CannaFamily Dispensary is a family-owned cannabis shop on 159th Road in Howard Beach, Queens. I sat down with co-founder Kevin on the Respect My Region Podcast to hear how he got into cannabis retail, what customers ask for when they walk in, and what goes into building a menu for the people who actually shop there. We talked about flower, how much weight people put on THC percentages, and how the shop hears from customers when there’s something they want to see on the shelf.
When someone visits the dispensary a second time, it speaks volumes about their first experience. That second visit tells you something powerful about a store. Maybe somebody liked the flower they bought last time. Maybe the budtender remembered what they were looking for and pointed them toward something within their budget. Maybe they came back because the shop made it easy to ask a basic question without feeling like they had to know every strain on the menu.
Kevin’s perspective as a co-founder gives us a look at the business through those everyday interactions. A grand opening gets people through the door once. A regular will tell you pretty quickly what you’re getting right and what they wish you’d fix.
What’s on the CannaFamily Menu
The CannaFamily menu is where the shop lists its current selection. Its site features categories including flower, edibles, vaporizers, and concentrates. The shop also advertises local delivery and has a ZIP code checker on its website. Coverage and order minimums depend on the area, so the checker is the place to confirm what applies to a specific address.
One detail worth pointing out is the product request form on the shop’s homepage.
Customers can name a product or brand they’d like CannaFamily to carry. I’m always interested in that side of retail because it’s one thing for a brand to tell a buyer that people in Queens know its name. It’s another thing for a customer to ask for it when they have a dozen other choices in front of them. If the shop brings it in, the more interesting question is whether that person buys it again after trying it.
The online menu is part of that relationship. When somebody is standing at the counter, they can ask what’s close to the flower they came in for if it’s sold out. Online, they’re working with the product name, photo, description, and whatever the inventory says is available.
On the flower menu, Doobie Labs had Key Lime Cookies, Blue Nerdz, and Northern Lights. Wizard Trees had Wizard OG, SmartBud had Georgia Z and Lemon Heads, and To The Moon had Chemdawg smalls and Sunset Sherbert. Hashtag Honey showed up with Candy Land in an eighth and Jungle Cake in a half-ounce, while Left Coast listed Cap Junky and Ice Cream Cake in its small-batch flower line.
The pre-roll section had Doobie Labs Candy Fumes and Left Coast Sour Diesel as singles, Runtz Amaretto Di Lemon in two- and five-packs, and Jive Don Carlos in a two-pack. The infused pre-roll menu listed PUFF bubble hash minis, ROVE Ice Packs made with rosin, hash, and diamonds, and STIIIZY 40’s. Hudson Cannabis, ayrloom, and Dank By Definition also had infused pre-roll listings.
Vapes, Live Rosin, and Live Resin
The vape menu had MFNY Honey Banana live resin carts, Jaunty Green Crack carts, and Native Nations Cannabis NY Alien OG carts. Among the all-in-ones, Fernway had Alpine Strawberry, Select had Amnesia Haze in its BRIQ 2 line, and ROVE had a Granddaddy Purp Mini Bar.
The concentrates section is where MFNY showed up in two different formats. Its Chemdog and Hash Burger were listed as cold-cure live rosin, while Oishii and Grape Guava were listed as live resin badder. Jaunty had Dime Piece and E85 live rosin, Hashtag Honey had Honey Banana live rosin, and Olio had Sour D x Wilson cold-cure live rosin.
Edibles, Drinks, and Other Formats
The edibles menu had Grön Pearls and a dark chocolate mini bar, Off Hours Pink Berry and Peach Mango gummies, and Wyld Boysenberry gummies. The extract used was part of the product name in several listings, including MFNY Raspberry Lemonade x Gelato 41 live resin gummies, Hashtag Honey Black Cherry live resin gummies, and Jaunty Orange Swirl hash-infused gummies.
In the drinks section, ayrloom had Honeycrisp and Orange Creamsicle, and Harney Brothers Cannabis had Butterfly Disco Lemonade and Half Baked Lemonade + Tea. The wellness menu listed ayrloom drops and balms, Doctor Solomon’s tinctures, and LEVEL tablets. The accessory listings also showed STIIIZY Pro batteries. Product availability changes, so these listings give a snapshot of what CannaFamily carried when we checked.
The Dog Adoption Event Kevin Brought Up on the Podcast
One of the parts of the interview I’d pull for somebody who’s never heard of CannaFamily is Kevin talking about a dog adoption event. I spend a lot of time covering cannabis events, and most conversations about them start with the brands involved, the product drop, or who pulled up. A dog adoption event puts something else at the center of the day. Somebody might show up because they’re looking to adopt. Somebody else might come by because they want to learn more about how to help.
That’s the kind of detail I want to hear when I interview a local business owner. It tells me more about what the people behind the shop care about than a line on an About page ever could.
Kevin also got into his own path to dispensary ownership on the episode. Hearing him talk about getting into the business and then bring up an event like this gives you a better sense of the person running the shop than you’d get from scrolling its menu.
The Highest THC on the Menu Is Still Just One Number
Ask somebody what kind of flower they’re looking for and there’s a good chance you’ll hear a THC number before you hear a strain name. I get why it happens. You can sort a menu by percentage in two seconds, and it gives you one thing to compare when you’re staring at a screen full of jars you’ve never opened. Kevin and I got into how much weight that number gets, especially when it becomes the first thing a shopper asks about.
I’d rather hear somebody tell me what they liked about the last flower they bought. If they remember a sharp citrus smell as soon as they cracked the jar, that gives the budtender something to work with. If they liked the way it smoked but wouldn’t pay that price for it twice, that’s useful information too.
Even saying, “I liked this one enough to come back for it,” tells the person behind the counter more about what you want than asking them to sort the whole menu from highest to lowest.
There’s a question here for the brands trying to get into Queens, too.
What can the person behind the counter say about your flower after the sales rep leaves?
Give them something they can actually use with a customer. Tell them what the batch smells like, what the genetics are, and what sets it apart from the other products at that price. If the best thing your team can say about a jar is the percentage printed on it, you’re asking the budtender to do a lot of the selling for you.
Interview With CannaFamily Co-Founder Kevin
In the full CannaFamily episode on YouTube, Kevin talks about his path to ownership, the Howard Beach shop, the dog adoption event, and how customers make decisions about what to buy.
