'Like you don’t have your pick:' Newer Brockton pot shops can struggle for recruits

BROCKTON – Derek Osgood opened his glossy new cannabis dispensary Amp on Court Street in downtown Brockton, in October. But he began recruiting staff for his store in July.

He said that only roughly one-third of candidates showed up for their scheduled interviews.

“It feels like you don’t have your pick,” he said.

With a dozen staff members, the store has one or two budtenders, one employee checking-in customers and one manager each shift.

“(We) haven’t needed extra people since we opened,” Osgood said.

For a freshly opened cannabis store in Brockton, entering an industry that has taken off in the last year or two, there is a limited number of applicants. The local Brockton market has become somewhat oversaturated, making it increasingly more difficult for new stores to break into the industry.

“People have their choices of where to go,” he said.

Brockton now has at least eight cannabis stores. With the competition growing, demand per store has slowed, prices are dropping and applicants are getting pickier. But for businesses that opened when the industry was blooming, it's a different story.

Cannabis: a budding local industry

Commonwealth Alternative Care, a dispensary on West Chestnut Street, opened its doors, in October 2021.

“We’ve been very fortunate. We’ve had a lot of interest,” said Christina Sadowski, the store’s general manager. “We’ve been able to stay very well-staffed.”

Sadowski said that at times, they had 50 to 60 applicants for one position. Now, 30 employees work in their store in Brockton.

"It’s great for the industry because it gets more people involved,” Sadowski said.

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Merina Vaughn started working at Green Heart dispensary in Brockton roughly one year ago. When she started, there were only five or six budtenders on the sales floor each day. Now, as clientele has grown by the hundreds, there are seven to eight budtenders just for one night shift.

When the store opened, only seven people were employed, now there are 37 people on staff.

"It's been pretty cool to see it grow," said Vaughn, a sales floor manager at Green Heart. "We have a lot of staff."

The shop opened in May 2021, and customers travel from New Hampshire, Rhode Island, New Jersey and Cape Cod to shop.

Taking their time: staff are limited but stable

When Osgood first started in the cannabis industry two years ago, there was frequent turnover, and many employees filed in and out of the business. Now, everyone he hired before opening his store has stayed on.

Osgood said that since the approval process for incoming dispensaries takes so long, he had plenty of time prior to opening to find reliable, responsible staff.

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"We had the luxury of time because the state takes a while," he said.

For Sadowski, most of the staff she opened her store with are still at the business. The majority of the staff, which Sadowski called "a really diverse group of people," were previously medical marijuana patients.

"We take our time with our screening process," she said. "It's a tough industry to get into."

Lingering stigma and some hesitation

Despite the growth of personnel entering the local Brockton cannabis industry, the store owners said there is still a stigma and hesitation surrounding working for a cannabis shop. The fact that the product is still federally illegal adds another challenge for recruiters.

Plus, some applicants don't take the businesses seriously.

"It's not all fun and games," Osgood said.

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Each store owner The Enterprise interviewed said that dispensaries are just like any other retail business. However, some said people are still skeptical when it comes to applying.

But as the demand for cannabis products grows, the budding industry will continue to grow.

"I'd like to see where the industry is going," said Osgood.

This article originally appeared on The Enterprise: Brockton marijuana: Tight labor market for recreational pot shops