Opening of Provincetown shop could come as early as Wednesday.

PROVINCETOWN — It’s winter on Cape Cod, which means the hustle and bustle of the summer has slowed to a crawl.

There are a few restaurants still open in Provincetown, but business for the most part has dropped off along with the temperatures.

But, in the basement of 170 Commercial St. on Friday, things were busy. The former bank and yoga studio is now the home of Curaleaf, which is poised to become the Cape’s first retail marijuana dispensary.

A handful of employees were preparing for the store’s first day of operation, which could be as early as Wednesday.

On Friday, Kristen Aiesi was counting 3.5 gram jars of marijuana that the company brought in to sell for $40 a piece.

“Our flower is our No. 1 (product),” she said while packing a jar into a box.

Aiesi has been training at Curaleaf’s dispensary in Oxford so she can become manager of the company's yet-to-open Ware location. But it was all-hands-on-deck Friday in Provincetown, where staff from across the company were on hand to make sure the store is ready to be up and running by next week.

Where boxes and chairs sat in the center of the store Friday, customers, after getting ID'd twice by security guards, will be able to look at Curaleaf’s menu, which includes products ranging from flowers to vape cartridges, oils, waxes and edibles. Glass cases sat empty waiting to be filled with cannabis products.

Lucy Folopoulos will manage the Provincetown store along with Mark Shaw, one of the owners of Joe Coffee and Cafe, the coffee shop that sits atop Curaleaf.

Folopoulos, who lives in Yarmouth, has been training at the company's Hanover dispensary, and this is her first time working in the business. She has a background in pharmacies, but decided to leave synthetic medicine in favor of marijuana.

She was excited to open the company’s doors to Provincetown.

“I want everyone to come in and just experience it," she said. "See what it’s all about.”

The store will put an emphasis on education, focusing on helping both new customers and connoisseurs find the right cannabis product for them, Folopoulos said. There will even be a consultation room to offer customers a more thorough review of the store’s products.

“If someone says, ‘I’m looking for something, I really have a hard time sleeping,' well, that’s what our role is,” she said. “We can tell them this is something that may help you sleep.”

Over the last few days, new employees have been training and stocking the inventory.

One of those new employees is John Cooper. The Truro resident had been working in a liquor store, but the hours and pay at Curaleaf are much better. He’ll be on the store’s floor to help customers.

“I don’t know much about wine but I know a lot about pot,” he said.

Cooper thinks the store will add to the community.

“I think this is going to be a huge infusion to the Provincetown year-round economy,” he said. “If we can get more people down here and more money coming in, it’s going to help everything.”

Before Curaleaf can open, it needs to get a local business license. The company is scheduled to go before the Licensing Board on Tuesday. If all goes well, the store hopes to have a soft opening at noon Wednesday, followed by a grand opening next month.

Although Curaleaf is the first, several other companies have expressed interest in opening up in Provincetown.

A winter opening wasn't what Curaleaf was hoping for, but this will give the town a chance to see what retail marijuana is all about and the company an opportunity to ease into the Cape market.

“Initially we were looking to open I think in April, May," said Patrik Jonsson, president of Curaleaf Massachusetts. "That would have been quite crazy with the hiring and the ramping up and so forth. So I think everyone is happy that it’s now. We will probably be busier than a normal store in Provincetown in January, because we are the only store on the Cape."

Follow Ethan Genter on Twitter: @EthanGenterCCT.