Marijuana Business Magazine May-June 2020

May-June 2020 | mjbizdaily.com 49 of mind about taking time off when needed. It also fosters an appreciation for the company that will manifest itself in higher-quality work. Adjust Your Curbside Strategy to Your Building: Curbside pickup is a welcome allowance but one that’s been hard to master. Consider a two-stop process to your curbside efforts. LEANING ON YOUR TEAM Oliver Summers, CEO, Chai, Santa Cruz and Castroville, California Regulatory differences between municipalities resulted in a patchwork response to the coronavirus health crisis in California. That disparity forced cannabis operators such as Oliver Summers, director of retail strategies for Captor Capital Corp, a Toronto-based company that owns one cannabis store in Santa Cruz, California, and another about 40 minutes away in Castroville, to create new procedures not once but twice. Both stores operate under the brand name Chai. In Santa Cruz, marijuana stores had to close their sales floors but did allow curbside pickup and delivery—ser- vices Chai already offered through the third-party service I Heart Jane. In Cas- troville, Chai was allowed to keep the store open and add a curbside pickup option, but delivery was prohibited. With the in-store option no longer available in Santa Cruz, Summers deployed personnel to the delivery and curbside pickup efforts. Deliveries had not been a big part of Chai’s business, and Summers joked that they “tripled” from about three to nine per day during the coronavirus epidemic. Curbside pickup proved much more popular. Summers likened the pickup model to a McDonald’s drive-thru, where you place an order or provide your order number at one window and then pay for and pick up your order at the next window. There is one small difference, however: Chai has doors. “We have these extra doors that usually always remain locked and gated and never used. But in this particular situation … it worked out for us to open up one of those doors for my employees to make sure that they kept their distance (from consumers).” Both cash and cashless option were available, Summers added. The Castroville location posed a different challenge, requiring Summers to prepare the store for physical distancing. Chai capped the number of people allowed on the sales floor to six—three budtenders and three customers—and also closed off the waiting room, so customers waited outside while practicing physical distancing. “I make the joke that we’re in the process of a remodel,” Summers quipped. “We have deals with our neighbors, so there’s no interference with them and everything seems to be operating. Everybody in Santa Cruz has been great. I have to say, the other day we started to get our first complaints in Castroville. But it’s not because of not taking it far enough, it’s because we were taking too many precautions.” As a rugby player, Summers attribut- ed the smooth transitions to teamwork. “I learned a long time ago that it’s 100% all about the team. And my team of managers that I have right now—my purchasing manager, my four gener- al managers—I call them Voltron,” Summers said, referring to the animated television series. “They run the shops so well for me right now that it’s not even a concern of mine when a little thing happens because they’re so on top of it and rely on each other so well. The two general managers in the Castroville shop and my two general managers in Santa Cruz, they’re constantly talking with my purchasing manager, who is constantly in touch with me.” ➤ Takeaways Teamwork: Hiring and maintaining a team with players who are experienced, customer-centric, cooperative and check their egos at the door is critical to successful adjustments in business operations. Communication: Chai’s two stores were able to implement different pivots while maintaining business activity because managers and executives communicated extensively. Good Relations: By proactively informing neighboring businesses about changes you have to make—such as clos- ing the waiting room so customers have to wait outside—you can avert friction. Ilera Healthcare created a drive-thru for patients at The Apothecarium in Pennsylvania. Courtesy Photo