Why not. The industry is now in more than half the states in the country and it’s not a “secret” anymore. Hell, the first thing you see when you drive into Michigan is a billboard for Herbology in Kalamazoo, #PureMichigan.
The first thing you see when you drive into Gary, Indiana are billboards for dispensaries in Illinois, finally giving you something to look at as you drive through Indiana, other than corn and traffic cones.
Dispensaries are the new micro-brew and following that model there is a dispensary for just about every taste, all touting this experience or that for their customers. We are in a weed renaissance and it’s wonderful. I would like a Game of Thrones Dispensary.
There are thousands of dispensaries in American and that number continues to grow faster than you can say “Starbuds.”
We took the Bar Mitzvah money turned into property, turned into a venture fund, turned into a weed company (Hi CuraLeaf) out of the equation. Cash can’t buy this title, only creativity. “Bob, call Jon in marketing and schedule a Zoom, how can we not buy this!!”
Yes, we looked at thousands of dispensaries from Amesbury, Massachusetts to Cle Elum, Washington, special shout out to potguide.com, an amazing resource for dispensaries, etc. Really this would have been horrible without them.
Some of the Criteria
They had to have a website. I mean really, if you’re in the weed business, you’ve got the cash to drop $3.00 at GoDaddy and register your domain. Quite frankly, for a writer making like ten cents a word, a dime a word, like two nickels a word (that’s 65 cents right there) having to look at Facebook pages and Snap Chat profiles is well beyond my pay grade. You want to be considered next year, get a web page.
It had to be an original logo. Not an original name. There are plenty of amazing names out there. Yes, we are working on that as well. I’m lookin’ at you One Hit Wonder in Fairbanks, Gnome Grown in Oregon, and Buds and Roses in Massachusetts.
Shout out to Utah. It’s not lost on us the irony of having dispensaries in Utah, but I guess when you have more than one spouse, you need a little something, something to get you through the day.
Names are great, but at its roots (see what I did there), cannabis is a creative business, so creativity in the logo is what matters most. Best Buds in Washington DC, parodying the Best Buy logo with the slogan “weed deliver.” Kudos.
There’s a lot of healing or helping this or that, a bunch or remedies and therapies, so many apothecaries and collectives and of course the many corporate shops, well branded and so very plain.
Many states are purely pharmaceutical (Louisiana) and their logos are basic, so we eliminated them as well.
Florida. Like you would expect, Florida is all corporate super stores of medical marijuana, and quite frankly giving RISE and Trulieve more real estate to rest their money-soaked hats on, is too much. So, unless Ron Jon Surf Shop opens a dispensary, Florida you are out of this year’s selection. Take your maskless faces to a massive theme park and work on a design for next year.
Texas. Not a lot of selection, kind of like, well … Texas. So, unless you learn how to act like adults, and play well with others, you’re not allowed to play with us.
States that Qualify are states that have both recreational and medical, like Illinois, Nevada, California, Washington, Alaska, you get the idea.
Each state has a local champion.
Our editors, along with yours truly picked the local winners and of course the “2021 Best Dispensary… Based On Logo,” together.
Local Winners
Alaska
Arizona
California
Colorado
Delaware
Hawaii
Illinois
Maryland
Massachusetts
Missouri
Montana
Nevada
New Jersey
New Mexico
North Dakota
Ohio
Oklahoma
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
Utah
Vermont
Washington
The great news is the industry is growing and there are some amazing people out there doing what they love to bring you some of the best cannabis products known to man.
So you are all winners in our book (insert puke emoji)! But there can only be one winner, and for 2021 …
The Best Dispensary … Based on Logo is:
Glazed and Confused in Crystal Falls, Michigan!
Mixing comedy, with a simple but funny logo, Glazed and Confused is “The Best Dispensary in America … Based on Logo for 2021!”
Want to learn more about this plucky, family-owned dispensary and their journey to logo greatness? Check out their special appearance on Cannabis Tech Talks, recorded live at MJBizCon 2021.
Hit us up on social @cannatechtoday and let us know what your favorite dispensary is by name, logo, or anything else. We will be doing this again!
Note: The writer is now accepting t-shirts and stickers from all of the above-mentioned dispensaries, you know since he only makes 10 cents a word.
