Sponsored Content: Let’s Go Verde

How a Eugene dispensary is going green and paving the way for quality products at accessible prices

Skyla Patton • February 20, 2022

With so many options, it can be tough to decide which dispensary to visit to stock up and get the best bang for your buck—while trusting at the same time that you’re receiving high quality products. Sky-high prices, unclear standards and inaccessible shopping experiences are just a few hurdles dispensary-goers have to navigate, often compounded by the constraints of a college student budget.

Look no further: it’s time to kick back, relax, and live your best Verde life.

Previously known as Eugreen Health Center, the freshly rebranded Verde multi-state cannabis company is paving the way when it comes to creating a welcoming, safe space for people of all backgrounds to shop comfortably and freely for their cannabis needs at a wide range of prices. Whether you’re stopping in for their $50 ounce shelf or capitalizing on the superb student discount, Verde has plenty to offer across all genres.

Kate Danner, operations manager for Verde’s Oregon locations, said their biggest advantage as a dispensary comes from being vertically integrated, meaning that operations don’t just stop at the storefront. Across Oregon and Oklahoma, Verde owns both medical and recreational retail stores, an extraction facility, an indoor grow and an outdoor cultivation facility as well.

“Cutting out those different versions of a middleman allows us to translate that advantage over to the customer,” said Danner. “Accessibility is a big priority of ours.”

Stepping into their Willamette location, customers are greeted with a wall of flower to choose from as well as brightly-lit glass cases packed full of products ranging from cartridges to edibles to vibrantly colored blown glass paraphernalia. Each item is marked with a clear price tag—a level of transparency that isn’t always a given, and helps ease the customer into their unique shopping experience. Customer or otherwise, a recycling drop-off bin for plastics is available at the door, which is then hand washed, sanitized and repurposed by staff at Verde.

Currently owned and operated by women, Verde capitalizes on that ability to set their own standards and prices for products and then offer deals that are mutually beneficial to them as well as the customer. While there are available options from outside retailers and farms, Verde offers a plethora of their own products on the shelves, ranging from cartridges to fresh flower, and plans for pre roll packs in the works.

One of Verde’s most recent innovations, pitched by Danner herself, packs a serious punch: 14g house preroll “Cannons” stretching nearly the length of your forearm, and brimming with high-quality ground cannabis flower. Choose from popular strains Grease Monkey, Wonder Dawg or Lemon Kush—best enjoyed shared with a group or as a gift for friends and family.

Danner said what sets them apart from other competitors is Verde’s attention to detail, and constantly seeking the perfect marriage between consumerism—what does the customer actually want to spend money on?—and the special attention Verde budtenders pay to the customer experience.

“We’re not trying to appeal to one set group of people. It’s important to encompass everybody’s needs, as much as possible,” said Danner. “It’s not about finding the target audience, it’s about identifying and serving who our audience actually is.” She said they have plans to expand further into areas where she finds a lot of their customers are driving in, such as Springfield, and even hopes to create new sections of the stores like a pet mart.

Budtenders at Verde strive to find the best item for each individual customer, seeking the perfect middle ground between price point and quality while developing a sweet relationship across broad demographics.

“We have the best budtenders that I have come across in town, and I’m not exaggerating,” said Danner. “Their recommendations are always taken to heart and come from an educated place. We even had someone drive over to Eugene from Idaho last month just to visit us.”

Brock Lewis, store manager at the Obie location, says that when he first started as a budtender most of his time was spent being introduced to the regulars on a first-name basis.

“Someone would come in and it would be like, ‘meet so and so, he comes in to get his cartridges every week,’” said Lewis. “We still get people coming in just off the street, but it feels more like we’re dealing with people rather than customers.”

Budtenders at Verde are given samples of the vast majority of new products to test, so they’re never recommending a product they themselves haven’t had experience with. The emphasis is placed on personal experience and relatability so the budtenders are better able to communicate with the people they’re trying to serve.

Both Eugene locations offer a wide range of price tags across their shelves, without compromising on product quality. Offering nearly half the price for top shelf ounces as comparative storefronts, Verde truly has something for everyone’s budget and taste.

“We have quality across the shelves,” said Lewis. “You can move as far up or down as you want, and you don’t have to worry about getting something that isn’t as good because it wasn’t the most expensive.”

Visit Verde at one of their two Eugene locations all week long at 1111 Willamette Street or 1000 Obie Street. Check out their website at www.verde420.com for location specific hours and a comprehensive walkthrough of Verde products and strains!