Because top management is full of a bunch of uneducated folks too. Folks who pride themselves on their intellect. But only regurgitate what they’ve been told by someone else. Unfortunately a ton of the information is “subjective”
I too was top management and a bud tender. If the management is full of shit the bud tender is just as screwed. Have you seen the goons running stores in Seattle? Uneducated soccer moms.
Lots of folks know coffee. 95% of the population of the world knows very little to nothing about cannabis. So when uneducated people spout uneducated things to more uneducated folks you end up with a whirl wind of misinformation being spouted by those with normally “educated opinions”
I mean the thing that gets me is that when you go to a dispo normally, you’re treated like a fucking pleb in the presence of weed jesus. People think they’re reinventing the wheel with these dispos, but the only thing the average consumer wants is to not feel like they’re getting taken for a ride or being talked down to which alllllllllllllll the dispos around here do. Want fire? They’re gonna pretend you never said that and show you some Bobby Brown. Asking questions? Welllll you’re gonna hear stories and fish tales. Renewing my license one year I was standing in front of a few growers from one company that is arguably one of the biggest in CO explaining that you cannot grow more than 1lb a plant even outdoors. I thought I missed a chunk of what he was talking about and there’s more qualifiers involved with his statement. There wasn’t.
Education, education, education, education…If a sommelier takes his craft that seriously why can’t a budtender? I don’t give a fuck about your stupid fucking hoodie and pins which seems to be how consumers judge which wook is the best informed wook
With budtenders you’ve got to just accept they’re going to think what they want to think and that’s something you can’t change. Some are highly knowledgeable and probably overqualified for what they’re doing but a lot of them are just going to parrot things they’ve pieced together from other employees or reputable sounding customers with a dash to Reddit trivia.
If you’re allowed to give them free samples in your state then specify that they need to try it first thing in the morning. That way it will actually get them noticeably higher than if they have been blazing all day and think your product is weak sauce because their receptors are fried out or they’re too tired to enjoy the effects. I’d go as far as to say most budtenders I’ve met don’t actually use that much cannabis but just kind of need to act like they’ve tried everything in the store on any given day.
The old “first impression is everything” goes a long way with bud tenders because they will just arbitrarily decide they don’t like a product or strain. I have heard so many ridiculous sensationalized reviews like “I can NOT smoke anything with MAC1 in it or it gives me a splitting headache” because one time they smoked some cap strain and also probably had a headache. It’s always something ridiculous like “if I smoke a RAW paper I can’t stop sneezing for the rest of the day.” Then everyone they work with will also parrot the same exaggerated line day in and out like “yes my associate says that MAC1 is known to induce severe headaches.” They all just kind of feed into some weird little cannabis reality.
If you can’t give out medicated product to staff in your state, branded vape batteries and lighters go a long way with staff. They use them often and it’ll at least keep your brand’s name in the back of their head. Most budtenders would probably appreciate a shorter pitch on why your product is good. Some appreciate you nerding out about your proprietary extraction technique but most will just think you’re trying too hard.
If they’re not slaughtered by fucking hail storms they can’t seem to figure out a way to protect from. I WONDER IF SCIENCE HAS ADVANCED SO FAR AS TO PROTECT PLANTS FROM THE ELEMENTS
To quote Days Of Thunder “It’s like a monkey fucking a football”
Not sure if you spend much time in CO but the further you head south the more shit just gets weird. The springs is kinda weird…Pueblo can be downright scary…then once you even get past that? Keep your shit loaded
Another thing to keep in mind here is turnover. You may spend an hour educating half a dozen budtenders at a shop. Six months after that education there’s a good chance that NONE of those budtenders will still be working there. Fliers and documentation (posters) that can be set out for budtenders and customers alike to eyeball will/could have persistence beyond speaking to a set of tenders themselves.
I tell budtenders to not give any medical advise, because they aren’t doctors, scientists, or pharmacists…
Basically they should be told to only focus on the way a strain or variety tastes and smells, as well as provide any analytical data that maybe associated with that product. Budtenders aren’t scientists or doctors so I wouldn’t ask them to act like one.
Also I tell them the truth about the “indica, sativa, hybrid” model of cannabis classification in that It’s really just a marketing ploy to get people to smoke weed all day, and has very little scientific data backing it.
