What’s being a budtender in Ann Arbor like?
It’s like being a bartender, a cashier and helping people shop for the latest smartphone, all rolled together–according to our first budtender of the month, Mark (identified without full name for personal privacy reasons) who works at The Cake House Ann Arbor Dispensary.
He was too young to become a budtender when cannabis was first legalized in Michigan. But being a budtender felt like a natural extension of his skillset and experience in food and retail, so once he turned 21 he began exploring how to break into the field.
“I like weed and I’m knowledgeable about it,” he said. “Some of the cost of products can be pretty high, especially if you’re buying nicer stuff — this is how it’s like helping people shop for nice phones. So helping people was a drive for me. It’s a very interpersonal job.”
The cannabis industry is also a lot more controlled than the food industry. People’s IDs are scanned at the door, everyone needs to be over 21, and even though people can still be annoying, those two factors seem to help limit rambunctious or inappropriate customers.
But Mark still has his stories. There are definitely sweet stories, like the old lady who had cancer and the cannabis really helped her pain, he said. But he has some creepy stories too, like a guy who tried to get into the delivery car he was driving to go back to the store with him and wasn’t taking no for an answer.
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And he has funny stories too: “A guy who’s a parole officer and on the parole board in a state where cannabis is illegal came in to buy weed once! That was so funny. If you ask my grandma, ‘Who shops at a dispensary?’, she’ll say something like, ‘Shaggy from Scooby Doo.’ But it’s a lot of young professionals — people who, by all common assumptions, should have nothing to do with cannabis.”
As far as breaking stereotypes for who consumes weed, Mark said he sees a lot of health care workers come into the store and get edibles. “Cannabis consumers are a very diverse group of people.”
(This reminds me of when I worked in the food industry in Ann Arbor myself — all the bartenders would tell me that no one drinks like healthcare workers! It’s a stressful job.)
I asked Mark why he likes The Cake House in particular, and he pointed out that the Cake House does an excellent job of curating high quality products, but also making sure there are deals for the budget shoppers too. “We carry a lot of really nice flower especially. And nice wax,” he said. “The selection is really good.”
Ironically, the industry has high turnover and high retention. Mark said he knows a lot of people who have either washed out in a couple weeks, or who have been at dispensaries for a long time.
“It’s a hard industry to get into in Ann Arbor,” he said. “There are so many stores, and the people who work there tend to work fulltime. But once you get in, it’s an insulated place. Many people I know have moved from different dispensaries.”
If you are interested in becoming a budtender, Mark said that being conversational about cannabis and able to talk warmly about your favorite flavors is a big part of the job.
“You need to be able to tell the customers which one’s sweet, gassy or indigo.” He notes with humor, “It’s a cashier job with some extra rules, or like working at a coffee shop.” Being able to interact well with customers is key.
If you’re interested in trying some of Mark’s favorite products, he generally loves to recommend edibles to new and experienced consumers alike. “Some flowers can vary over batches, and some wax brands can be inconsistent,” he said. But edibles he finds to be much more consistent in quality.
One of Mark’s favorite edibles are Wyld’s edibles. Their flavors, from raspberry to wild pear to sour apple, are delicious and high quality.
Interested in checking out The Cake House for yourself? You can pop by at 2115 S State St., from Monday-Sunday: 9am-9pm.