EDMONTON–Edmontonians will get their first look at a legal cannabis dispensary this week.

Behind Fire and Flower’s nondescript, windowless exterior on Jasper Avenue and 115 Street, the retail space is spacious and modern.

Rather than neon pot leaf signs and blacklight Bob Marley posters, its white walls are adorned with art that looks like it was plucked from a gallery, and glass casings with burnt-orange metal trims containing various paraphernalia.

In the middle is a long table with stools, where customers can read pamphlets, learn about cannabis on two TV screens, and sit and chat with “cannistas” – the term Fire and Flower uses for its salespeople.

“We want our shops to be bright and modern, and the reason for that is to give the highest degree of comfort to our consumers, many of which will be purchasing cannabis for the first time once it’s legal,” said the company’s CEO Trevor Fencott, who is from Ontario but chose to set up Fire and Flower’s headquarters in Edmonton because of favourable provincial regulations.

“The second piece of it is, doing our market research, we came up with this design in order to make the broadest demographic of people feel welcome and safe, but also to provide some privacy and areas for conversation if they so desire.”

Fire and Flower invited media for a tour Thursday and is holding open houses for the public on Friday from noon to 5 p.m., and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Once the store can sell pot, customers will be asked to show ID when they enter the store, regardless of age, according to chief operating officer Mike Vioncek.

Products will be out on display in “smell jars,” which allow customers to get a feel for what they might be purchasing.

“A big thing in the cannabis industry is turpines, and a lot of the turpines create different smells, which some people might not want,” Vioncek said.

Those scents will be contained to the store – Vioncek said the building has an “air exchange system” that prevents any dank stank from wafting into the streets.

The store will open when legalization takes effect across Canada Oct. 17.

Fire and Flower has no cannabis on site yet, but Vioncek hopes to get the first shipment 10 days before the store opens, pending licencing approvals.

When it does arrive, the pot will mostly be stored in secure lockers behind the counter during opening hours, and moved to a locked-down back room after hours.

Vioncek said cannistas will be “highly trained” on marijuana products, starting two weeks before the store opens, and will be able to sit down with customers for one-on-ones to answer questions. He said Fire and Flower will have a minimum of four staff members on site at a time.

Customers will have to show their ID a second time when they make their purchase.

But the weed itself is only the beginning. The store is already stocked with a wide range of pipes, bongs, rolling papers, grinders and vape pens, as well as specialty items like humidors, infusers and heat presses to make rosin concentrates.

On one wall is shelves with merchandise including educational books, shirts, water bottles and “smell proof” purses, backpacks and duffle bags.

Fire and Flower also has a hemp-based apparel line in the works.

“We also can utilize all portions of the plant and show it off in our locations, so that consumers can see that not only are they going to buy flower and oil, they can buy everything related to the plant,” Vioncek said.

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Fire and Flower submitted 37 retail store applications to the Alberta Gaming Liquor and Cannabis Commission, which is the maximum allowed for a single independent retailer in Alberta.

Of those, the company hopes to open 10 in Edmonton.

The city received 180 cannabis retail store applications through its lottery system earlier this year, and had approved 55 as of Thursday afternoon.

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