One year ago, when Muse opened its Deep Cove location—the retailer’s first in North Vancouver—its owners and staff recognized they were entering a community very unlike those of the first two locations on South Granville and the Granville Strip in Vancouver.
“This is a unique family-oriented community,” says Dennis Dong, Muse’s Director of Marketing, “and our location, nestled into the Dollarton Village area, is unique for us as well.” (Muse now has five locations, following recent openings in Maple Ridge and Vancouver’s West End.)
Prior to the Deep Cove opening, several outreach initiatives and City Hall discussions helped to educate the public about Muse’s mission to provide guidance to consumers about responsible and informed cannabis use. And since then, Dong and his colleagues have been deeply encouraged by growing community interest in the products, service and shopping environment Muse provides.
“Over the course of the last 12 months, we’ve seen more and more people come to us and educate themselves and grow fond of our instore experience,” says Dong.
Key to this flourishing support is the uniformly clean, modern and accessible nature of every Muse location, which tends to pleasantly defy the expectations of those who are new to cannabis and their associated retail environments.
“The way we design our stores is purposeful,” says Dong. “We’re here to provide a warm and welcoming experience, yet sophisticated at the same time. We tend to get the same reaction from people coming to visit us for the first time: ‘Wow, I didn’t expect it to look like this!’ We strive to create environments that are conducive to further education and getting rid of the stigma of cannabis prior to legalization.”
As part of a local, fourth-generation, family-owned business enterprise, Muse is also deeply invested in making valuable contributions to its communities. This includes ongoing charitable initiatives, one of which plays a part in the Deep Cove location’s first-anniversary event on Saturday, December 4, between noon and 4 p.m. Ten per cent of the day’s sales will be donated to Music Heals, a Vancouver-based organization that raises awareness and funds to increase access to music therapy for vulnerable Canadians, including patients in children’s hospitals and palliative care, seniors, and at-risk youth. “Their values are similar to ours,” says Dong. “They’re national, but they have a good focus in B.C. Their goal to provide a complementary means of support and healing is, in a way, similar to what cannabis has become.”
Muse Deep Cove is located at 385 North Dollarton Highway, North Vancouver. Their one-year anniversary event takes place Saturday, December 4, noon – 4 p.m. Only individuals 19 years or older are permitted; ID is required. For store hours and more information, visit musecannabis.ca.
