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Bud and Bloom Club

Bud and Bloom Club has a bunch of awards. They talk about the perfection, the innovation. I'm a regular at Bud and Bloom Club. I go once a week. I have experienced their ups and downs, their patient appreciation celebrations and their POS system shut downs. Bud and Bloom Club is an experience anyone interested in what the standard should be for retail cannabis, should have.

Celebrity Weed Fad

So we saw Snoop Dogg & Tommy Chong, they were a long time coming. Investment in Cannabis has been coming from all over the Hollywood spectrum, you had The Game purchasing stakes in a Santa Ana dispensary, Whoopi Goldberg investing in her own women's cannabis product line leading to Roseanne Barr investing in her own dispensary "Roseanne's Joint"[x].

The only manifested evidence of Roseanne's partnership we found online.

Unfortunately not much more is really upfront and open about the relationship of Roseanne Barr to her partner Aaron Herzberg, who now does a lot of promotional effort for the Bud and Bloom dispensary. Seems like Roseanne became a silent partner or has separated due to the name change. Regardless, I unfortunately have yet to try Barr's signature cannabis infused chocolate macadamia nuts.

The New & Current Sign

Where premium meets rustic

According to Herzberg, Barr had been involved into the initial design process of the dispensary. [x] Yet many dispensary storefront chains are adopting the infamous Apple Store aesthetics, clean open floors, white, wood veneer as far as the eyes can see, concrete, glass and tall ceilings. Yes many would argue about the Colorado dispensaries that pioneered the methods of sharing hands-on experiences with cannabis like Euflora, but that is not necessarily the focus here. The difference between Euflora and Bud and Bloom Club is that all the products are untethered. Bud and Bloom Club, has warm lights and dark wood finished furnishings. The warm interior allows for exploration around the inviting boutique, you can actually pick up the product, it isn't locked behind glass.

Yes, it is true that the cannabis flower products are behind glass but you can actually have the jar opened for you, no flower products are prepackaged. You can have a say in what nug you want selected at your purchase. You feel in control, it isn't an intimidating experience visiting Bud and Bloom Club at all. The dispensaries of the past with dark walls, awkward cold medical office waiting rooms are now welcome rooms for patients signing in. An excellent feature about Bud and Bloom Club is that you can invite a guest visitor to accompany you if they do not have a medical rec. This is excellent for if you are concerned about having someone there for mobility. The space is open and adequate for wheelchair clearance.

Hidden in the Concrete jungle

Getting to Bud and Bloom is relatively easy but I still find myself, as a "regular", struggling to locate the exact parking lot when they don't put out their sidewalk sign. The parking lots always seem to be full when we attend (every hour of the day on Fridays normally) with a spot luckily always having been available.

Bud and Bloom Club is very engaged with the community so from time to time you should watch their Instagram before you head in, make sure you don't arrive at the same time as a group shuttle with 10+ guests shopping. The most difficult part is when Bud and Bloom Club gets busy, getting passed off budtender to register can lead to confusion and sometimes excessive wait times.

The best time to visit Bud and Bloom Club is either on their very busy patient appreciation days or when the store traffic is low like the mornings.

Always listen to the Money

Comparing price point to other local Santa Ana dispensaries, the price for concentrates, the primary purchase I make every week, tends to be consistently $10-15 less per half gram than the Santa Ana mark up for majority of the "Mega Store" dispensaries also offering credit card services. It's why I became a regular, including their Friday buy 2 get one deal so I have enough for the week. Normally leave with about 1.5 grams of high quality shatter or other concentrates.

Recently out of county and even out of state franchises such as Blüm are flipping SA dispensaries with their branding and bringing interesting price points and quality of product. It will be interesting to see what Bud and Bloom does to remain relevant. Their focus seems to be in first time patients and educational outreach.

Better than Window Shopping

When new products and displays arrive at the store our budtenders always take us aside to show the shelves of topicals, edibles & refrigerator display full of drinks and treats not in a sales pitch sort of way. More of a "have you ever seen something so cool?" as one of our favorite budtenders Daniel state referencing an lazer etched wood display for a cannabis infused soap. Otherwise the budtenders tend to wait behind the counter to service anyone interested in their concentrates and flower product after browsing the store.

The attention to detail and willingness to show off the product ensuring my quality is always admired when shopping at Bud and Bloom. Every time I buy a concentrate they will always open it with me to ensure my sealed product isn't defected in any way, sometimes it does happen, an unstable sugarred shatter or leaking PTFE paper- they are always happy to swap out the hash.

Points for Pot

Another service offered by Bud and Bloom is their Baker ipad. They have a few tablets sprinkled around the store where you can check in and receive redeemable points to obtain your choice of edibles, topicals & flower. It's a pretty great deal. As a regular I enjoy racking up the points and redeeming them for out of the ordinary purchases where I want to stock up. It seems like Baker also controls an aspect of their POS system, recently there was a two day gap where the store was closed because Baker was done. I was notified by cell phone sms about a day before my normal Friday visit. Did not affect my purchase but it is interesting to see what limits their function.

Over the last 6+ months Bud and Bloom became my local joint and their entire team has provided nothing but the best service & hospitality we have received at a dispensary. While their service is nothing but high quality their inventory can be hit or miss depending on the week. Otherwise good bye at the days of stressful dispensary visits and hello to a new era of cannabis shopping.