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Date: 3/17/2022
AMHERST – Joining the recreational cannabis scene in town is Pleasantrees, a Michigan-based company that now has opened their second Massachusetts dispensary.
With the new Amherst location, the town joins Easthampton as the only two Massachusetts Pleasantrees location, while there are six retail stores in Michigan.
“We want people to come in. I want it to be a house, I want to be able to have people come in here, have a good time and be able to talk,” Zach Wilson, director of retail at the new Amherst location, said. “We are excited to be open and really excited for the grow to get up and running. Then they can really show what they do.”
According to the company’s website the mission of Pleasantrees is to cultivate and sell the highest quality cannabis with focus on hospitality and community.
Pleasantrees believes that terpenes – aromatic compounds found in many places but especially at high concentration levels in cannabis – are essential to their cannabis experience. They have partnered with scientists at Sfumato Fragrances, a niche natural perfumery based in Detroit, Michigan, to help catalog and explain the various terpenes that are found in their products.
This positive trend in Michigan led to the company’s desire to expand and move east. With Massachusetts still growing as an up-and-coming market in the cannabis industry, it became an easy choice where to start the multi-state operation.
Wilson said joining the Pleasnatrees team has been great as someone who has worked in the cannabis industry since its legalization in Massachusetts. Wilson said not only is their new location a “fantastic” space, but the well-established grow in Michigan where Pleasantrees produces their product has spurred their domination of the Michigan wholesale market.
Wilson says that in his own experience visiting the Michigan grow that he saw an established group and operation where everyone knew exactly what they were doing and credited Pleasantrees for their great work environment and order in running their business.
With the ongoing grow happening currently in Michigan, the new Amherst location is awaiting their proprietary product but once they have their product Wilson feels they will have a large range of options in the Amherst location that will bring in and retain happy customers.
“We really put our stake in the ground on a curated menu,” Wilson said. “I’ve been around and kind of been able to work with the growers to really start to not only get the best product in but really work on the price too.”
Wilson shared that he has worked in the Massachusetts cannabis industry for a while now and in his time with Curaleaf, a medical and wellness cannabis operator, he opened four stores in Massachusetts and four more in Connecticut.
“I just love building teams and building the dispensaries and doing all that kind of stuff. Where its not as big of a focus as upselling all that kind of stuff,” Wilson said. “I used to work at Verizon and selling $1200 iPads to little old ladies who cant work their flip phone, that can sit in your conscious. Cannabis to me is the last honest sell.”
Wilson added that once the Michigan grow is added to their available options it would provide customers with high end and general products that they could choose from. Flexibility in product is something they are striving for.
“We can still have the good prices but also stuff that’s far above everything else,” he added.
In their roots in Michigan, Pleasantrees locations tend to be near college towns and have always had a focus on social equity, something that in Massachusetts is mandatory though taxes for cannabis businesses. A full social equity plan is listed on their site.
“Cannabis should never have been illegal. We’re doing all we can to mitigate the harmful effects of prohibition from creating equal access across the value chain of the industry to eliminating the cultural stignma surrounding this incredible plant,” they write on their site. “Frankly put, whatever Pleasantrees is doing, it is not enough. We are working hard to stay abreast of developments, attend to social needs, and remain dedicated to identifying and cultivating new, cutting-edge avenues to right historical wrongs.”