Cannabis stores: a preview

CTV’s got a preview of what the official cannabis stores will be like – simple, clinical, the exact opposite of the head shop as we’ve known it.

At the risk of revealing my age: I can just remember when the SAQ was like this. You went into a store that had nothing but a counter and a binder listing the products. The consumer was protected from the blandishments of pretty labels or other marketing strategies. There was no browsing – you asked for what you wanted and a bored SAQ worker would fetch it from the back shelves, out of sight of the customer. (I think I recall this from going with my dad for the one celebratory bottle of whisky he’d get at Christmastime.)

This wasn’t a small-town SAQ, this was how it was everywhere, until Quebec realized booze didn’t have to be doled out like prescription drugs. I imagine cannabis will come to this as well.