The Blunt Boardroom
Most cannabis podcasts talk about the plant, the products, and consumption activities. This one talks about the business and the business of the plant.
The Blunt Boardroom is a straight-talk podcast about what it actually takes to build, run, and scale a cannabis company. Operators, executives, and industry experts having the kind of conversations that usually only happen behind closed doors.
Host Matt Richman is the CEO & CFO of mello Cannabis in Haverhill, Massachusetts. He came from Deloitte, but when the opportunity came to diverge from a traditional career path, he chose the burgeoning cannabis industry. He has spent nine years building cannabis businesses from the ground up across Colorado and Massachusetts, and he has the financial scars and hard-won perspective to prove it.
Each episode, Matt sits down with the people who are actually doing the work. Founders navigating social equity. Delivery operators managing unit economics. Marketing firms applying AI to a federally restricted industry. Cannabis CEOs and investors evaluating the impact of the new MA rules, medical rescheduling and pending recreational rescheduling. Including a focus on the community and positive impacts these businesses make.. The conversations are direct, specific, and useful.
If you run a cannabis business, advise one, invest in one, or want to understand what this industry actually looks like from the inside, this is the show.
New episodes drop twice a month.
The Blunt Boardroom
Why This CEO Works With His Competitor | Ep. 03 Ft. Rob DiFazio
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Rob DiFazio served in the US Navy's nuclear power program, and he went from operating submarines to running cannabis dispensaries. The discipline transferred. The stakes changed.
Today he is the founder and CEO of CNA Stores, a veteran-owned, vertically integrated cannabis company with dispensaries in Haverhill and Amesbury and a cultivation facility down the street from mello's farm. His business partners are all Navy veterans, all nuclear program. They have been building something in Massachusetts cannabis that most operators cannot replicate: loyalty among veterans and their communities that no discount program can touch.
Matt and Rob recorded this conversation at the mello dispensary in Haverhill. They have been working together for four years across two companies. Their stores sell each other's products, their farms share equipment, and one of them owns a scissor lift that the other one borrows when needed. That is the relationship.
They get into what it actually means to be a veteran-owned business versus a business that just offers a military discount. Rob raises $20,000 to $25,000 per month for a different community organization every single month, including Mass Fallen Heroes, the Jordan Sha Foundation, Tough Warrior Princesses, and a Snow Angels program where Rob and his team go out personally and shovel out elderly residents and veterans after storms. This is not a marketing strategy. It is an operating philosophy that started on a submarine and never stopped.
They also talk about the financial realities of cannabis M&A, including why operators who are not adequately capitalized are the most vulnerable when the consolidation wave hits, what happens when one senior debt holder gets a judgment and 150 people lose their jobs overnight, and why the operators who survive long term are the ones whose investors are people they have known for twenty years rather than institutions with monthly debt payments hanging over every decision.
They close on something both of them believe and operate by. The dispensaries that build real loyalty are not the ones running the best promotions. They are the ones where the bud tender already knows what you drink before you say a word, where the connection is real, and where the customer keeps coming back because of it.
Direct, specific, and worth your time whether you are building a cannabis business, investing in one, or trying to understand what separates the operators who last from the ones who do not.
Topics covered: Veteran-owned cannabis business, military culture applied to operations, community giving in cannabis, cannabis M&A and debt risk, vertical integration margin math, competitor collaboration, dispensary floor culture, capital structure and financial survival, brand loyalty versus promotional discounting, cannabis industry consolidation.
ABOUT THE GUEST
Rob DiFazio is the founder and CEO of CNA Stores, a veteran-owned vertically integrated cannabis company with dispensaries in Haverhill and Amesbury, Massachusetts. A US Navy nuclear power program veteran, Rob built CNA with his partners around a simple principle: stronger together. CNA raises $20,000 to $25,000 per month for community organizations and runs programs including Snow Angels, which sends their team out to shovel for elderly and veteran residents across the North Shore.
Connect with Rob: cnastores.com
ABOUT THE HOST
Matt Richman is the CEO & CFO of mello Cannabis, an award-winning vertically integrated cannabis company based in Haverhill, Massachusetts. A former Deloitte auditor, he entered the cannabis industry in 2017 after two decades in corporate finance, public and private company CFO and COO roles, and M&A advisory.
He is both the CEO & CFO, and the difference comes through in every conversation.
Connect with Matt:
linkedin.com/in/matthew-richman-508aa413
mellocannabis.com
New episodes of The Blunt Boardroom drop twice a month.
#TheBluntBoardroom #CannabisBusinessPodcast #VeteranOwnedBusiness #MassachusettsCannabis #CannabisCEO #CannabisOperator #VeteranEntrepreneur #CannabisIndustry #CommunityGiving #CannabisBusiness #MilitaryVeteran #Dispensary #CannabisMarketing #SmallBusiness #VeteranOwned
I mentioned that that CNA is a veteran owned company and I know Rob takes a lot of pride in that and I've been involved in a lot of meetings with various companies and everybody offers military discounts and things like that, but they're really they're not a veteran owned, they're just basically trying to drive business. And I think the CNA approach is a little bit different than that. And I think it's also why they set themselves apart from everybody else in the industry. I know that from a loyalty perspective among the veterans and the service members, you can't touch DNA. As you know, I'm Matt Richman, the host. I'm also the CEO of Mellow Cannabis, and I have with me as my guest today, Rob DeFazio. Rob is the founder and CEO of CNA Stores. CNA Stores is a veteran-owned company. They have stores in Haverill and Amesbury, and his main cultivation and operating facility is in Amesbury. It's actually right down the street from our cultivation. And you heard me say he has a store in Haverill. As you may know, Mello has a store in Haverill, so naturally we are competitors, but we're colleagues. We've been working together for about four years since I was at my last company. We do a lot of business together. Our stores sell each other's products. We try to do co-marketing programs together, et cetera. It's a really great relationship, and I think it's it's really demonstrates that yes, we're competing in this industry, but it's a very small industry, and we're all here to try and do the same thing. We're all trying to succeed in a very challenging environment. So we find that working together seems to be a better path to success. So with that, let me let Rob introduce himself for a minute before we get into the content.
SPEAKER_00How are you doing? Rob DeFazio with CNA Stores. Um I own it with uh a few business partners, all uh military uh background, actually all Navy guys, believe it or not, um, and nuclear power. So we glow in the dark. But we'll leave that alone. Right. But um, as Matt said, we work together. I am a firm believer that uh if we partnership, you know, have a good partnership, that one plus one equals three, and we all achieve more. You know, and that's true. We help each other whichever way we can. You know, I I have a lift, I think Shane's coming up today to borrow my lift to go fix something at his facility. And he's literally down the street. It's um it's a great relationship. Uh we were actually even working with um Jamico. We were their first purchase, believe it or not. Right. First wholesale purchase when um Matt was the other Matt was there. Right, right. That relationship goes way, way back. Um, you know, and even to when Mellow Fellows went to start their store, the gentleman that previously owned it, I helped them figure out how to do the ATMs and cashless ATMs and stuff like that.
SPEAKER_02Oh yeah?
SPEAKER_00So we were talking with them and helping them through the whole permitting process. You know, it's it's part of our ethos is to work with any and everybody because uh what we've found is that um we're stronger together than fighting each other.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely, and uh and and we're actually when we get to later on in the podcast, we're gonna circle back to community involvement and community impact. Um obviously us all working together is great, but working together as part of our communities is one of our main objectives. And I I think Mellow does a good job, but I'm envious of what Rob and CNA do, honestly. I think they do an amazing job, and we'll come back to that in a minute. Um but the first thing that I want to talk about today, um, you know, I mentioned that that CNA is a veteran-owned company, and I know Rob takes a lot of pride in that, and I've been involved in a lot of meetings with various companies, and everybody offers military discounts and things like that, but they're really they're not a veteran-owned, they're just basically trying to drive business. And I think the CNA approach is a little bit different than that, and I think it's also why they set themselves apart from everybody else in the industry. I know that from a loyalty perspective among the veterans and the service members, you can't touch CNA. Um, all you can do is kind of work alongside them. So why don't you tell me a little bit about, you know, not only one, what it means to you to be a veteran-owned business, and two, how you set yourselves apart from everybody else.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, um, you know, one one of the things, you know, having kind of been in the military and gone through that and seen the differences of being in a military environment and a commercial environment's night and day. Um it but at the end of the day, it still comes down to showing up, right? And showing up on time. That's what they always used to say. If you're not five minutes early, you're late, right? So so having that kind of mentality and it's a team kind of approach. So we are on a submarine, if a man fell down, you are you are expected to step in and take his space and do his job. So I always look at that as in our business here, I have no problem stepping in and doing anybody's job. Yeah, I'm the CEO, but I put my pants on one leg at a time, just like everybody else. I work in the stores on Fridays and Saturday nights as a bud tender. Um, I do the crappiest jobs at our grow facility. I've cleaned clean the floors, stripped the floors. Um, I've actually made hash in the fridge, freezing to death. I've worked in the lab, I worked in packaging, I've run our pre-roll machine. I mean, I've done everything there because I want my team to realize that I'm willing to do all that. But the big thing is trying to teach them or instill on them the uh, you know, I call it the cannabis community giving, right? Where we have our tip jars, they're not actually tip jars, they're charity jars. And what we do is we raise money for organizations, a new organization every month. And what we've found is, you know, if you support local organizations, um, they support you. And it's really big. Um, and we raise about $20,000 to $25,000 a month for a different organization every month. A lot of the ones we support are veteran or veteran-run nonprofits like Mass Volunters. Um, they support, I think we've raised $50,000 this year for Mass Volunteer's. They support all the Gold Star families and veterans in the state of Massachusetts with a lot of different services and things of that nature. But um, all the way down to you know the Jordan Shea Foundation, um, which he was uh best friends of one of our store managers, and that's how he passed away in line of duty, and that's how we ended up supporting him. Um, all the way to even local charities like Ozzy's kids here are given presents at Christmas in Hayward, to where you know, uh Tough Warrior Princesses, which support women going through cancer, you know, out of Ainsbury. So a lot of the stuff we look at uh we take you know to heart that we actually not only do we support them with bodies and people, but we actually go and and do, you know, um we raise money for them. We have a snow angels program where we go and shovel out the elderly and veterans in the winter time. Um, you know, and I'm out there along with our marketing guy Scott, shoveling and plowing and snow blowing. And you know, we had a lot of snow this winter.
SPEAKER_01We we we definitely did. That's definitely one of the things that I was gonna ask you about was the snow angels program because I think it's it's amazing. I mean, I some people just can't do it themselves. Yeah. You know, and what are they gonna do, right, if someone doesn't come by to help them out.
SPEAKER_00And it's so rewarding when you go to that that place and the person comes out and they're like almost crying because they didn't know how they were gonna get out of their house. You know, and you're like you're like, you don't have to, can I pay you? I'm like, no, no, no, you don't need to pay us. You know, it's it's it's kind of what we do, you know, and it's it's part of the culture. Part of the culture. The more you give out, the more you get back, right? And if you always give out good, you'll get good back. You know, are you gonna go through hard times? Absolutely. But if you've got a team that's cohesive and willing to step up, I mean it's amazing what you can do and do and and do well, right?
SPEAKER_01Oh yeah. And and you know, all of this gets done while Rob's running a cannabis company and has a family and a variety of other things going on. Rob's one of the busiest guys I know. And you you guys know me a little bit now, and I'm very big on what Mellow does with the community and all the things that we do. Um, you know, I brought on the giant basically onto the show today because you know, Rob kills it, right? Um, and you know, you know, I I I've got my own game plan, I do my own thing, but I generally tend to try to follow Rob's lead a little bit on these things. Not only do I think he's doing a great job, but the other thing that Rob has here too is Rob is the community. You know, you're you're from here, right? I mean, you've been here your whole life, you know everybody, and I think that kind of deep connection to the community is another thing that really is benefiting you as a business.
SPEAKER_00Oh, absolutely, and I would say Haverill is amazing. I mean, I think we were the first dispensary to be held up, and um we shut down for the day, and our sales went up 30% the next day we opened, and it just continued to go up, and everybody kept coming in. Like, I even had one of our customers said, Hey, I got some friends in the joint if you want me to take care of them. And I'm like, No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I'm like, he already made a bad decision, don't need to make another noise. I'm like, you know, but they were they were coming out to support us in such a fashion that, you know, I think our biggest thing here, I've always said that, is it's not turnstile. It's not about getting in and getting out, it's about an experience. That's why we have our delegate, the Canabar, right? Um it's why, you know, our bud tenders are, I always tell them, especially the new ones, don't worry about having a conversation with somebody. I want you to make that connection. Because when we were growing up, Norm would walk into Cheers and everyone would say, Hey Norm, and they'd norm. Now, half the people I say that in my store right now, they're like, Who's Norm? They don't know Cheers. And I'm like, Okay, I'm old. But it's that whole greeting. Like, we've got a gentleman that comes in, he spends $10 every day at our cannabis. And when he comes in, everyone's like, hey, and they go running over and they start chatting with him. You know, and it just becomes a welcoming environment. I mean, you've you've known it. As soon as you walk into a store, uh cannabis store, for that matter, you're kind of like looking around, like, okay, what do I do?
SPEAKER_01Which way do I go?
SPEAKER_00Which way do I go? Who do I talk to? What's it gonna be like? And we try and make it, I mean, it's a big store in there. You go through the door and it's like, ha, where do I go now? Like everybody thinks this is it in the lobby, and this lobby is about the size of some dispensaries. You know, it's bigger than our sales floor. And and but that's when you get into that space back there, it's more or less people can spend time talking to people, they can make that connection. Because what you'll find is they might come in for the $5 pre-roll, the the cheap product or the value-based product, but then what happens is they work up to a better something that they like. And it's not because we're forcing them to, it's because they're having conversations with the bud tender, and the bud tender is saying, hey, you liked that strain, you might like this. And then they actually start hunting terpenes instead of THC, which that's a big, big I mean, good weed doesn't have to be super high tested. I mean, I've had when we first started, we had a citrus samurai from Sanctuary that was 12%. I loved it. It was 12%. No way, no way in hell you'd actually see that on the market.
SPEAKER_01Right, you can't even put it on the menu right now.
SPEAKER_00No, we wouldn't need that would be like extraction material right away. But it was a great strength. But again, the market kind of people construe quality with THC. The higher the quality, the better the THC. But at the end of the day, it's it's not that. It's more terpenes.
SPEAKER_01It's it's more terpenes, and it's also more just all the cannabinoids, right, that are playing a role in there. Yeah, you know, and I know that you know, I've been with Mellow for about a year and a half, and you know, the prior ownership or prior CEO, you know, was very big on trying to push against the THC focus of customers, and I agree 100% with this. At the same time, though, we can't change consumer behavior. No, we can work it, we can try, but consumers gonna buy what they want. And so, you know, my view has been to try to take both together, right? They want to focus on THC, but let's get more information, let's try to educate them a little bit about the other factors. Um, but I still have to have the THC. Otherwise, it won't sell right now. So that is definitely one of the challenges that we have in the in the space today. Um, some of my favorite strains are around 18 to 20 percent, you know, um, and it's a nice casual, you know, experience, right? I don't I don't need to just get knocked out and fall asleep. That's not really what I'm what I'm trying to achieve here. Um one last thing on veteran before we go on, and it's not necessarily veteran, but it's more military. I, you know, I've I've not been in the military, but my father was, and so I was kind of in the mini military as a kid with him. Um you know, and I think one of the things that helps me run mellow and run business that I've been in is bringing a sense and a kind of code of discipline and accountability, which is obviously the backbone of the military. So, you know, that being your background, I imagine that this is a big thing for you to drive discipline and accountability through your organization.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and it's not really really discipline to some degree. I mean, but that that's what disciplined operation. And that's what that does what make it's re rinse and repeat, right? So you get into that, like the first time I played soccer as a kid, I couldn't play. But the more I played, the better I got, right? And that's the same thing with anything anyone tries that's new. And you just gotta give them the instill in the team members here that you know they're not I we didn't hire them to be perfect, one. And I I always look at it as you know what, you if they're good people, they don't make mistakes on purpose, but they are gonna make mistakes. No one's perfect. And I always tell them, I said, look, I don't worry about making the right decision, make what you think is the right decision based on your what you have for information. If it ends up being wrong, you know what? We'll all learn from that. And then we'll move on. So so when you think about it, that's kind of how like that next man up kind of mentality that was in the military that I learned, and the team approach and having like a mission first forward kind of purpose is is to actually do, we're not here just to sell weed and do, you know, we're here to build a business. You know, um, we gave out ownership to employees within our company that have been with us for a long time. So it's kind of interesting now.
SPEAKER_01That's not very common in the cannabis space.
SPEAKER_00No, no, and I and I did that because I wanted to show those employees that look, we're in this for the long haul. If we're gonna make this work, you're all gonna help me row this boat and you're gonna benefit from it. And and that's really the the key thing that I've been trying to drive and instill with our team because we are a small family. You know, my COO is my wife's best friend. My wife's done deliveries before. You know, I've gone out to Western Mass to Triple M to drop packages off with my wife at 12 o'clock on a Friday night, and they waited for me. You know, so it's it's it's one of those things where, you know, nothing is you know beneath me per se. I would rather be the one. I always tell people we're at an inverted triangle, right? And the CEOs at the bottom helping everybody else clear the path, you know, and my job is to make everybody's job easier and figure out how to do that, right?
SPEAKER_01So you you guys have heard from me now a few times. You can now understand why Rob and I get along really well, because we think about the same types of things when we run a business. And you may have seen today I released something called the CARE standard, which is a release that I did in response to seeing a few things at one of my facilities. And it's about applying that extra standard of care.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Right? That extra check, that extra look, that pick up the piece of trash, you know, right? You know, the CEO can do any job. And, you know, I always talk about, you guys all know I bud tend, Rob's probably the only other CEO that bud tends, right? So you can see why we kind of get along, and we both really believe that being involved with our employees and our team members not only helps make the company better, but helps us to understand really what they deal with on a daily basis so that we can actually make their jobs easier and better. Because not only are we here to build businesses, but we're here to build up our employees and develop them. And especially in the cannabis industry, where a lot of our folks come in without formal training and education, this is a big deal for us to really develop and grow our folks. You know it's a big focus for me, and I know it's a big focus for for Rob. And I also know that you know when you think about employee retention, which is another big issue in the cannabis space, you know, Mello has really good employee retention. I know CNA does as well, because I've been using dealing with the same people since I moved to Massachusetts five years ago.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So um that's that's some of the things that I you can kind of see why we get along. We think about things very much the same way, and we're very focused on uh details. So we're gonna go to the next topic. But before I do that, let me go ahead and remind you to like the podcast, subscribe to the podcast, and if you're in Haverill, make sure you stop by CNA and Haverill or Mellow and Haverill, CNAStores.com, mellowcannabis.com. All right, back to back to the topics now. So the next thing we're gonna talk a little bit about is the new Massachusetts rules. A wonderful fun topic. Um but I think I want to focus in on just two of them uh today. One of them is the sales limits, the increase in sales limits, and then two, we'll talk about the increase in the number of stores that are allowed and what that's doing on the MA front. So, but first let's talk about what you're seeing in your stores as a result of so since it's been what about a month? What a month. A month or so? A little over a month. Um with the higher limits. Are you seeing a higher average cart? Are you seeing people buying the limit? What do you guys see?
SPEAKER_00We've seen a couple people buy the limit, uh, mostly on the gummy front. Really? Um just be, you know, we've got in Ainsbury, we've got a crowd that comes in for the Betty Zeddies, sleep, bedtime Betty's, right? And they buy as many as they can. And it's just like, and that that's kind of where it's like, because they know they're taking one every night. And um, but you know, we we've seen, I think someone came in on 420 and bought uh two ounces worth of jeters.
SPEAKER_01Wow, that's a nice pet purchase.
SPEAKER_00Yep, and that was pretty cool. Um, but I haven't seen a lot of huge purchases, mostly on concentrates. Like we'll do follow jars and they'll get more, we'll do a special that way. But um I think people are more or less shopping for convenience. Um, they're looking for deals. Um, our average cart price actually hasn't moved at all. Um, it's gone up a buck. So to me, that could be okay, it's becoming slower. Right, right. You know, it's getting a little busier. Um, we may not see that for a while until they because I don't think anyone has a two-ounce bag out there yet. Right. You know, everyone's like, that's that's that's a lot of weed to buy. Right?
SPEAKER_01We have a 56 gram pre-roll bundle.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Which the customers are loving, by the way.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um, but I think, you know, for us, we're seeing a little bit more of an uptick. Not as much as I would have thought, because I think we're we're maybe not executing as well in other areas, but we're also much closer to the New Hampshire border. Yeah. And so I imagine that's probably driving it. People are driving a little further to come to us, so they're making that bigger purchase. But what we're seeing is not two ounce purchases, but they'll buy an ounce and an eighth. You know, they'll end up with a little more than an ounce, right? Because they wanted to get this and they couldn't add the gummy because they bought the ounce special or whatever it was. That's what we're seeing a lot of. Um, so you know, a little bit of an uptick, which is nice, of course, obviously. Um and you know, the second part of the question is around the increase in the number of stores that we're all allowed to have, which is now up to six, you know, generally. And I don't know if you're seeing the same thing as me, but it feels like there's an almost uh like a MA frenzy where people are very much like, oh, I've got to buy things, and like it's like the gold rush all of a sudden, right now, for the next whatever couple of months. And then, you know, I think sellers are thinking, okay, it's the gold rush again too, and someone's gonna pay me a lot of money for a business that performs poorly because the rules just changed. So what are you seeing out there?
SPEAKER_00Um I see a lot of stores that aren't doing well, that you know, and I don't mean that I see that a lot of stores not doing it, but let me take that back. The stores that aren't doing well, you know, they may do a million or two million in sales and they think their stores worth a million or two million dollars. But yet they only made like fifty thousand dollars. Right. So in a typical business, it's all based on your profits and your Bid up right. So when I sold my other business, I had a multiplier of five based on my profits. These businesses, yes, they've probably spent two, three million to build them out and get them up and running and running them for all these years, but it's not in a good location, it's not run well. Um, so just because you're still alive and open doesn't mean you're actually worth money. And that's the tough part that getting that in it's starting to become real. People are starting to realize that hey, I can't just have a license and make a million dollars. Because I think that's how everybody, when we first got into this, that's what was happening. People were spending money, like med men tried to get this location, and they were gonna spend millions of dollars. But my landlord here liked me better than them. So he gave me this location, and I refaced the whole building for him, completely changed the layout of this space for him. Now his parking lot's the busiest he's ever seen.
SPEAKER_01It's slamming today. We're actually here at the store, by the way, at the Haver's store. I forgot to mention that because we're always on location somewhere. And yeah, the parking lot's slamming.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and it's again, it just the the stores are out there. There's a lot that are just opening, and they think uh exclusivity is the way to make money. Um it's not because if you're just opening, you're not gonna convince someone selling wholesale to you that hey, you're gonna sell all their stuff in that area. Right. And if you if you think that's the way to run a business in a cannabis industry, then you're actually gonna not do well. And I've seen because and I'm gonna say this because I made that mistake. I made that, I mean, we went up 50% in revenue last year because I realized, I finally realized it doesn't matter what I like, it's what my customers like. Is that where my revenues go in, some of it? Yeah. We're up 30% this year as well. So I mean it's it's just it's it's gonna slow down eventually. I mean, because at the end of the day, there's only there's you know, if you look at Haverill, it's a slice of a pie. And if we got four stores in Haverill, everybody's gonna get their quarter. You know, some might get more because of location uh and parking. Um you're gonna get New Hampshire because of your location. I don't get New Hampshire much because Full Harvest Moons is between me and New Hampshire and you are. So I get a lot of people maybe from North Andover, Andover, Lawrence coming right off 495. Uh but when you really kind of look at that, it's like I'm happy with what we have. As long as we run it like a business and watch, you know, the pennies and nickels, the dollars will take care of themselves. You know, and that's kind of like we've been trying to help a few stores in other areas by showing them what we did here to help them. And they're smaller stores because and then they can't get a variety because they got a minimum order. Right. So what we'll do is we'll order extra boxes for them and do a delivery to them from us.
SPEAKER_01Well, I know you're doing that with actually somebody that we work with right now, right? Aren't you buying product from us for somebody else that you're packaging, right?
SPEAKER_00That's for one of the brands that I for UPG, Ultra Premium Gas. So that's another great way to partner with everybody is to, hey, I need a couple of strains, I need some bulk, give me the bulk. And I'm not beating you up on the price. Nope. Giving you an over-market price, probably, but the math works. The math works for that product, it works for what Bridget's doing with her team, and she's amazing. I mean, she has you know, I've seen a lot of people come pitch me on concepts and ideas, and their weed is always the best. Um, or they're the best marketing person they've ever met, and their shit doesn't stink. You know, sorry for the language, but it it really is one of those things where you get this little filter where you can see, okay, these guys are all hype. There's really no meat to them. Well, Bridget came in, she started talking numbers, she started telling me that she started, hey guys, she she started telling me about um, you know, hey, Paverville's got the second largest population of Latinos, Lawrence has the second largest population of Dominicans outside of the Dominican, and she starts throwing all these numbers at me, and I'm like, this is not what I was expecting, you know, and I'm like, all right, and then she pitched me on her concept, and I'm like, all right, this will work. She was gonna try and go buy the product and then give it to me to package, and that's when I said to her, I'm like, look, you're starting out, why don't I help? I'll buy it, package it, you go sell it. And then when you get to the point where you can fund your own buying, then you can do that. Go and do it, and I'll package it. And that's kind of how this that the whole relationship started, probably about six months ago. We've broken her out into she started with pre-rolls, we're working on vapes came out, uh, we're gonna line her up with some gummies, a gummy line, and then we're gonna move right into flour. So, so it's gonna be, you know, it's a great thing to see Bridget build this business of hers and see how she approaches it. Because she's a lot different. She's very much like we are. She gets out there and does it.
SPEAKER_01We actually have a meeting with her, I think, next week, actually. Yeah. Because to get her into the store, but also to talk more about how we can work together.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01You know, because we are in a Latin-dominated market, that's for sure. And as you can notice neither of us are Latin. Um we use Duolingo at home. We're we're learning.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um, but uh no, I mean that's that's a that's a great point because it's a lot harder to start up a business when you're small in this space. And I think one of the things that's hurting the new companies too is the lack of credit available from vendors because all the other cannabis companies didn't pay their bills, and therefore everybody's so gun-shy to give credit. I mean, I'm actually in an argument with somebody right now that they want to give me net 14 terms, and I'm giving them net 30. And my answer is no, if you want net 14, we'll do net 14 or we'll do net 30. But you know, we're not a small, we're not a big company, but we're not a startup. And so, you know, for us, we can deal with these things, but as a small company, how do you actually get the product you need for your store and how do you cough up that amount of cash? So um back to that theme of we can all help each other.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um, one last thing on regulations. Um, and this is just a quick touch on federal rescheduling, but more so on, I'm sure you saw that yesterday TrueLeave rolled up to the New York Stock Exchange.
SPEAKER_02Yep.
SPEAKER_01So they did a really crafty transaction where they carved out the recreational business, and so they still own it, but they put the basically the medical companies effectively going on the New York Stock Exchange. What do you think this means for cannabis as a real industry now?
SPEAKER_00Um, you know, everybody if if you're a medical, um if you're set up as a uh a medical license, it's a good thing because then you can take your 280 tennis, get rid of that, throw it out the door, you're good. On the rec side, not so good. Um I think it's a ploy, myself personally, and this is just my opinion, that the government's trying to get control over it. And that's why they're letting medical go. The way that they did it, they desched, they didn't desched, they rescheduled it. So now all the big pharma companies can start pushing. They're gonna make you get a license, then they're gonna make you have a pharmacist distributed. So you're gonna have to hire a pharmacist to give out the product and doctors and things of that nature, which all it's gonna do is drive up the cost. Yep. And if that ends up being the way it goes, the rec side will be completely different. Um, you know, and even here in the state, like with the repeal coming up, and they're trying just to repeal rec, that that's gonna be a nightmare. Right. You know, because I mean we're fortunate because we have gross, and we could so we could become vertically licensed to become medical and be able to do that, no problem. But then it's the people that don't have that, the stores that don't have that ability that they did change the regs in Massachusetts, so a store can a store can go medical only and not have to be vertical, but now it's only social equity that can do that.
SPEAKER_01And how much is a medical license in Massachusetts?
SPEAKER_00Uh it uh well.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Um rec is five or ten, I forget the number.
SPEAKER_00It's ten, it's ten per store for the store, but it it's cheaper for me to get a it's thirty thousand dollars through my cultivation facility, my manufacturing license, and a retail store. And the reason I think they charge more on the medical side is because they can't collect tax.
SPEAKER_01True.
SPEAKER_00So so it is a little bit why that is. It's all about the money, the Benjamins, right? So so when you think cash is king, I've heard that a million times. People think that, oh yeah, cash meaning the green stuff. No, it's actually money. Money in the bank is what actually drives this industry, even to the point where like I've got a bank note at 13% for my cultivation facility. That's unheard of. You get credit cards that have cheaper interest rates than that. But that was the only bank that would support us at the time. And we took that risk and we are paying it down and paying it off, but if it becomes legal federally and then I can go to a normal bank, that'll get cut down to seven. Right. You know, and that that will go down a lot. And that's big money. I spend a million dollars a year just in interest, you know. So when you really think about the finances behind, that's kind of how you have to do it and run it. Yep.
SPEAKER_01And the cost of bank accounts and everything else will certainly go down, of course. Um yeah, no, I think it creates a little bit of an uneven playing field at the moment between the medical and the recreational operators, but I also look at it too as another way for the government to influence and impact the industry. And I'm a capitalist guy and I'm a free market guy. So, you know, the cannabis industry is the exact opposite of a free market. So, you know, I'm obviously all for free market, but also, and we all know this too, the way the markets are set up today, it actually does work, right? And so even though there are troubled businesses, the industries are successful. So I'm hopeful that as we go through this change that we don't actually destroy and damage the industries that we spent so many years creating.
SPEAKER_00Um putting those teams in place. Like you talk about destroying the industry, it's like it's still fragile. I always look at us, you know, yeah, we're maybe eight, like I've been in the industry since 2018, 2019, right? So seven, eight years. I'm an infant still. I'm a kid. Right? We just got out of the terrible threes and fours, and now I can walk and run, and and now it's like, okay, let's spread our wings, but you can still trip and fall. It's very easy. That's why we work so well together, because we when we go into a store that's new, we say, hey, have you sold to them before? Do they pay?
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00Because that's the biggest thing is getting paid. You know, believe it or not, a lot of people would be doing well if people just paid their bills. That's where you're gonna see next year when they because of the new regulations where they put the blacklist out, 20, they got to be cleaned up by 2027. There's gonna be a lot of companies that won't be illegal to buy products. Right. So right now, I think there's a mad dash for people to buy stores, but I think next year is gonna be the prime picking.
SPEAKER_01Right. Well when the crunch happens.
SPEAKER_00When the crunch happens, because that that's the part of it where you're gonna see the bad apples fall off the tree. Right? And not to say they have bad locations, they just run their businesses fast. Right. You know, and if they don't they don't think they have to pay bills, they'll just keep robbing from Peter to pay Paul, and eventually it catches up. The bill is always due, eventually.
SPEAKER_01The bill always comes due, that is true. Yeah, and you know, the flip side of that are the vendors, right, who obviously have in order to run a good business, you have to manage your credit. And so now you look at all these companies, and obviously it's not just the dispensaries not paying their bills. Because when the vendors, cultivators, can't get their money, they can't pay their bills, and then they can't pay their suppliers. And so it's not just the cannabis cannabis companies that get impacted, it's also the support companies as well that people don't pay, et cetera. So it's a real big challenge for the space. You know, I applaud Massachusetts for the step they're taking. I don't know that it will work or not. I I really don't know, but I do know that just a little bit of a focus on being more financially responsible as operators, I think, you know, would be a good approach and not, you know, it's it's other people's livelihoods that you're putting at risk. I don't think people actually realize that. No, especially in the cannabis space. You don't pay a vendor, you know, a smaller company, and maybe they can't pay their employees, right? So, you know, everything has a cascading effect.
SPEAKER_00Um we have 112 employees. That's a huge amount of money that we pay every month, every week to our employees for working.
SPEAKER_01We have 65, so you're almost twice.
SPEAKER_00And and really, when you look at it, well, we got two stores, you got one. And it grows twice the size of our. But when you really look at it though, that that's the key piece of this, is like my entire family's savings is in CNA. So when I sit there and say, I got skin in the game, I absolutely do. You know, um, so does my business partners. You know, they they my one of my business partners is helping us do the controls in our facility right now and redo them. He comes, he's retired, but he comes over every day and throws on his scrubs and goes to work. And I don't have to pay him, which is great. He's a nice, but again, it comes back down to the fact that he cares. We all care, and they and our employees see that every day, you know, and and that that's what makes the industry good. And partnering, I I say partnering, but just being a decent business person and talking to other business-like-minded people like yourself, it's it's really good because now you can protect each other. You can make you can say, hey, watch out, don't do this. Hey, this is what we're trying. I don't know if that'll work, try it. Right, you know, um, and that to me has always been one of those things that has kind of even in my old industry, I was known for helping other people and partnering with people. Why? Because I don't need everything. I don't want to conquer the world, I just want to make a good living and support the families that work for me. You know, and that's really what it comes down to is developing a business that actually people want to work in and actually want to do well in.
SPEAKER_01So yeah, and I think also, and this is a good segue to the next uh thing we were to talk about. I think also creating a business that allows you to do the things that you want to do for the community, yeah, right, and the veterans, etc. I know that for you it's both personal and business. It is and you know, maybe if you don't mind, maybe we talk about the ranch for a minute. I think that's just one of the greatest things that I've heard about.
SPEAKER_00So I bought a um an old farmhouse up in Plastio. Uh it's got a main guest house, it's got about six bedrooms, it's got a sorry, a main house, it's got six bedrooms. There's a guest house that has um two bedrooms, a wood shop, and a kennel. And I rent that out to veterans. I um homeless veterans lived in the main house for a while. Um, and they just paid a flat. I didn't look to get any money other than cover the electricity and the taxes on the property, and they were spending $700 a month. They had free reign of a 3,600 square foot home. It has a pool, hot tub, everything. And I remember the the VA of New Hampshire came down and looked at the space and said, This place is too nice for veterans. And I was I threw them out of my house. I said, get out. I said, This is not. This that's that's the most insulting thing I've ever heard. You know, and it was, but to me it was we did it because I saw a need. I saw an opportunity, and we took that opportunity, and it paid dividends, you know. I mean, all the vets take care of my house. Um, one of them actually works for me who lives in a guest house. So um he's our general manager over at our cultivation facility. Um, and it's just good to see some people just need a little hand up, you know, like you know, and you give them that little hand, you watch them take off. You know, to me that that's kind of what I like about, you know. I always say the more you give out, the more you get back, right? And I wasn't always like that until I started my own business, and I started realizing, you know what, people act a certain way. If they're great, they're having a hot, happy day, everything's going well, and all of a sudden they're angry and pissed off. And it might not be work, but it it might actually be something going on in their personal lives, right? And I've always my last job, we used to travel a lot. So we'd always stay in, we'd rent houses, apartments, and you know, we go to Cheyenne, Wyoming for six months at a whack, or Amsterdam for nine months. But you get to know the guys because you're eating with them every night and you can see when their personality changed, when something's not right at home. Yep. And to me, that's kind of where understanding how people react and learning that kind of scenario and being connected with your team makes a big difference. You can help people, you know. Um, one of our bud tenders here had a child custody situation going on, and my wife actually went to the courthouse with him and helped him get his child. You know, she was standing by him side by side. We had uh another person here who when we first did the background checks, um, they passed, but then I don't know if you remember when they changed it from three years to seven years, something popped up that stopped them from coming through. Well, we hired a lawyer, um, we got him all set up, we got it expunged, and got him to be able to come back to work for us. So it's little things like that, like those two people I just talked about, if they leave, it's because they got a better opportunity. Right.
SPEAKER_01They won't leave because of anything else, though. Anything else.
SPEAKER_00I mean because because they know that I care about who they are, right? And and to me that that's the big piece of this business here is that there's a lot of people that don't care. There's a lot of people that look at people as numbers, or they think they're looking at them as numbers. In most cases, it's businesses just trying to stay alive. So they have to make hard decisions, and sometimes those aren't happy ones, you know. Um, they just have to be made. You know, and like two years ago we had a big layoff at our at our cultivation facility. Had way too many people, wasn't selling up. But because we run a business, we have to make those hard decisions. We brought some of those people back as soon as we could, you know, and those people are still with us today.
SPEAKER_01Well, and if you didn't make those decisions back then, though, to make the reductions, then you might not have had jobs for the remainder that stayed right. These are the hard decisions that you know we have to make at times because, you know, as my my buddy Spock says, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or the one, right? And so that's definitely a big, you know, it's a it's a it's it's I think it's one of the underlying currents of your business, and I believe of our business, my business as well. I've only been running it for a year and a half, so it takes a long time to build that. Um but uh yeah, I I as you can see this is why we get along, of course. Um all right, quick plug, um make sure you follow and like the uh the uh podcast, and make sure you visit CNASTores.com, Melo Hay Row, or Melocannabis.com, sorry. All right. Um we have two more topics to catch and then we're gonna end it. Um is a little bit of a heavier topic, but the other one's kind of light. Um heavy because we're gonna talk about a little about technology and artificial intelligence and what that is. Obviously, you know, the impact in the world is clear on the news every day. But inside of the cannabis industry, this small little industry, right? What does it mean to you and what what what's going through your mind as you're thinking about how new technologies and artificial intelligence are going to affect not only how you run your business, but also how we market, sell, and give our consumers the best possible experience.
SPEAKER_00So there's a lot of different ways it's being used. Um, from on the marketing front, when we do product descriptions, um, it's real easy. You teach the AI what you want to be shown, and then you drop in a few things and boom, it pops it up. Instead of it taking three hours to do, it takes you maybe 10 minutes to do a property. Right? You don't really have to think, rinse, and repeat, it kind of does enough for you to the point where our accounts receivables, when someone sends an invoice and AI actually takes that invoice, reads it, and puts it into our system. So when you when you have that type of technology that you're trying to deploy, um it also helps us interpret regulations. You know, if you drop the CMR 500 in there and say, ask it a question, it will point out, it'll find it right there for you instantly, like that. Um also from AI, like I'm coming from the data center industry prior to getting into cannabis. So I used to build those data centers that house these computers that do all this. Computing, and when you look at it, it's it's all about data-driven decisions. Every business, what am I growing? Why am I growing it? What do I need to hit, and how do I need to sell it? And how much of that loops? Do I continue to keep buying and selling? Because as you get to the bigger point, it's not a matter of just growing it and selling it. You actually have to, one, grow it well, but two, you have to have that mindset to understand the industry and where things are going. Don't just keep following everybody else. You gotta be that trendsetter. And the only way to be that trendsetter is to actually start looking at that data. Start seeing those trends, see what's happening, where it's going. You know, um, like Distelit was three and a half dollars a gram a year and a half ago. And now it's up to 550 to 7.
SPEAKER_01Yep.
SPEAKER_00And now it's like, okay, what changed? Right? You used to be able to buy trim for $75 to $100. Now you can't get it under $200. Right. You know, and it's like, okay, it's coming up.
SPEAKER_01Yep. If you can even get your hands on it.
SPEAKER_00Even if you can get your hands on it. Like I don't even sell it anymore because we have an extraction lab and I make more money making diamonds and doing vape carts with it than offloading it. So businesses change, technology changes. We got a lot of automation. Like you have a roll pros, I know that. We do too, that allows us to make about 5,000 pre-rolls an eight-hour shift. Which we used to do lucky if one person could do 500 in a day. You know, so it completely took that over. Then we look at our batcher when we make our eighths. Those can do five to a thousand eighths, you know, an hour. And you're looking at it going, okay, that would take me probably a force of 15 people just to do all that. But also looking at technology, you go into our arroyo system where we're looking at how the plants grow, the drybacks, the humidity, the VPD, we're controlling our watering sequence and cycles, and our lights. So we have LED lights, we're water cooled, so I scavenge the heat off of those to reheat the air to go back into my facility. So it's all about driving efficiency, but that data that we're gathering tells me, hey, this strain is actually good to grow in my facility. There are some strains that don't work. Um just because they can't handle the stress of the lights or the feeding sequences that we do, or even for that matter, uh they stretch too tall.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00You know, I mean you guys have seen that. It changes the way you think and the way you approach things. Like we look at, I hate to say this, but we look at THC, TERPS. Uh, is it a how hard is it? What's the yield? And then is it a hash washer? Right. Right. So those are the four items we look at, you know, and it's terps for me is always the big one. THC is also the because it doesn't sell if it's not above 25. Right? You can have some strains that don't pop above 25, but they're old school. Yep. You know, maybe a sour diesel that might be a 23, 24. Our aquapocal gold was the one that sells, you know, and that's 23, 24 all the time, but that's 3% TRPs. I got a Blue Dream that was 24% THC, that was uh 2.8 on the TERFs. So, but we've also got the gas GPT, which is 39 TAC, 33 on THC, and 3% on TERFs. It ticks all those boxes, and it's a 7% washer. So it's a yeah, it's a monster, right? Um, you know, that was from Uncle Doobie, a local guy here in in Fitchburg. He's a breeder, you know. So it's it's one of those things where it's like, okay, like he and I talk all the time now. I'm like, what do you got coming? What do you got coming? I want to buy your next set of C's. So we're gonna start popping the and he's got a sour GPT string. So it's gas GPT with sour D's across.
SPEAKER_01Oh, nice, that's a nice string. Yeah. You just combine the gas with the gas. Yep. Right.
SPEAKER_00And it's and it's we'll see. We'll see how it comes out. I mean, we got lucky. I mean, most cases, you know, I'd rather be lucky than good because you can make it work. But also, I always tell people luck is when someone prepared meets an opportunity. Right? Nothing happens like winning the lottery. I mean, I'd love to win the lottery, but that that's never gonna happen. The odds of you winning.
SPEAKER_01No. Neither do we.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you can't win if you don't buy, right?
SPEAKER_01And we don't buy them. You could even buy them online now.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And we still don't buy them. We put the I did the first one where they gave me like free five dollars.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And then I haven't bought one since then. So yeah, I agree with you on that. I mean, people say oftentimes you make your own luck, right? You know, um, I I agree with you though, preparedness is is is critical. Um, you know, on the tech front, because you covered a couple things there, you know, everybody, as soon as you say AI, the first thing they think about is customers and marketing. It's what people are always coming to me about. Like I went to one of my board members and I'm talking about AI. How to acquire new customers. They said, how does that make customers buy more weed? And I said, well, that's only one way to look at it, because that's one piece of it. But on the back end of the business is where we can really get some amazing gains. You know, um automating your accounting. We're actually in the process of doing that now. Um actually getting our invoices basically entered into QuickBooks automatically without actually having to post those invoices or journal entries. So we're actually working through that right now. Um, and it's gonna save us hours and hours of time that now, you know, my controller, instead of doing that work, can focus on helping me run the business better, helping me manage our costs, helping me do things that are very valuable. And then, of course, they can use the AI tools to help them do that as well. Um, you know, over at the farm, Shane's driving a bunch of this. We're sure he'll be talking with you. Um we really want to get the data. Yeah. And and Rob said this before, you know, data-driven decision making. Um, it's somewhat a foreign concept for a lot of cannabis companies that just don't pay attention to the numbers. You guys know me, I'm a finance guy. I live in the numbers. And yes, people, the plant, all these things are the business, but if you don't manage and pay attention to the numbers, your business won't perform well, no matter what.
SPEAKER_00It won't stick along.
SPEAKER_01Just like I tell people, if you don't live at your checkbook balance, your checking account balance, it won't get bigger. It won't, I promise. It may get smaller. But you know, the only way to to to make the numbers better is to focus on them. So um this is a good time for us to wrap up with one final question. Um, it's a general open view question, but I know that you know, when I'm thinking about things at night, um, it's certainly not about how the business is running day to day because I have full faith in my team as you do. Yeah. But what are the things that you're thinking about for the rest of 2026 that you think are going to be the things that are driving the things you're doing for the business, and then as you kind of roll into the start of 27?
SPEAKER_00So um for for me, I wake up at night, I think I have a problem. Um I'm addicted. I'm addicted to genetics. So I'll wake up in the middle of the night and start scrolling through seeds, and it's like I'm obsessed with it. You know, we had uh to CCC come by and did our inspection of our cultivation facility, and they're like, wow, look at your seed bank, your genetics are huge. It's in it's insane. We haven't seen one this big. And I'm like, well, because anyone puts out a drop, I'm gonna buy it if I think it's a good drop, you know, and and it's like we might not grow it right away, but I got them because those are only going out there for a little bit. So to me, it's all about variety. And if you look at where CNA is going, like we're bringing out new genetics all the time. We just brought in toad venom, we got um, you know, like I said, the sour sour GPT coming. We're bringing out all these new genetics from a standpoint of just so I have variety. Um we grow over 30 different genetics, and the reason why I do that is because people are like me, I like to try new stuff, right? And some I like and I stick with, like superbooth. I love that. I can't get enough superbooth. So what I did, I went out and bought it. I got a I got superbooth growing in our facility now. Then I went and bought a super booth cross with chopped cherry, the super buff cherry. So that's coming out as well.
SPEAKER_01Oh interesting.
SPEAKER_00So I've also got our um our sub zero, which is uh superboof cross. So it's like, all right, what else can I get that's a cross? If why? Because it grows well in our facility. Right. Maui Wowie, same way. You know, um, you know, it's just certain strains perform well in the environments that we keep. So that's kind of what we look towards. But new for us, partnerships. I'm trying to partner with more people so I can grow more wheat. For me, it's all about getting our products moving, keeping it fresh. You know, we have a five-week cycle with our grow so that if the strain comes out week one, it's coming out again in week six. Right. So it's constantly getting it in, you know, you're at, if it's 90 days and someone still has it in their store, there's gotta be a problem. And that means they're not communicating with us because we should be dropping the price for them to move it, get it off the shelf. Because I don't want older product on the shelf. That doesn't do anybody any good, even our customers. It's like having a bag of grapes for nine months at a grocery store, right? Like 60% of those grapes are gonna be rotted, you know, and it's just like, all right, not to say that that flour will go bad, it will definitely be better within within 30 to 60 days, right?
SPEAKER_01Fresher the better.
SPEAKER_00The fresher the better. And it and it's just trying to be cautious. Like we're only growing in 10,000 square feet of our 20,000 square foot canopy. Why? Because I can't sell 20,000 square feet worth right now. So I've got to build up that pipeline. And that's kind of where partnering with people, packaging for people, things of that nature. I mean, if you really look, I think we're probably the only store that can say that Root and Bloom, we were one of their first purchases, Mellow's first purchase, uh, Bewell, we bought from them in the early days. So you look at all our competitors around us, that's who we bought from. You know, and we were one of the first purchases for a lot of the companies in the state because we wanted variety. We wanted to have people come in. Uh, we saw a good product, we went after it. You know, and it's like, look, if it moves, it pays. We're we're I think we're number three in the state for paying bills. So if you look at the cannabis biz reporting, we're number three. You know, and it's like because we pay our bills, because we understand if people don't pay us, right? People don't get to go to work the next day, right? And it's because you need the money to keep the feed the monster, right? You know, eventually we'll get to the point where you know we might be able to absorb that, but that shouldn't have to be that way, because I know they're selling the product.
SPEAKER_01Right. That is true.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you know, and they're making money.
SPEAKER_01Exactly. That's where the frustrations come in when you sold the product, you didn't pay the bill. Yeah. And you know, obviously businesses are complex, and you know, like one of my one of my staff at the store, a legacy market operator, we'll say that, was asking me about the business of legal cannabis, and he was talking to me about not getting flour on the front. Okay, so we're talking old school now, right? Yeah. And he's asking, do we pay for all of our stuff COD? Right? How does it work, right? And then, okay, because in the old days you would buy it, and then you would pay for it, then you would get more, and you'd pay for it, and you'd get more. And but in the world that we operate in, it's a big nebulous pot of all the money comes in, all the money goes out. It doesn't necessarily work like that, and there's always priorities that pull away from things. As everybody knows, the state has a major problem collecting sales taxes. And there's, I don't know how big the number is, but I'm pretty sure it has nine digits in it as far as what's owed to the state for the entire industry. Yeah, I think it's up to that number now. Um so, you know, obviously borrowing from the state is not an accessible reason either. It gets back to just, you know, running a disciplined, financially responsible business. You know, I think you find companies that try to expand too quickly, right? We're seeing now this MA rush that's happening, right? And they don't have the infrastructure, they're not adequately capitalized, they have substantial debt obligations that they, you know, one disruption in your operation, and next thing you know, right, you're on the skids down versus, you know, in a stable position. You know, at at Mello, we're pretty fortunate in that we generally are phone owners finance by our owners originally, so I don't have anybody holding a gun to my head over debt payments, things like that. And I know that a lot of companies in the space live and die that every every month. And I mean one of our customers just went out of business, uh, AMP. Right, got a big customer of ours, and not because they had a bad business, but because they had issues with some of the senior debt, and one of the holders got a judgment, and next thing you know, the whole business is going under, and 150 people at least lost their jobs instantly, right?
SPEAKER_00So um Steve and that crowd, they're a good group, you know, and they did they meant well, and they were trying to make it right with that investor, but you know, to me that's the great thing. My investors are three people, right? Um, really, actually, there's five of us in total, but um, three of them are the major investors. And when you look at it from that standpoint, I've known them for 20 plus years, and one of them I've known since I was four. So it's kind of like we're in it for the long haul. If we need to make a decision, collectively we'll sit down and make that decision, but we do what's right for the business, right? And the employees, and and we've put more money into it to keep us afloat, just like you're saying with the your with your team, right? Why? Because we see something in this industry. We know if we can just make it like for me, if I get my third store open, that's just a great, great thing for us. That's a hurdle that we've been fighting for a year and a half in Dorchester to get open, probably another year before we get open. I might actually try and acquire a store before I get that one open to get four. You know, and I'm working with another person that that has that capability and may partner with us in that scenario. So when you really look at that, it's hey, how do we collectively, because any retail store out there, right, that's doing well, you instantly partner with someone who's got a cultivation facility, now you've just got more margins in your store.
SPEAKER_01Exactly.
SPEAKER_00That's a 30% whack right out of the gate to revenue and profit, right? So that's where the asset comes, is people not with gros coming together, but more so being able to get to the point where you can support a retail store to drive more profitability without really changing anything.
SPEAKER_01Exactly.
SPEAKER_00Just by merging together, and that's where that one plus one becomes three. Yep. You know, how do we make everybody succeed? You know, rising tides rise all boats, right? And if we can help each other succeed, like I know we help you in some packaging side, because you don't have that space.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00Right? And vice versa. You know, we move each other's product in our stores. Why? Because I don't look at you as a competitor. You've got a certain area of Haveril, I've got a certain area of behavioural. You know, our customers are coming to our store to talk to our bud tenders. And to me, that that's what really makes a strong business is if you can make that connection with the community and and your customer base. Because it's just like that bar when we were growing up. You go in and the guy looks at you, you point at him, slides a Guinness across the table because he knows that's what I drink. I don't even have to say a word, you just feel like, hey, these guys get. And you go there to hang out, you go there to chat with them. Friday here, everybody's talking everyone. Oh, what are you doing this weekend?
SPEAKER_01It gets pretty loud.
SPEAKER_00It gets very loud, right? And we get lines because our bud tenders talk to our to the customers. It's not, hey, get in, get out. It's right, hey, what are you doing? Where are you going this weekend? What are you doing? You know, because yeah, we got to get the product and keep it moving, but everybody's human. And if you can create that connection, I think that's really what keeps your business.
SPEAKER_01It's funny that you say that because um I tell all the staff at the store, don't try to sell anything to the customers. Just talk to them. Yeah, just find common ground with them, talk to them, chat with them, make them aware of what we have available for them, right? But you're not trying to make them buy something. You're educating them, you're informing them, and you're giving them a good experience. And I think that's also where the better dispensaries also separate themselves from you know from the ones that are just basically, you know, take a number, come in, get your stuff, and get out.
SPEAKER_00Um And don't get me wrong, there are people that just like that.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00The pre-order people that's like, yep, they don't even yep, okay, here you go. They don't even say hi.
SPEAKER_01But we have an express lane for the prepays. Yeah. Because you can get in and out in 30 seconds, right? And it's great, obviously, for us for managing the balance between the customers that want to hang around and the ones that just want to get in and out.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And I actually think that's another area where you're gonna see AI applications coming to play. You know, instead of having a kiosk that's dumb that you walk up to and you put your order in, why why don't you have actually a virtual bud tender you could just go and order from if you wanted to? So I see some of those things coming our way. Um it's time to wrap up. This is actually a great, great podcast. Um spectacular. Uh great guests. Good conversation. I enjoyed it. Great guests, good conversation. A couple plugs here at the end for everybody. Don't forget, follow or subscribe to the Blunt Boardroom, like us on the Blunt Boardroom. Um, mellowcannabis.com is our website. Obviously, CNASTores.com is Rob's website. But let me let him kind of say a couple of last kind of party words about him and his stores.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, come on down, say hi, and enjoy the environment. Um, we've got a lot of good products. We've got mellow products.
SPEAKER_01I was gonna say, and if you're there, make sure you pick up mellow product at CNA.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, thank you.
SPEAKER_01And if you come to Mellow, get some CNA products.
SPEAKER_00But um, no, I I really do appreciate this, Matt. It was a good conversation. It was great talking to you. Thank you. Yeah, thanks for having me.
SPEAKER_01All right. Stand out, everybody. We'll see you in the next episode.