Happy Valley-Goose Bay's first pot shop opens while Labrador City still has supply problems
Smiling, Monica Surina of Happy Valley-Goose Bay held up the cannabis she bought Tuesday in the town's first legalized cannabis shop.
"I got some Moonbeam and some Sunset, and I also found out that they've got another brand, Highlands, that they have in pre-rolled, so I'm going to be asking Santa for this for my Christmas stocking," she said.
"So I am ecstatic. I can't wait to go home now and try some and it's a darn good feeling to be able to do this after all these years."
Surina had been waiting more than 40 years for legal recreational cannabis use, she said, calling it long overdue. In Happy Valley-Goose Bay, she had to wait longer than the rest of the country.
Tweed's first shop opened Tuesday, two months after recreational cannabis use was legalized in Canada.
Courtney Langille of Tweed in Newfoundland and Labrador said the company had a lot of work to do to make sure the store would meet customers' expectations.
"Goose Bay is a very unique area, and we knew that we would be dealing with some unique challenges, and we wanted to make sure that we could navigate them," she said.
"There was a lot of work from getting the infrastructure all updated. There's a lot in the back in terms of the vault and the different specs that they wanted to have for security. There's a lot that's gone into this, from making sure that it really represented our brand, but also was something very special for the community here as well."
In line outside, customer Adam Hillyard was similarly glad to see the store finally open.
"I never ever thought this was going to happen, and I'm glad that the Liberals made it happen," he said.
Gavin Rodgers, among the first in line, was also pleased
"Buying it legally now, whenever you want pretty much, come up here whenever you want, it's good," he said. "Trying to find marijuana other ways, you know, on the black market, is kinda goddamn hard."
Customer Karl Manuel, though, was tempering his expectations on legal weed.
"I've heard mediocre stuff about it, so I'm trying to find out if it's any good [or] continue with the old sources, if you will," he said. Asked if he was excited about the first legal shop in the town, he shrugged his shoulders and laughed.
"It's not that big a deal, man. People have been doing it forever and continue doing it," he said. "People who haven't might try it, but it's really status quo. And government's trying to make some money. That's it."
If I had a dollar for every time we had to say 'sorry,' we'd be sitting pretty now. - Trevor Tobin
More than 500 kilometres away, in Labrador City, the owners of the first cannabis shop in the Big Land say their customers are still disappointed by supply problems.
High North of Labrador City had to temporarily close less than two weeks after opening in October because of a stock shortage. The store still has shortened hours because a lack of supply makes it unprofitable to staff the store too much, say the owners, and while things have improved, there's still a long way to go.
"We've been getting an order pretty much every Saturday here lately from one of the companies, but the other companies are still not up to par where we feel they should be," said Brenda Tobin, who owns the shop with her son, Trevor Tobin.
Trevor Tobin said High North needs to be able to order more from suppliers.
"We're receiving an order form saying 'This is what is available to you and this is the limited quantity you can have of it," he said. "So right now they're in full control, I guess, of what we're getting, whereas we would like to see it come full circle where we can actually pick and choose what we order, and how much of it."
Supply issues have changed the way the Tobins order stock, they say. Rather than placing a large order with one company, they'll do multiple smaller orders with as many companies as they can.
"That way we receive at least some shipment different times throughout the week so we can keep the doors open and not have to close 'em again."
Supply issues are disappointing and frustrating their customers, he said.
"If I had a dollar for every time we had to say 'sorry,' we'd be sitting pretty now," he said.
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