“It was kind of like a mini trade show where you had some of the best brands in the state here to represent and show the neighborhood what cannabis is all about.”
Even for a one-of-a-kind dispensary that doubles as a weed mall across from Fenway Park, Saturday was quite the spectacle at New Día Cannabis Co., with a party featuring a Mario Kart tournament on a massive LED screen and custom t-shirt printing from GreenCare Collective.
“Like with any cannabis business, getting our doors open has been a long and challenging road, so we couldn’t be happier to celebrate with the Boston community,” CEO Ross Bradshaw said about the event. “We’re ready to carve out our own piece of history on Lansdowne Street, and with our cannabis mall concept, we’re looking forward to exploring all the possibilities to come. … We’re also looking to help you have other experiences within the dispensary. We’re considering a hoop that people can shoot on, or you can go upstairs and buy a pair of kicks. And hopefully eventually there will be a consumption lounge. We’re just looking to collab and do things that haven’t been done in the cannabis space.”
Regarding the galleria concept, New Día has a whopping 11,200 square feet of retail and shopping, with six “mall-style kiosks” stocked by partners including TILT (Highsman, Toast, Old Pal), GreenCare (Cookies, House of Cultivar, Bonsai), LC Square (Sparq), Nimbus, Pioneer Valley, and Chill Medicated.
“New Día centers its responsibility towards its community and diversity, which is why as a cannabis operator with high-quality and diverse brands from diverse founders, TILT can help bring their mall to life,” TILT interim CEO Tim Conder said. “Opening a dispensary is no small feat, especially in the Commonwealth directly across from Fenway Park. Game day at Fenway, and concert nights in the music-rich area, will never be the same again.”
“The important thing to us was having brands that are going to speak to all the different kinds of people we are going to see because of where we are located,” Bradshaw told Talking Joints Memo. “You have a baseball crowd one minute and then you have a concert the next; we wanted to have friends that could speak to every single customer that comes to our door. For example, we have Cookies which appeals to the younger hip-hop crowd, but then we also have Old Pal, which is more like you have your pipe and you’re ready to smoke it up. And we also had to make sure they were good partners with one another and so that there’s always a good full menu that collabs.”
As for the grand opening, the CEO added, “We activated all of our store’s in-stores … It was kind of like a mini trade show where you had some of the best brands in the state here to represent and show the neighborhood what cannabis is all about. … All the traffic that we get is organic. People see us on the street and they’re in town for a day. Oftentimes, you’re introducing cannabis to people who traditionally don’t even go to a dispensary. For us it’s a great thing because they walk through our doors and their minds are kind of blown.”
“There’s nothing like this that I’ve experienced, so for us it’s all about letting people know it’s not fluff—you have to experience this. We have this undeniable unshakable faith that once people see this, they will come back.”
