Saint John will soon see another Cannabis NB location open on Sept. 30.
The new store will be on the city’s west side, off of Fairville Boulevard, and be located at 20 Plaza Avenue, Unit 10.
Vice President of Operations, Lara Wood, says the new location will help evolve Cannabis NB’s network and reduce illicit activity in the area.
“So, this is one of six stores that we’ve opened this summer and spring … we still have our original network of 20 stores, and we’ve been looking at the best way to evolve that network and create better access for customers.”
“We looked at locations that have good traffic, good movement, aren’t close to another one of our stores, but also maybe areas where there’s some illicit activity, where we can offer better legal options,” continued Wood.
Wood mentioned once the new west side location opens, it will fill a gap for Saint John.
“This Fairville location was one of those spots, we sort of evaluated where we had gaps in access, and where we had customers who we thought would be interested in having access to a Cannabis NB store, so we’re trying to fill those gaps.”
Currently, west side consumers have to travel over a bridge to locations on the city’s north end, or east side to purchase legal cannabis products.
“We are very excited to be here, we think this is a great location, there’s a lot of traffic and a lot of folks that are on the other side of the bridge, so for convenience for them, this is another great opportunity just have this location here and have the convenience for our customers,” mentioned Lori Stickles, president, and CEO of Cannabis NB.
Stickles brought up that the location is considered a “pop-up” store, and that the organization does not own the property, but is leasing it from a landlord.
“We’re in two leases that are less than two years, so it just depends on the landlord and the location.”
“So, they are typically short-term leases to ensure we’ve got the right location, that we’ve got the right sized footprint, and then from there we aren’t locking ourselves into long-term leases to ensure we’ve made the right decision on location,” added Stickles.
Cannabis NB has hired staff for the west side location and will offer local New Brunswick cannabis products.