find out who won the budtender spotlight of the week.
We are celebrating budtenders who keep our industry thriving, and this week's Budtender Spotlight winner is Bryana from Kindling Cannabis in Ontario. David who nominated Bryana [00:42:00] states she consistently goes above and beyond her kind, professional approach and dedication makes her an absolute essential to the team. Congratulations, Bryana. If you have a Budtender you wanna nominate, please check out the Budtender spotlight section on KayaPush. We announce winners every week. Winners receive a $50 gift card as well as a personalized certificate highlighting their achievements.
Thanks for listening to the Kaya Cast Podcast. We hope you enjoyed the show. Don't forget to subscribe to our podcast in your favorite podcast app, or visit our website of episode.
