So I went to a Windy City Cannabis dispensary yesterday.
I am going to describe the experience so
@truthbedamned or others in 420-legal states can tell me if they are just as odd.
First, you walk up to the location and they have a line formed outside, complete with rented crowd control barricades used to make a snaking line. This might simply be the case until the surge of customers normalizes. No one nor any signage indicates what you're waiting for... is everyone waiting? Is this a line for specific items? I keep seeing people walk in, ignoring the line... are we just f***ing idiots and the security inside is waiting for us to figure it out? Nah I keep seeing the line-ignorers show a card... must be a medical card... they don't have to wait in line I suppose, seems logical.
So I wait.
The store has security, and they all appear to be police (county?) whom scan your license when you enter. Combined with the line outside it basically feels like waiting to get into a college bar at 11pm.... security checks your ID and only lets in a certain number at a time.
Once inside, you enter a waiting room kinda like a doctors office waiting room, with a front desk that just says Registration while other workers also do Registration in the waiting area using tablets.
A line has formed leading to the Registration desk, and the tablet-wielding employees call the front of the line as they finish registering people, so I know I'm in a line that goes somewhere this time.
Each person who "registers" shows their ID which is scanned by the tablet and put into their system, and then they tell you what they have available and they order what you want, and ask you to take a seat in the waiting area.
I take a seat and the lady next to me has a number she is waiting to be called... I did not receive a number... wtf?
Not 30 seconds later, another security guard sitting at a door across the room from the door I entered from the outside, calls me and the lady next to me to go in.
I go in and there's just 3 people standing behind counters with screens in front of them, but again no signage and they are chatting to eachother... lady in front of me isn't sure what to do... I figure just go talk to one of these people, they at least seem friendly.
I go to the one on the left... he asks me nothing and just starts reading off my order... perhaps they have the orders and your license photo? Either way, he knows what I want so I confirm.
He walks to the other side of the room behind the counter to boxes on the floor and grabs my items from said boxes. Then he puts them in a small paper bag and gives me my total. I pay him and he gives me my change, and hands me the bag. No receipt (it was in the bag), and I just turn and make my way back thru the doors I came in... which feels odd... to have a line leading into this destination, and then you just kinda have to weave thru that line of people to get back outside.
I mean I get this is a newly legal product for recreation, but they've been selling medical for a bit now, they didn't just open these stores... yet it feels like they moved into that space yesterday, threw boxes and furniture down, and just started operating.
I don't grasp why you need to check IDs at the door, then at registration and someone has to order the things I want for me on a tablet, and then I wait for a mystery summoning by a security guard, who sends me into a room where people read that electronic order off a screen and go get the stuff.
Couldn't you just have people in the spot you pay with tablets and whatnot... scan my license, take my order, go fill it, take my money.... and have a path to the outside from said room that is exit only.
Seems like it would still fulfill whatever documentation they are required to do by taking your info before the order, while cutting the wait from ordering to paying and gtfo'ing.
Anyone in any other states find dispensaries to be kinda oddly/vaguely organized like this?
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