Annalee Adams checks the ID of a customer at Marijuana Mart Wednesday afternoon in Grand Mound.
Mad Mark cannabis is on display at Marijuana Mart Wednesday afternoon in Grand Mound.
Medicinal marijuana packages sit in a display case at Marijuana Mart last April n in Grand Mound.
An apple and orca shaped pipes are displayed for sale at Marijuana Mart Wednesday afternoon in Grand Mound.
Trisha Springer talks about the various pieces on display at Marijuana Mart.
From left to right, Trisha Springer, Jared Lord, Shahala Escano, Annalee Adams pose for a photo at Marijuana Mart as they continue to stay open amid the coronavirus outbreak Wednesday afternoon in Grand Mound.
While some cannabis retailers around the country are reporting massive surges in revenue during the coronavirus pandemic, and others who rely on tourism are seeing sales fall off, a local marijuana vendor in Rochester has found itself somewhere in between the two opposites.
“I wouldn’t say we are booming, but business has been up since the pandemic,” said Mike Trobman, co-owner of Marijuana Mart.
Trobman, along with his lifelong friend Derek Wilmot, have owned Marijuana Mart since they opened its doors at 6230 197th Avenue Southwest in Rochester in 2015.
Their store, like all cannabis retailers in Washington, was deemed an essential service in Gov. Jay Inslee’s stay-at-home order that was announced on March 23 and experienced business shoot up by approximately 20 percent in the three weeks that followed the order compared to the same time frame a month prior, according to Trobman.
According to CNBC, some stores around the country that are allowed to deliver cannabis to a customer’s doorstep have reported that business is up by as much as 130 percent. But conversely, CNBC also reported cannabis retailers in areas like Las Vegas, Nevada, that rely on tourists buying marijuana, stock is piling up.
With all things considered, Trobman said he was pleased with where his business is at.
More accurately, Trobman said, Marijuana Mart has seen its business spike in waves. One of those waves came a week before the stay-at-home order was announced, where people flocked to the store to stock up on cannabis products.
“We had a few days that were just crazy,” Trobman said, referencing the days leading up to Gov. Inslee’s stay-at-home order.
During the week before the stay-at-home order, sales climbed to the tune of 50 percent at Marijuana Mart, according to Trobman.
Trobman’s inclination for why that is isn’t too hard to guess: People prematurely assumed that cannabis retailers would be considered nonessential.
But Trobman carries a strong argument for why Marijuana Mart and other cannabis retailers like it are considered an essential service.
“We are a medically licensed and endorsed store,” Trobman said. “And so we have a lot of medical customers and if we were to close down you’re essentially taking their medicine from them, including individuals who have chronic pain and over the years ended up being addicted to painkillers because there was no other legal option out there.”
Also, Trobman believes that marijuana has made the quarantine easier for folks to deal with emotionally.
“It makes it easier to stay home and right now that’s what they’re suggesting,” Trobman said.
With Marijuana Mart still being allowed to operate, the responsibility for store manager Shawn O’Neill to maintain a safe, socially distanced store has been at a premium.
In order to help out on that front, O’Neill said Marijuana Mart has added a couple staff members to watch the door to enforce a one-customer-per-worker policy as well as keep door handles and countertops sanitized.
“The safety of my crew and our guests is at the top of my list,” O’Neill said. “And that’s why we are doing the things we have been doing … we are all in this together, we’re all trying to get through this together and we’re just trying to do our job and provide for our guests as best as we can.”
