Ramblin’ with… Stacie Rasmussen

ST. VITAL

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/01/2023 (713 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

As a follow-up to a column I wrote last fall on Rasta Lady Cannabis Shop, I did an interview with Stacie Rasmussen, district manager of four cannabis shops in south-central Manitoba — Rural Buds in Carman, Rural Buds in St. Pierre, Rural Buds in St. Adolphe and Rasta Lady in Morris.

Since I’ve already written about RLCS in Morris I’ll try to avoid repetition. First, I asked Stacie if there are plans to open more shops.

Her reply was no real surprise:

“Yes, we would love to open more. The question is… where? Our goal is to become one of the best-known shops in southern Manitoba and having more locations will help get our name out there.”

My second question was about who owned the shops.

“The overall owner of the shops is Pat Schmitke, with me being the district manager,” Stacie said. “We work together on most projects, depending on the project. But, to tell you the truth, the store managers are the stars of the show. They run their stores and know their respective communities and customers so well that Pat and I rarely need to intervene. They create their own sales; plan events and they order their own products. We are an amazing team, we all support each other, no matter what store you are at.”

I than asked Stacie about whether she’d noticed different preferences in each store.

“Yes, each store has their top sellers,” she said. “The Carman location is a huge seller of vapes and pre-rolls. The Morris location is the same, however they also have quite a bit of flower sales and edibles are beginning to pick up, which is the same with the St. Adolphe location. Our St. Pierre location sells it all very well, however their vape sales are through the roof!”

I then wanted to know if there was any specialized training to becoming a manager of cannabis shops.

“I’ve been working in the cannabis industry since before legalization; first in a cannabis clinic and then after in a retail store in Winnipeg,” Stacie said. “Previously, I worked in the health food industry as a nutritionist. When I was told by a very good friend that Rural Buds in St. Pierre was hiring, I jumped at the opportunity, since I had recently moved to southern Manitoba from the city. Unfortunately, the position was taken; however, Pat recognized the knowledge and connections I had in the industry, and we created a new position of district manager.”

In closing I asked Stacie if there was anything else she wished to share:

“I would like to add that we are more than just a chain of local cannabis shops, our budtenders spend a lot of time researching the products so we can offer our customers the most information on the products we carry. We spend the time getting to know our customers so we can help them to the best of our ability and ensure that every store is a safe and welcoming environment to everyone.”

I would like to thank Stacie for taking the time to respond to my enquiries and now I will be rambling on…