Whether it was proximity to Wisconsin, the ability to purchase cannabis with a credit card or ordering from more than 750 products with the ease of an online purchase, more than 400 customers entered Planet 13 in the first three hours of opening day Monday.
Frank Cowan, the company’s director of Illinois operations and an equity holder in the Las Vegas-based parent company, said he was happy with the early results as he thinks about the future of the city’s second cannabis dispensary.
“We want to be the number one dispensary in the state,” Cowan said. “This is amazing. We’re off to a great start. We have amazing products, and this is a great location.”
Along with people from Waukegan and northeast Lake County, some customers said they came from Chicago and the Western suburbs. Some learned about the opening on social media, and some were familiar with the company’s other out-of-state locations.
Owned by Planet 13 Holdings, Inc., the Waukegan outlet is the company’s first dispensary in Illinois. Two are located in Las Vegas, and another in Santa Ana, Calif. Expansion into Florida is planned early next year.
Bob Groesbeck, Planet 13 Holdings’ co-CEO, said the 8,000-square-foot Waukegan building — with 4,000 square feet of floor space — is larger than a neighborhood shop, but not the size of a super store like its main Las Vegas facility and the California operation.
Groesbeck said the dispensary is ideally located nearly a large block from The Temporary Casino. It is now the closest dispensary to Wisconsin in the Chicago metropolitan area. Wisconsin does not allow either medical or recreational cannabis sales.
“We have all that traffic coming our way all day,” Groesbeck said. “In Las Vegas, we have lots of customers coming from Utah, where it’s not sold.”
Waukegan Mayor Ann Taylor, who was there with other officials for the Monday ribbon-cutting, said she is pleased with the city’s latest new business. The city gets a share of the tax money collected.
“This is great for everyone who wants it, and it’s regulated,” Taylor said.
Customers enter through a door staffed with a budtender and two armed security officers. Everyone must show their driver’s license, or official identification card, regardless of age. No one under 21 is permitted.
Once inside the dispensary, Cowan said customers can learn about the differences in products from one of the budtenders — several were circulating among the patrons — or go directly to a screen to order.
“When they select what they want, they go to checkout and touch their information,” Cowan said. “All they give is their name and phone number. Then they put in the method of payment and get in line.”
Though most dispensaries in Illinois only take cash, Cowan said Planet 13 accepts credit cards, as well as currency. Learning how to accept credit took, “a lot of hard work and a lot of research,” he said.
Barshella Larry, who said she learned of the opening on social media and came to Waukegan from Chicago, likes the ability to use a credit card to purchase cannabis. It eliminates a step in the process.
“You don’t have to stop at the bank or the cash station before coming here,” Larry said.
Along with accessories like pipes, bongs, cigarette papers, hats and T-shirts, Cowan said Planet 13 sells a variety of flour, vapes, concentrates, edibles and topicals. Topicals are geared to the user who does not want to ingest or inhale cannabis.
Another place customers can learn about products is on a large television screen filling the southern wall of the retail space. Cowan said people can learn the various medicinal purposes, and how they reduce different kinds of discomfort.
Planet 13 is the city’s second dispensary. Ivy Hall opened in March approximately a half-mile away on Waukegan Road. Between the two shops is the casino.
