Amoeba's Berkeley Store Gets License to Sell Weed

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by segue, Sep 27, 2016.

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  1. segue

    segue Psychoacoustic Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Hawai'i
    Amoeba Music's Berkeley location has found a new venture to stay afloat as record sales continue to decrease: an in-house medical marijuana dispensary. The store has been approved for a license to sell marijuana, Fact reports, and plans to convert its jazz section into a dispensary called Berkeley Compassionate Care Collective, which would have a separate storefront from the record store.

    In an interview with Billboard in 2015, Amoeba Records co-founder Marc Weinstein admitted that the store earned half of the revenue that it did in 2008 and that it went from employing 90 people to 35. "[Marijuana is] one of the few products that a brick-and-mortar retailer can get into and consider making a living at," said Weinstein.

    This isn’t a new concept for the music store chain: Their San Francisco location has had a dispensary, Green Evaluations, since 2014.

    While there aren’t any exact numbers on the increase of revenue that the San Francisco dispensary has brought in, the addition was said to have helped improve foot traffic along with helping pay for half of the store's annual rent.

    "People are already getting stoned and ending up at Amoeba," Brian Zisk, founder of the annual SF MusicTech Summit, told East Bay Express. "They're going to spend four times as much."

    The dispensary does not have an opening date yet because of permits still pending from Berkeley’s Department of Planning and Development.

    <Billboard>

    Amoeba Music's Berkeley Record Store Gets License to Sell Weed »
     
    Last edited: Sep 27, 2016
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  2. senseabove

    senseabove Forum Resident

    My first thought when I read this last week was, "well, good to know they'all be around a good while, especially if CA passes Prop 62."

    My second thought was: "Where the heck are they gonna put the dispensary?"
     
    wavethatflag likes this.
  3. cdash99

    cdash99 Senior Member

    Location:
    Mass
    Why would they take out the jazz section though? One would figure the weed would enhance the listening experience for those so inclined.
     
    drasil, wavethatflag and melstapler like this.
  4. lonelysea

    lonelysea Ban Leaf Blowers

    Location:
    The Cascades
    Taking out the Jazz section to put in a marijuana dispensary? They must be stoned!
     
  5. Marc Perman

    Marc Perman Forum Resident

    Location:
    Los Angeles
    Or they could move the jazz section..
     
    Terry likes this.
  6. Aftermath

    Aftermath Senior Member

    I'll take these two Dead LPs and a block of hash.
     
  7. dgstrat

    dgstrat Senior Member

    Location:
    West Islip, NY
    They should sell Doritos, too!
     
  8. Andersoncouncil

    Andersoncouncil Forum Resident

    Location:
    upstate NY
    They should have vinyl listening rooms where people can imbibe while gathered around a turntable. It will bring back a great pasttime for many of us!
     
    wavethatflag likes this.
  9. quicksrt

    quicksrt Senior Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles
    I'd like a copy of Hendrix Live at Berkeley on DVD and some purple kush indica/sativa blend!
     
    wavethatflag likes this.
  10. This is the best news I've heard all day...
     
    wavethatflag likes this.
  11. longdist01

    longdist01 Senior Member

    Location:
    Chicago, IL USA
    Back in the day they were called "Jazz cigarettes", no?
     
  12. wavethatflag

    wavethatflag God is love, but get it in writing.

    Location:
    SF Bay Area
    I manage to walk up from Divisadero to the end of Haight at least three or four times a year for almost the last ten years. I lived in the Oakland/Piedmont area for three years so I didn't do it then--I'd just drive to Berkeley and go to that Amoeba, although like the Haight that's a great place to kill some time walking around. Anyway, when I first saw the Green Evaluations sign right next to the Amoeba doorway, I almost bust out laughing. But it's a totally appropriate match. :)
     
  13. GerryO

    GerryO Senior Member

    Location:
    Bodega Bay, CA
    ... but that probably means the ice cream counter is GONE FOREVER! Though its' sugary scent may linger on...
     
    Dr. Mudd likes this.
  14. Dr. Mudd

    Dr. Mudd Audient

    The guys who stalk you to peddle weed or acid are not going to like this. Might improve the neighborhood! Esp on Haight.
     
  15. senseabove

    senseabove Forum Resident

    I somehow missed that that's where they're actually putting it, though it's the logical choice. Sad, though, as I always enjoyed the pleasant clash between the music playing in the annex and the music playing in the main store.

    I wonder if they'll have a sale to clear space for the condensed stock?

    Rasputin's has the ice cream counter, and their vinyl moved down a block and across the street from Amoeba a few months ago, to the newly-opened "Mad Monk Center for Anachronistic Media."
     
    GerryO likes this.
  16. senseabove

    senseabove Forum Resident

    You need to start lower! You're missing some good stores east of Divis: Rooky Ricardo's (massive selection of 45s), Groove Merchant (small, generally well-curated selection with a predilection for the obscure), and Jack's Record Cellar (massive piles of dusty records with some interesting folks milling around).
     
  17. wavethatflag

    wavethatflag God is love, but get it in writing.

    Location:
    SF Bay Area
    I'm not cool. And by that, I mean I don't buy vinyl.
     
  18. Tim S

    Tim S Senior Member

    Location:
    East Tennessee
    Can we just dispense with the word "dispensary?" People want to get stoned on weed - fine, I have absolutely no problem with adults doing that - NONE, just spare me the unmitigated BS about any of this being medical.
     
  19. Chris DeVoe

    Chris DeVoe RIP Vickie Mapes Williams (aka Equipoise)

    For some, it is indeed medicinal. My father died of cancer when I was 16, and the only thing that allowed him to keep any food down was pot. My brother scrambled to keep him in weed, and at one point there just wasn't any to be found. My dad had been a cop, and made a call to a friend still on the force, and within an hour, a patrol car pulled up to the house to deliver an ounce of pot from evidence.
     
  20. footprintsinthesand

    footprintsinthesand Reasons to be cheerful part 1

    Location:
    Dutch mountains
    Two words: Diggity Dank
     
  21. senseabove

    senseabove Forum Resident

    Carry on, then!

    If CA folks pass Prop 64 in November, I'm sure we will. Everybody has to play along until then!
     
    wavethatflag likes this.
  22. lwh1

    lwh1 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Kent, England
    Would it be worth going home? Sneak in a few beverages of your choice and make a weekend of it.
     
  23. Noooooo! The obesity epidemic is already bad enough!
     
  24. Malina

    Malina Forum Resident

    Location:
    NYC
    Time to quadruple the jam band section.
     
    dgstrat and zongo like this.
  25. OldSoul

    OldSoul Don't you hear the wind blowin'?

    Location:
    NYC
    Stupid
     
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