From Movies to MJ

Tad Sooter, a business reporter at the Kitsap Sun, recently blogged about the applicants for marijuana retail licenses in Kitsap County. Curious, I perused the list he provided to see if a pot shop will be opening near me. Assuming the licenses are granted and business plans succeed, there will be several, with two businesses indicating that they want to operate out of former video rental stores.

Initiative 502, passed by voters in November 2012, legalized recreational marijuana in Washington. While it has been legal for adults to possess small quantities of pot for more than a year, you haven’t been able to buy it anywhere, at least not without breaking the law.

The Washington State Liquor Control Board, the agency overseeing the implementation details, took a year to write the rules for the new system, which cover, as they put it, everything from “seed to sale.” Today (12/20/13) is the last day to apply for marijuana producer, processor, and retailer licenses. I’m not sure what happens next in the lengthy process, but one projection I read is that pot stores won’t be open before late spring of 2014. Colorado is going to beat us by several months on that milestone.

So far there are 21 applications for retailing marijuana in Kitsap County. Most are in urban areas, with more than half (11) indicating a Bremerton address. None of them chose the catchy name “Mud Bay MJ,” although one business will be close enough to have considered it.

Emerald Coast plans to open a marijuana store at 3100 Kitsap Way. That’s the site of the former Total Video (see photo), last open in 2011. In my view, Total Video was the best place in Bremerton to rent DVDs, and I was bummed enough by their closing to write a blog entry. Emerald Coast also applied for an East Bremerton location. It isn’t clear if one of their two sites is a duplicate application or if the company really plans to open two stores.

A couple of businesses have opened at 3100 Kitsap Way since Total Video closed. One, Vapen Smoke, almost sounds like it could be in the pot business, but instead it sells tobacco products and e-cigarettes. 3100 Kitsap Way is a large building, so there is plenty of retail space for another business there.

The second closest pot store to Mud Bay, again assuming license approval and business plan success, will be at 1107 Callow Avenue with the name C & C Shop. Years ago Blockbuster operated out of this space. (Not to be confused with the Blockbuster a half mile away at Oyster Bay Plaza, which hung on until late last year.)

1107 Callow Avenue also houses a 7-Eleven and a Little Caesar’s pizza franchise. Both businesses seem to be doing well and might even see their sales go up if C & C’s customers think ahead about warding off the “marijuana munchies.”

I’m a frequent Little Caesar’s customer, primarily during the baseball playoffs in October, so I know the location well. Will a pot store succeed there? There’s good access, visibility, and parking, and lots of traffic on 11th Street, so maybe so.
It would be even better if a video rental place and a marijuana store opened there. Ditto for 3100 Kitsap Way. That’s not likely given that the business model for most video rental stores no longer works, but a person can dream, right?

If you live in Kitsap County and want to see if a pot store will be opening near you, check out Tad Sooter’s post.