August 22nd, 2025 was a historic day for the city of Massillon, Ohio. It was the first day of the high school football season, and anybody who knows anything about Massillon knows the city holds a special place in football history. The people of Massillon love football!

More importantly, this was the city’s first day with a legal cannabis store. There is a Story Cannabis location coming to Massillon sometime soon, but Bloom beat them out to be the first dispensary in the city.

Despite having a late night the previous evening, I woke up early and parked in Bloom’s spacious strip mall parking lot right at 7:00 am. The store was set to open at 8:00 am. I was the first one in line. At the front door there was a guy putting up signage on the windows. I asked him, “Do you work for Bloom?”

He responded, “No, I’m just the sign guy.” I said “Well, hello sign guy!” He finished affixing the signage, said goodbye and walked off. After that, a few customers got in line, probably around 7:10 am.

There was a sense of excitement and joy in the air as I spoke with the Massillon locals. One of the customers had some interesting stories about their several years of experience in the Ohio cannabis industry! Another passionate consumer, wearing a Massillon Tigers hoodie, explained to me about how much this day meant to them and the city.

They told me about how sick they were of smoke shops selling harsh, ineffective Delta-8 vapes and low-THC hemp flower. Those stores are everywhere in Massillon, even right next to the new Bloom! The responsible consumer had waited a lifetime for their home town to get a legal cannabis dispensary.

Despite being able to get zips of fire for $175 from their buddy, the Tigers fan loved how Bloom offered so many different choices and options. They told me they were going to try some 92 Cookies from Buckeye and look around at some terpene profiles to find some other flower options.

There were a few overjoyed Massillon residents showing me images on their phone of what they planned to order and asking my opinion. One customer was interested in Airo pods. I explained to them the difference between the live resin and distillate pods. I recommended live resin. We also discussed details about 510 carts and terpenes.

A few of the Massillon Bloom employees stepped outside to greet the crowd. I knew a few of them from the Akron Bloom store! One of the Massillon Bloom employees, Aaron, was someone I worked with a few years ago at Ohio Cannabis Company! It was a nice surprise seeing him. I knew I would see him again at some point, but I didn’t know it would be then!

Finally the doors opened, and I clapped and cheered as I walked into the spacious, well-lit showroom. The employees welcomed me. There was no specific check-in room. You just checked in with your ID right on the showroom floor.

After checking in, my budtender was none other than Aaron, who was also the budtender for my first-ever legal cannabis purchase which took place at Ohio Cannabis Company in 2023.

While I was the first customer through the door and to check in, the customer behind me had an online preorder. Since their order was all ready to go, they were the first one to make a purchase from Bloom Massillon. I was the second purchaser, but the first to place a walk-in order. I selected a Sweetscape Live Resin 510 cart from Buckeye, since I had yet to try Buckeye’s live resin.

After the purchase I thanked everyone, said my goodbyes, and headed home. I had an excellent time this morning at Bloom’s grand opening in Massillon! However, this was not the first dispensary grand opening I recently attended.

A few weeks ago I was in the Solon area and got word that a new Botanist location would be opening the next morning. It was short notice, but I thought to myself, “What if I could be the first one to make a purchase from their store?” It would take determination, dedication and a will to wake with the roosters, but I decided it was worth it.

On the morning of July 28th, 2025, I cracked open a can of coffee, hopped in the car, and got to Botanist a little over an hour before opening time. When I got there, the check-in employee told me it was cool to hang out in my car. They would make sure I was the first customer to walk through the door.

As I sat in my car, a police officer kept driving past the parking lot and looking at me. I thought to myself about how state, national and worldwide weed laws have changed over the last few decades. While Ohio’s legal cannabis laws and marketplaces are far from perfect, we’re lucky to live in these unique times. These are the times Ohioans have been patiently waiting for!

A Botanist regional manager walked past the car and I struck up a conversation with them. After noticing my industry badge, they asked a little bit about me and my experience in the industry. We chatted for a bit, I gave them a Bill’s Bud Blog sticker and they headed inside.

A few minutes before 10:00 am, the check-in employee told me it was cool to step outside of the car and form a line. The guy next to me in line recognized that my car air freshener was fashioned in the likeness of the pro wrestler Earthquake. My brother had got me the air freshener for my birthday. I talked about old-school wrestling with the customer until the doors opened!

While checking in at the front desk I once again saw the regional manager from earlier. They told me that they had already read all of the poems on Bill’s Bud Blog! They had even pinned my sticker on the breakroom bulletin board and wrote one of my poems on their company whiteboard! I wish I could remember which poem they said it was.

All of the showroom floor budtenders were friendly and accommodating. There was a sense of exhilaration to the showroom. Everyone was ecstatic. I ended up getting a gram of Farkas Farms Super B hybrid bubble hash and I was indeed the first customer to make a purchase.

The budtender at the checkout counter looked familiar. They told me they used to work at Story in Cleveland. That must have been where I saw them.

A few weeks later when I went back to Solon Botanist, the first thing they said to me when I hit the showroom floor was “You look familiar!” I feel like I’ll always have a connection to that dispensary since I had such a great experience being the first one to exchange money across the counter.

During that second visit I learned about another new dispensary in Solon called Verilife. I had been to Verilife’s Hillsboro location and got an impressive $80 half ounce of Cantucci Cookies from their brand called Matter (spelled matter. with a lowercase m and a period at the end). It’s nice to see more Ohio dispensaries popping up! There are more to come in 2025 and beyond!

If you’d like to feel the feeling of being the first customer through a dispensary door, keep your eyes peeled for announcements about shops opening in your area. Since Ohio dispensaries can’t legally advertise, you’ll have to rely on word-of-mouth or internet sources.