Marijuana Business Magazine April 2020

April 2020 | mjbizdaily.com 93 The award-winning design of Common Citizen was created by overhauling a former sports bar. Courtesy Photo Flint, Michigan-based Common Citizen transformed a dilapidated former sports bar into a dispensary. Although not part of the initial plan, the company’s facility became the first cannabis retail outlet to garner a prestigious design award, winning kudos for its “innovative space” and “black and white design palette.” The dispensary also has a cafe. Here are key elements in Common Citizen’s approach: • The company’s strategy is to put patients first, maximizing consumer comfort, education and accessibility. • The cafe is intended to offer customers a view of the retail floor as well as a familiar venue to offset what might be an unfamiliar and/or stigmatized first experience visiting a dispensary. • Private rooms, designed as lounges, offer retail floor views, comfortable couches and sliding barn doors to accommodate confidentiality for customers recovering from serious ailments or living with chronic illness. • The dispensary’s open concept doesn’t differentiate between the retail floor, the cafe, private rooms or the entry. • Common Citizen uses a “needs- based” layout that arranges products by color, intended effect and common health condition. “Common Citizen, at its core, is a movement,” Elias said. “It’s cannabis for humanity. We are not a product- centric environment. We are a very customer-, needs-based environment. We are not pushing product, we are pushing education. We’re pushing a connection. We are educators before we’re retailers. So everything that shows up in the design is based on that core principle.” Balance of Form and Function The ICSC pointed out that “the innovative space incorporates a wel- coming lobby entry leading to free- standing, high-top counters equipped with mounted tablets, display units containing branded merchandise and related paraphernalia and a variety of seating and lounge areas.” According to Elias, the dispensary’s “balance of form and function” is driving increasingly positive online reviews and generating approximately 56% more revenue per customer visit than before the remodel. Inside the facility, customers can enjoy a variety of spaces that serve different needs but are all integrated into the open-concept retail floor. The dispensary, for example, offers several private rooms where— when the sliding barn doors that enable confidential consultation and browsing are open—patients recovering from serious illnesses can relax on roomy couches that provide a view of the retail floor. “We’ve used these with patients who may not be able to walk because they just went through chemo and radiation, and they’re completely depleted,” Elias said of the rooms. “We bring product to them, and if they want to talk about their illness, they can do it in this very comfortable, private setting.” A Cafe for Newcomers The dispensary also includes a cafe that’s separated from the retail floor by a glass partition, enabling customers to sip a familiar brew while viewing products and activity on the floor itself. “Many people were surprised at the cafe,” Elias said, “because it’s designed to slow people down.” But it provides a way to “engage-at- a-glance” and enables the store’s budtenders (or “citizen advocates,” as Common Citizen calls them) to sit down with customers, “connect, educate and build rapport.” Elias touts the cafe as being an especially important attraction for clientele who aren’t yet acquainted with cannabis—the market segment that comprises the bulk of Common Citizen’s visitors. “The entire design of the store,” he said, “is designed to cater to the 88% of folks that do not consume (cannabis) today.” He also credits the cafe, along with the budtenders, for Common Citizen’s increasing sales and favorable reviews. Addressing Challenges Common Citizen occupies Flint’s former Raincheck Lounge, a once- popular sports bar that had long been a staple in the community. The building was, however, past its prime. “Aside from the existing exterior walls, our Flint location (needed to be) completely remodeled and