Planet 13 Orange County offers largest California dispensary

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The first thing you need to know about the newest pot-superstore-meets-theme park in Southland – Planet 13 Orange County, which is open to the public today in Santa Ana – is that it’s big. Like Furniture-Store Big, CityTarget Big, and Biggest-Pharmacy-in-California Big.

The second thing you need to know is that even if you’ve never heard of Planet 13’s over-the-top approach to hurling weed (a bigger flagship that opened in Las Vegas in November 2018), your knowledge of the Pot culture begins and ends with Cheech & Chong’s 1978 stoner comedy Up in Smoke, the immersive, fun, and utterly Instagram-worthy approach to the cannabis trade, will grow in importance as the state’s legal marijuana market matures.

That’s because the over-the-top graphics and selfie-worthy backgrounds are as – if not more – an accomplished marketing game, as are over-the-top entertainment. “We have a hard time promoting because we keep getting closed on Facebook and so on because we are cannabis,” said Larry Scheffler, co-head of Planet 13, during a pre-opening tour. “[Customers] advertise us when they take a picture. … It’s incredible. That helps us grow so fast; it’s the social media. “

Scheffler said the pharmacy’s proximity to Disneyland (Anaheim amusement park is 14.3 km away) and the South Coast Plaza mall (three miles away), as well as its proximity to Freeway 405, will help attract a Vegas-like tourist flow.

“Las Vegas has about 55 million visitors a year; There are about 50 million here – Orange County – so almost the same number of visitors, ”he said. (It doesn’t hurt that Santa Ana is the only town in a county of over 3 million people that has legal cannabis retail stores.)

What exactly is there for cannathusists wandering to this Disneyesque pharmacy? Below are the seven trippiest things that caught my attention during a tour of the OC’s newest Pot Palace.

1. Aim at the large red globe

The first image you’re likely to see – especially as you roll off the 405 and head east – is the massive red ball shimmering with cascading water, marking the entrance to the pharmacy. The globe is large enough to see from several blocks away and represents the planet in Planet 13 branding. (In case you’re wondering, the numeric part of the name comes from the fact that the word marijuana starts with “M” – the 13th letter of the alphabet.)

    A large red globe that is also a water element with a building in the background.

The huge red ball marking the entrance to Planet 13 Orange County can be seen from afar.

(Mark Potts / Los Angeles Times)

2. Check in under a wave of wood

In keeping with the surf and sand atmosphere of Southern California, the interior has several beach elements, including an architectural wave of wood that rises above the check-in counter just behind the front door on the left.

Curved pieces of wood in the form of an architectural wave.

A wooden wave blows over the check-in counter at Planet 13 Orange County during a VIP event on June 24th. It’s one of the many beach-themed items available at the Santa Ana Pharmacy Outpost in Las Vegas.

(Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

3. Walk through a digital waterfall

One of several eye-catchers in the lobby area is a 25-meter-wide digital waterfall that takes up the entire wall opposite the check-in counter. It appears to cascade from the ceiling to flow and splash around the arched portal that marks the entrance to the pharmacy’s sales area and onto artificial ledges.

A woman holding a drink and walking across an interactive digital floor in front of an LED wave wall.

Christine Smith of Huntington Beach, radio host of Cannabis Talk 101, walks in front of the digital waterfall wall during Planet 13 Orange County’s VIP and media preview on June 24, leaving footprints in the interactive sand.

(Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

4. Stroll on the interactive ‘beach’

As you walk down the interactive computer-controlled beach to the right of the arched entrance, you will leave footprint-like tracks in the digital sand that remain until the man-made waves roll in and wash them away. If you’re really careful, you might spot a message in a bottle near the coast and a wonderfully wacky crab that scurries unexpectedly over the edge of the ground.

a giant pink illustrated octopus holding various objects

Cannabis? Cannabis!

(Micah Fluellen / Los Angeles Times)

5. Get on the hotbox bus

One of Planet 13 Las Vegas’ most popular interactive elements – a VW party bus – has been duplicated here in the lobby with surfer stoner tweaks. While the pale yellow, pink, and purple paint job of the bus and the surfboards attached to the roof certainly make for a fun picture, it’s a green button right behind the slider that brings it to the level of irresistibility to share on social media with the door labeled “Let yourself be fumigated.” Pressing the button fills the interior of the bus with fake smoke, giving the impression that the occupants were seriously fighting. (“People are waiting in line to get their picture taken in Vegas,” said Scheffler.)

A woman is standing next to a very large octopus sculpture.

A guest can be photographed in front of a five-meter-high octopus-and-globe installation on the pharmacy’s sales area.

(Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

6. Confront a giant octopus

The visual centerpiece of the 16,500 square meter retail sales area with 50 checkouts is a five meter high sculptural installation of a bright red octopus, which – with outstretched tentacles – is enthroned on another massive red ball. Though in the shadow of two Orange County’s theme parks (Knott’s Berry Farm is 14 miles away), the cephalopod isn’t nicknamed. “I actually believe that it still doesn’t have a name,” said Scheffler when asked. “I think we need to have a competition and give it a name.”

7. Shop under bright bumbershoots

If you take your eyes off the glass containers crammed with all kinds of cannabis flowers, concentrates, vaporizer cartridges, and edibles and look up, you’ll see dozens of brightly colored umbrellas (another visual touch from the Vegas location) dangling from the ceiling. “The ultimate goal, when I have time to clear everything up with the fire department, is a CO2 machine that goes on every umbrella and hits it in such a way that it drips down like rain at times,” said Scheffler.

Three people stand under colorful umbrellas hanging from a ceiling.

Lyndsey Bauers (left) of Seattle and Danielle Lewis and Austin Fisher of Reno stand under a blanket of brightly colored umbrellas during the VIP event on June 24 at Planet 13 Orange County.

(Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

The indoor rain effect isn’t the only novelty visitors can expect on future visits. Scheffler said the goal is to add new items every few months, and next, mechanical butterflies – with a wingspan of 18 inches – will be fluttering around the pharmacy. Additionally, he and Co-CEO Bob Groesbeck have ambitious plans for their Orange County outpost, of which the pharmacy is only the first of three phases. In Phase 2, the remainder of the 40,000-square-foot, horseshoe-shaped building will be expanded and used for additional retail and on-site private label production (both with immersive entertainment elements). But it’s the vision for Phase 3 that will truly make landing on Planet 13 the equivalent of visiting Disneyland:

There are plans to add a 15,000 square foot area in the center of the horseshoe. “This will be the consumer lounge,” said Scheffler, “a club that will be two floors higher, with living plants inside [and] Paddling pool for your [shoes] and dance in the water while consuming cannabis. ”

To be clear, you can’t fire Doobies on the premises – not yet – but you can stock up with some staff for later 50 tills thanks to a deep bank of budget tenders (Planet 13 Orange County has 250 employees when it opens). Although the shelves and cases weren’t completely filled by the time I took a tour, expect a sturdy range of Stiiizy vaporizer batteries and cartridges, pre-rolled joints, flowers and concentrates, as well as selects gums, tinctures and vape- Pens (both brands have full shop-in-shops on the sales floor) as well as Sonders Space Crystals (a sublinguality that’s like a grown-up, THC-infused version of Pop Rock that cracks and crackles under the tongue), Sauced-Vape- Cartridges and Wana rubbers.

Planet 13 Orange County SuperStore entertainment complex

Where: 3400 W. Warner Ave., Santa Ana

Opening times: 7 a.m. to 9.45 p.m. daily

Info: planet13dispensaries.com, (562) 732-1313

Two men in gray shirts are talking.

Planet 13 Co-CEOs Larry Scheffler, second from left, and Bob Groesbeck, right, are chatting with guests at the June 24 VIP event at their new Orange County pharmacy.

(Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

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