Kelowna’s legal pot smokers should mark Thursday on their calendars

KELOWNA – If all goes well – and their order arrives in time – Hobo Recreational Cannabis will open Kelowna’s first legal cannabis store at 10 a.m. Thursday, July 25.

“We just need a little bit of time to unpack – and we’re getting pretty good at that,” Harrison Stoker, a vice-president with the Donnelly Group, told iNFOnews.ca today. “We’ve got lots of people to help out.”

Donnelly is the parent company of Hobo and has been in the hospitality industry for 20 years. This is their fourth Hobo cannabis outlet to open in Canada, which Stoker said is one of the reasons they’re the first of 15 applicants in Kelowna to actually open. They know how to work with the complicated registry system.

The store is at the corner of Cooper and Springfield roads in Kelowna. It will be open from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m., seven days a week and will employ two to three dozen people.

Its entrance has a bit of a “living room” feel where customers will be asked, when necessary, to show proof of age and ease into the experience.

There’s a long row of tables and shelves inside that will display products, but customers are not allowed to touch. After making their decisions, they go to a back counter to order and can watch as their purchases are picked and packed. Stoker likens it to a restaurant experience where there is a front of house and back of house.

At the entrance is a board that outlines the continuum of product effects, from the higher energy Move down through Lift, Balance, Calm and Rest.

The store will be managed by Kelowna native Cole McCrae, who is moving back from Ottawa.

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