Use this search box to find articles that have run in our newspapers over the last several years.
Date: 3/4/2020
CHICOPEE – Step into the new Theory Wellness cannabis dispensary at 672 Fuller Rd. and you might think you had stepped into a jewelry store.
High ceilings, a modern design and glass display cabinets with some of the company’s products artfully arranged are prominent. When you walk inside, copies of bound menus of the products they sell are available and the long counter has salespeople who can advise customers.
The retail store, which had been a vacant industrial building, was designed in partnership with James Beard award-winning design group The Morris Project.
“We pride ourselves on a high level of service,” Brandon Pollock, CEO of Theory Wellness, explained to Reminder Publishing.
The new dispensary, which serves both recreational and medical customers, opened its doors at 9 a.m. on Feb. 29. On that cold morning, people were lined up and ready to shop.
The new shop is about a mile from the city’s first dispensary, Mass Alternative Care, Inc. at 1247 East Main St. Chicopee has become the first city in Hampden County with two dispensaries.
Pollock explained this is the second retail location for them – the company has a medical facility in Bridgewater and a medical and recreational shop in Great Barrington, as well as its own agricultural unit in Sheffield – and represents a $1.5 million investment and the employment of 50 people.
Pollock said the company is the only one in Massachusetts with farm-grown marijuana – as opposed to cannabis grown inside a building. That way of growing is more environmentally friendly and less expensive, he noted.
One more difference to their sales approach is what Pollock called the “deli style” of selling cannabis for smoking. The flower is stored in glass containers and is weighed at the point of sale and then packaged for the customer rather than being pre-packaged. This way ensures what Pollock described as “full transparency.”
He noted, “Almost everything here we produce ourselves at our Bridgewater location.”
Pollock added, “We’ve learned a lot from our adult-use sales in Great Barrington and have translated those learnings for this new location.”
The store is open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday and from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday. Customers can pre-order products through its website at www.theorywellness.org.