This Massachusetts marijuana company plans to sell apparel and more online to support local non-profits, before opening for pot sales
When Major Bloom opens the doors to its retail marijuana shops in Worcester and Attleboro, the company will have made its first sales months before.
The business will have already launched online with an e-commerce shop, touting apparel and other items that will promote cannabis culture. But beyond that selection of curated merchandise, Ulysses Youngblood, the co-founder and president of Major Bloom, said the e-commerce store will be a driver to work with non-profit organizations.
“What we ultimately are going to do is take profits and proceeds from the lifestyle brand and put them back into non-profit organizations to help with our direct impact plan," said Youngblood.
The e-commerce shop is expected to have a soft launch next month at themajorbloom.com, selling apparel and other items, like jewelry and a subscription to Broccoli, a magazine for cannabis enthusiasts that was created by women. Youngblood said the brand will also offer high-end items like leather goods.
Major Bloom is working with the company Digital Retail Partners to design the apparel and launch the e-commerce store through the platform Shopify. In Canada, where marijuana is legal, Shopify is the online platform widely used for weed purchases.
Regulations dictate that marijuana company logos cannot be on the apparel sold. For Youngblood, that meant an exciting opportunity to work with graphic designers from Digital Retail Partners and some of his own friends to create unique content with images and messages relating to cannabis culture.
“Our job is to provide a really good experience and be able to push the culture forward," Youngblood said.
As the e-commerce store grows, Major Bloom hopes to establish partnerships with socially-conscious brands to curate more content for the cannabis community, Youngblood said.
“For one, living here and also opening a business here, raising a family here, teaching here, it means a lot to see things happening in the community that have a good social cause for it," said Youngblood, who lives in Worcester and teaches at Clark University. “This isn’t only just for Worcester. I think it goes to any community that has been impacted by the war on drugs or any community that’s been disenfranchised.”
Youngblood said he’s noticed that some cannabis companies in California have excelled at brand promotion to drive people to their dispensaries. But he says he has not noticed many companies looking toward e-commerce.
“That’s part of the reason why we did it,” he said. “I don’t understand why other companies are not championing their direct impact plan and who they’re working with and what their social cause is but that’s a gap we saw and we’re taking advantage of that.”
While the majority of items will be available online, Youngblood said he plans to have some exclusive items available for purchase inside Major Bloom retail stores.
One benefit of this model is that items on the e-commerce store are taxed differently than THC products, which Youngblood said offers a better opportunity to share profits and resources with non-profit organizations.
Entrepreneurship for All, or EforAll, is an organization that looks to promote economic and social impact in communities through inclusive entrepreneurship and is in Massachusetts communities like Lowell, Holyoke and Fall River. It’s one of the organizations Major Bloom will help support through e-commerce, Youngblood said.
Major Bloom is a certified economic empowerment applicant, part of a program to provide priority review to people and communities disproportionately harmed by the war on drugs. License applications for Major Bloom’s locations have been deemed complete by the Cannabis Control Commission. Youngblood said he hopes the businesses will open later this year.