Grower Stories #105: Chris Logan and Chris Long

Cosmic Cannabis Store Is All About Excellent Products

Chris Logan and Chris Long of Cosmic Cannabis sit with the team of AskGrowers to share the story of their Alaskan store, the cannabis products they sell to the locals and tourists, and their dedication to the people of the planet. These guys talk about their experience in the cannabis market and the audience's favorite brands and products. #growerstories

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Cosmic Cannabis Team : Chris Logan and Chris Long are the owners of both Cosmic Seaweed and Cosmic Cannabis. They started with their Marijuana Product Manufacturing, Cosmic Seaweed. After about 18 months, they then opened the doors to the retail store, Cosmic Cannabis. They're both certified nurses and ultimately wanted to help people.

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Tia (AskGrowers) : What is it like to be a dispensary in a town with 6,000 inhabitants?

Cosmic Cannabis Team : Homer is one of those small towns where "everybody knows everybody," but you're always meeting new people. We have our regulars that come in often, but since we are a tourist town, we also get our fair share of fresh faces. Being a dispensary in a small town, we've also noticed that we get to have genuine interactions with our customers.

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Tia : What share of your sales comes from tourist inquiries? How has this changed in 2020 due to the pandemic?

Cosmic Cannabis Team : We opened during the pandemic (September 2020), unsure how our sales would turn out. The few businesses around us that we were looking forward to sharing customers with ended up closing around the time of our grand opening. It affected us, but we had also just opened, so we didn't have anything to compare.

Now we made it out of the pandemic and are still open! We are looking forward to this summer and how tourism will change moving forward.

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Tia : What problems did you face at the beginning of your development, and what is stopping you now?

Cosmic Cannabis Team : We've faced all of the typical start-up problems: defining specific roles, hiring new people, all the laws and regulations, etc. - it's a learning curve that we all continue to grow from and improve.

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Tia : What product is the most popular with your customers now?

Cosmic Cannabis Team : We're right on the beach, so prerolls are a big seller because they're convenient. We also carry mostly concentrates from our manufacturer, Cosmic Seaweed, which is our most popular product by far.

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Tia : You've probably heard that preroll sales hit a record in 2020. Did you also have this tendency? If yes, please share your assumptions about why prerolls conquered the market?

Cosmic Cannabis Team : Again, we opened in the year 2020, but since opening our retail store, we've seen a steady demand for prerolls. Like I mentioned before, prerolls are easy and convenient. First-time users find them easy to start with. Then there are your more experienced consumers who still enjoy the convenience of lighting up an already rolled J. They're appealing to a majority of our customer base in general.

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Tia : By what criterion do your customers choose a product? More THC, or are they more interested in terpenes?

Cosmic Cannabis Team : The market as a whole has been set up more for the THC aspect, but our staff is invested in learning more about terpenes as they continue to release studies about terpenes and their properties and effects. Then as budtenders, relaying that information to the customer or consumer to be better informed when purchasing products.

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Tia : Has the target audience and its preferences changed from legalization to the present time? If so, how exactly?

Cosmic Cannabis Team : Definitely. Consumers feel more comfortable asking questions about cannabis now, opening up so many options for them. Customers will explain what they're looking for or what they need help with (pain relief, nausea, sleep aid, etc.), and then our budtenders can then point them in the right direction of products that align with those needs.

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Tia : Please name five cannabis brands that your customers trust.

Cosmic Cannabis Team :

• Cosmic Seaweed
• High North
• Lady Gray Medibles
• Kreative Konfections
• Herban Extracts

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Tia : Do you personally use cannabis? Do you have any product and brand preferences?

Cosmic Cannabis Team : Yes, I do personally use cannabis for many reasons, such as pain relief, insomnia, appetite & to feel good. My flower preferences at the moment stick with High North. I've tried 3 of their strains so far, and every single one has been delightful: taste, cure, and effect. My concentrate preferences are, of course, with Cosmic Seaweed. They've been coming out with these fantastic sugars lately that I can't get enough of.

And my favorite edible at the moment is the Milk Chocolate Bars from Great Northern. I can't stop with a few pieces. I eat the whole bar. Every. Time.

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Tia : What values does your company adhere to?

Cosmic Cannabis Team : We're locally owned and operated here in Homer, and our primary value is our relationship with customers. We're here for them, and we wouldn't be here without them, so keeping our community happy is of the utmost importance to us.

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Tia : Your website says that you value and protect nature. How exactly do you do it?

Cosmic Cannabis Team : Keeping our environment clean is essential to us. Especially living in beautiful Alaska, and on top of that, we are lucky enough to be right on the beach. We've done beach clean-up events. We've installed trash cans in surrounding areas to help avoid litter and trash build-up. We're in the process of swapping over to more biodegradable packaging and recycling as much as possible. We are always trying to find new ways to help where we can and give back.

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Tia : Do you have delivery? How do you think dispensaries will change when cannabis delivery is as normal as ordering a pizza?

Cosmic Cannabis Team : Legally, we are not able to offer a delivery service. Yet.

When that is legally available, we will look into offering that service. As a cannabis user myself, I can't wait for the day I can order online and have it show up on my doorstep!

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Thank you so much, Cosmic Cannabis Company team, for taking the time to do the interview. To learn more about them, head on over to their website.