“And after 23 years in operation, Piece of Mind is a very strong name.” “There are a lot of businesses called Satori out there, and we don’t want to run into any roadblocks,” Sharpe says. Now that the local cannabis industry has found its footing and legalization is spreading into more and more states, the partners have looked to expand their reach. Consumers have found CBD effective in treating an impressive array of conditions, from insomnia and anxiety to arthritis and muscle pain. The last few years have seen great progress for products that contain mostly CBD, the chemical component of cannabis that offers relief, and very little THC, the part that creates the feeling of being high. One of the biggest benefits of legalization, and a large part of Satori’s mission, was the growing awareness of cannabis as a medicine. “And it made sense to create a separate brand from Piece of Mind, so we didn’t incriminate our years of tobacco accessory sales.” “The word Satori means a sudden enlightenment, like the epiphany that cannabis isn’t so bad,” Wilson says. That was one of the reasons the partners decided to change their name the first time. There was a shift in culture, like all of a sudden everyone had this epiphany.” “It was almost like the gold rush, and Piece of Mind was selling the shovels. Cannabis was legalized in 2012, but the first retail store didn’t open until 2014. “Some of our best years were here in Washington, from 2012 to 2014,” Sharpe says. Instead, the company has made a habit of successfully navigating the shifting landscape.
SATORI BELLINGHAM LICENSE
“We’ve closed seven of them since 2017, due to competition, because of all of the marijuana license opportunities that were opening up.”īut that changing marketplace is not slowing them down. “At our peak, we had 14 Piece of Mind glass stores,” Sharpe says. Sharpe came on as a partner in 2003, and has watched the marketplace change alongside Wilson ever since. It wasn’t long before Wilson opened a second location in Spokane, followed by a Seattle store and stores in Bend, Oregon Newport Beach, California and Missoula, Montana, then all the way up through Bellingham to Anchorage. There was certainly a market for what they offered.
We knew back then that it was good medicine-good for the mind and the body-and we were trying to ‘fight the man.’” “It wasn’t the safest business to be in, but it was something we enjoyed and believed in. These so-called “glass shops” performed well, but they did so under a bit of a pretense. “There were very few of them around in the ‘90s, and they were operating in a gray area as tobacco accessory shops,” says co-owner Quinn Sharpe. At the time, there was a lot of excitement around the new technology of intricate and artistic water pipes that smokers could collect and admire, as well as use for smoking. Known as a “head shop,” this type of store sold gear for marijuana smokers.
Justin Wilson opened the first Piece Of Mind store in Spokane in 1997, as the master’s thesis for his business degree. Now the company is looking to the future by going back to its roots, including changing back to its original name, Piece of Mind. Satori has made a name for itself as downtown Bellingham’s only cannabis store, and by focusing on the medical marijuana community.
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