thecyberartis
New Member
This is the first review of many dispencaries to come. As a new card holder, but a well informed one, I'm all about quality, cleanliness, cost and customer service. My new customer status with everyone in LA should not only scoe me some free stuff but test the employee's to see how they treat a newbie. My first few dispensaries are going to be ones with clones. This first post is pretty in depth so that a new patient may know what to expect the first time. Every documentary or show I've seen doesn't do the experience justice. I may cross post this so newbs get a chance to read it but don't know if that is allowed. Feedback on the first few posts will determine whether I continue them.
The Herbal Discount Collective (HDC)
735 N. La Brea Ave. Los Angeles CA 90038
June 5th, 2009 - 12:30pm
20 minute experience
No Website (I offered to design on for them, we'll see if they come through).
Entrance is in the front, facing La Brea. On street metered parking only. Suggest parking across the street by a block or two away. Warning: there is a school directly behind the collective on the next block. Do not park west of the collective (more on this at the end).
Typical storefront buzzer set up. No windows, painted yellow. A young couple walking with their child were taking pictures of the storefront withe their cell phone as I was ready to enter but I slowed my role and we passed one another afte they continued on their walk.
Very pleasant armed security guard met me at the door and held it open asking if I was a returning or new patient. Being new, he handed me a clipboard to fill out a form and guided me to the lovely budress behind the glass. She was pleasent, cute and asked for the typical ID and letter. I sat on the comfortably broken in white leather couch. Pretty baron waiting area but clean. It took about 2 mins to get verified and I was buzzed on in.
Entering the pharmacy area I was welcomed by smooth hip hop music and the cute budress who checked me in welcomed me as she pointed out the different sections of the glass cases. No sitting area in the pharmacy. Two medium sized cases had just edibles and three remaining medium sized cases had various oils, balms, tinctures, etc. Everything was very clean and medium brightness. You can tell they are wantint to be a step above many of the other dispensaries in the locality.
Current specials noted:
Free joint with any edible, free gr for every new customer. Free gr with a referral of a new customer. Mondays, buy 3 clones, get 1 free. There were more but dont recall. If anyone can advise as to whether they allow note taking, let me know lol. I wish all dispensaries had websites with at least their specials listed.
Clones:
$15 a clone regardless of strain. Appear to be from Oaksterdam nurseries. They dropped a nice booklet in the bag with the clones and the ones they had for donations matched the ones in the Oaksterdam guide. Friday seems to be a delivery day for clones and the girls I saw come in through the door were stellar! I was trying to take so much in that I do not recall the strains but they were taken to the back and she went and got a mental list for me. 8 different srains of plants (maybe 80 clones total as a guesstimate). There were 4 stains on display behind the counter and no more than 4 plants of each strain. I asked for two of the ones on display (and a White Widow from the back delivery (Fabulously healthy) Tip: You dont want to get there just before the delivery, you'll get the most strained and last to be picked for dodgeball clones. So what I got will be snapped and posted here later tonight. The White Widow was the best of the three, the ----- is a little small, and the ------ had some yellowed tips at the end of the leaves. I can mostly deal with those issues over the next couple of days. See staff notes below. In hind site i should have engaged the delivery guy in quick conversation to see what they just came from (18/6, 20/4, 24, what nutrients, etc. Pretty sure the store was over nut a little.
Medicinals:
They had 4 large menus on the walls with no less than 40 flavors of they typical varieties and prices. They appear to be on par with everyone else in the region. 20 flavors were capped at 55, including White Widow and similar strains. 7 on the Specials board and about a dozen on the high end board. They split the Indica and Sativa into two colors, with the the names of the strains in the appropriate colors and hybrids with the dominant persentages color being the first word or letters. As I was reading the menu, appearing to be lost (I was familiar with more than half of the flavors up there and was doing cost comparisons in my head), the budtress asked a second budtress sitting in the secure windowed if she tried the new Medusa. Kind of like trying to break the silence by baiting on a flavor they wanted to push on people. The second budtress leaned back and said it was awesome, she had it yesterday. She really enjoyed making the labels for it last night. The both had a weird smile... so I grabbed a gr of that knowing it may or may not have been a push but it was $17 - I've spent that on a few pints of guinness so even though I hadn't heard of it before, it will do more than those pints ever did. Will reply back once I enjoy it.
Edibles:
They had a nice assortment of edibles in various potencies. I did like that they had more thanone vendor of brownies, cookie etc so it would be possible to try another bakers good of the same type to compare. I am going to make a book and save the labels with ratings. As for one vendors brownies - x2 $6, x10 $10 and x20 $20 - A customer came in and bought a x20 and couldnt stop raving about it. He seemed on edge and probably could really use the brownie : ) He stated that it would last him about 5 hours (per bite? ...or the whole thing I wondered but didnt ask). Earlier the budtress said that most people at 1/8 to 1/4 of the x20 and would be rocked for a long time. Having never done an edible but having done enough research to know it can be unpredictable the first few times - I went with an x2 as well as a $20 bag of Momma's Turnin Trichs - Snoop Puppy Chow (chex mix with M&M's and other sweet goodness).
Well, I ate half the brownie when I got home and initially thought I was going to be dissappointed - about 20mins I had some early effects, but by 40 mins I felt like I did 2 huge bong hit of maybe a 50/50 hybrid. Slight amount of paranoia, moments of veg, nasal compression, but overall I was functional. This lasted for almost 4 hrs and I had to take a 30 min power nap at the end and then my head was fully clear. So in hind sight, for $3 it was worth it. Now if I only knew how their proportions were in making the butter for the brownie. I will eventually make my own but for now Im happy paying that and will look for the wrapper in the other dispensaries. It was pretty yummy.
Staff:
Security... Fortiesh armed guy that was very nice. Smiled and made you feel safe as well as comfrotable while wating. As a side note, they were robbed by three gunmen and it was botched apparently. You canfind the story here elsewhere as well as on google. They seem to have recovered nicely and there security seems adequate at the moment. Dont know what it was like prior to the incident.
My Budtress (#1)...Cute, bubbly, seemed to be the edible professor in the store. I appreciate the low cut shirt and continual flash. It doesnt sway my purchases but it brightens my day. Her clone process dismayed me as a newb - I expected her to allow me to somehow view the plants to choose them but it appears much like buying weapons in AZ (lots more gun rights there, no MJ rights - so I switched lol). Buying, for instance, and assault weapon from a 3rd world country. They came by the crates. You can get one for $150 but they just grab a box and give it to you, sight unseen. Its 190 to open 3 and personally pick the best of the three. All the gunshops do it that way. So my parallel was meant to show how i feel about this deal. For $15 you apparently get what you get, but at least you can pick the strain - which is a given. This budtress was not as knowledgable about clones or cloning as she was the edibles and dried medicinals. As for the edibles, when i was checking out, the 2nd Budtress was telling a new patient who just came in that they had "yummy sample to try of almost everything" and that "you get a free joint with any edible purchase". So I was never told about samples or the free joint (subsequently didnt get it either). Also, there were two bags of the chex mix with one being an obvious 15-20% bigger than the other. She was going to grab the big bag, her hand hovered ove rit then looke closer and grabbed the smaller bag (the sample bag maybe). Again, I didnt confront any of the issues because I wanted to seem oblivious to give an honest review. For now, its worth it so I can narrow down to a clean, honest collective that has my interests as a patient in their best regard. I can help drive patients away or to them without any in shop conflict.
The other Budtress (#2)... Tall, cute, friendlier with the freebies to a new patient.
The delivery guy... a large obese man and a some B O issues. He looked as if he might be an over the road truck driver with stains on his shirt. But, he is delivering and carrying a lot of boxes... On his departure through the door, he tried to make the girls laugh and said he had to rush home and get ready for his Orgie - this made the customers and the girls seem a little uncomfortable becasue he just kind of stood there in the door and giggled, seemingly not wanting to leave until somebody asked for an invite. Don't know if I would want him coming through the storefront all the time but needless to say, nobody asked.
The customers - All cool people, no homeless or Venice beach street types. Cleanly dressed, friendly, nobody that would make a newb (or veteran) uncomfortable.
Final thought: next trip in there will probably just be for clones and edibles, but you never know. I also will not appear such a newb and ask for a specific clone vs let them pick as well as point out wanting the bigger bag. Now comes the interesting part.
I have to large prescription bags and have to exit the front of the store back onto La Brea. I park two blocks North on a side street to be away from the school. I did not have a backpack with me, which I will have in the future. So I had to walk the two blocks with me fairly large prescription bags. I was going to go left at the first street to access the alley way to the truck but looked right at the school letting kids out - no reason to chance an incident. So I keep walking up La Brea to the street where my truck is parked on and make the left. I have a cap on the bed and the key is in the glovebox. I toss the bags in the back seat (ext cab) and grab the key. As I walk to the back of the truck to unlock it (empty handed) an LA Sheriff Deputy almost sideswipes me and parks to car lengths in front of me, almost as if making a rt turn onto La Brea. I am having problems with the left lock on the cap and open it, appearing to try to fix the bolt in the air while I grab a quick glance his way. No he has is rear emerg lights on and is just sitting in his car watching me through the side mirror. So my issue was, Im told to put my meds in the back and lock them while dricing. But here he is watching me. I said F it and appeared to successfully have fixed my lock, got in and made a turn onto La Brea. He turned off his lights, pulled out and followed me to I10... Then kept going on La Brea while I got on the on ramp. I didn't see anyone or marked cars when I exited the building. Just things to make you go hmmmm.
The Herbal Discount Collective (HDC)
735 N. La Brea Ave. Los Angeles CA 90038
June 5th, 2009 - 12:30pm
20 minute experience
No Website (I offered to design on for them, we'll see if they come through).
Entrance is in the front, facing La Brea. On street metered parking only. Suggest parking across the street by a block or two away. Warning: there is a school directly behind the collective on the next block. Do not park west of the collective (more on this at the end).
Typical storefront buzzer set up. No windows, painted yellow. A young couple walking with their child were taking pictures of the storefront withe their cell phone as I was ready to enter but I slowed my role and we passed one another afte they continued on their walk.
Very pleasant armed security guard met me at the door and held it open asking if I was a returning or new patient. Being new, he handed me a clipboard to fill out a form and guided me to the lovely budress behind the glass. She was pleasent, cute and asked for the typical ID and letter. I sat on the comfortably broken in white leather couch. Pretty baron waiting area but clean. It took about 2 mins to get verified and I was buzzed on in.
Entering the pharmacy area I was welcomed by smooth hip hop music and the cute budress who checked me in welcomed me as she pointed out the different sections of the glass cases. No sitting area in the pharmacy. Two medium sized cases had just edibles and three remaining medium sized cases had various oils, balms, tinctures, etc. Everything was very clean and medium brightness. You can tell they are wantint to be a step above many of the other dispensaries in the locality.
Current specials noted:
Free joint with any edible, free gr for every new customer. Free gr with a referral of a new customer. Mondays, buy 3 clones, get 1 free. There were more but dont recall. If anyone can advise as to whether they allow note taking, let me know lol. I wish all dispensaries had websites with at least their specials listed.
Clones:
$15 a clone regardless of strain. Appear to be from Oaksterdam nurseries. They dropped a nice booklet in the bag with the clones and the ones they had for donations matched the ones in the Oaksterdam guide. Friday seems to be a delivery day for clones and the girls I saw come in through the door were stellar! I was trying to take so much in that I do not recall the strains but they were taken to the back and she went and got a mental list for me. 8 different srains of plants (maybe 80 clones total as a guesstimate). There were 4 stains on display behind the counter and no more than 4 plants of each strain. I asked for two of the ones on display (and a White Widow from the back delivery (Fabulously healthy) Tip: You dont want to get there just before the delivery, you'll get the most strained and last to be picked for dodgeball clones. So what I got will be snapped and posted here later tonight. The White Widow was the best of the three, the ----- is a little small, and the ------ had some yellowed tips at the end of the leaves. I can mostly deal with those issues over the next couple of days. See staff notes below. In hind site i should have engaged the delivery guy in quick conversation to see what they just came from (18/6, 20/4, 24, what nutrients, etc. Pretty sure the store was over nut a little.
Medicinals:
They had 4 large menus on the walls with no less than 40 flavors of they typical varieties and prices. They appear to be on par with everyone else in the region. 20 flavors were capped at 55, including White Widow and similar strains. 7 on the Specials board and about a dozen on the high end board. They split the Indica and Sativa into two colors, with the the names of the strains in the appropriate colors and hybrids with the dominant persentages color being the first word or letters. As I was reading the menu, appearing to be lost (I was familiar with more than half of the flavors up there and was doing cost comparisons in my head), the budtress asked a second budtress sitting in the secure windowed if she tried the new Medusa. Kind of like trying to break the silence by baiting on a flavor they wanted to push on people. The second budtress leaned back and said it was awesome, she had it yesterday. She really enjoyed making the labels for it last night. The both had a weird smile... so I grabbed a gr of that knowing it may or may not have been a push but it was $17 - I've spent that on a few pints of guinness so even though I hadn't heard of it before, it will do more than those pints ever did. Will reply back once I enjoy it.
Edibles:
They had a nice assortment of edibles in various potencies. I did like that they had more thanone vendor of brownies, cookie etc so it would be possible to try another bakers good of the same type to compare. I am going to make a book and save the labels with ratings. As for one vendors brownies - x2 $6, x10 $10 and x20 $20 - A customer came in and bought a x20 and couldnt stop raving about it. He seemed on edge and probably could really use the brownie : ) He stated that it would last him about 5 hours (per bite? ...or the whole thing I wondered but didnt ask). Earlier the budtress said that most people at 1/8 to 1/4 of the x20 and would be rocked for a long time. Having never done an edible but having done enough research to know it can be unpredictable the first few times - I went with an x2 as well as a $20 bag of Momma's Turnin Trichs - Snoop Puppy Chow (chex mix with M&M's and other sweet goodness).
Well, I ate half the brownie when I got home and initially thought I was going to be dissappointed - about 20mins I had some early effects, but by 40 mins I felt like I did 2 huge bong hit of maybe a 50/50 hybrid. Slight amount of paranoia, moments of veg, nasal compression, but overall I was functional. This lasted for almost 4 hrs and I had to take a 30 min power nap at the end and then my head was fully clear. So in hind sight, for $3 it was worth it. Now if I only knew how their proportions were in making the butter for the brownie. I will eventually make my own but for now Im happy paying that and will look for the wrapper in the other dispensaries. It was pretty yummy.
Staff:
Security... Fortiesh armed guy that was very nice. Smiled and made you feel safe as well as comfrotable while wating. As a side note, they were robbed by three gunmen and it was botched apparently. You canfind the story here elsewhere as well as on google. They seem to have recovered nicely and there security seems adequate at the moment. Dont know what it was like prior to the incident.
My Budtress (#1)...Cute, bubbly, seemed to be the edible professor in the store. I appreciate the low cut shirt and continual flash. It doesnt sway my purchases but it brightens my day. Her clone process dismayed me as a newb - I expected her to allow me to somehow view the plants to choose them but it appears much like buying weapons in AZ (lots more gun rights there, no MJ rights - so I switched lol). Buying, for instance, and assault weapon from a 3rd world country. They came by the crates. You can get one for $150 but they just grab a box and give it to you, sight unseen. Its 190 to open 3 and personally pick the best of the three. All the gunshops do it that way. So my parallel was meant to show how i feel about this deal. For $15 you apparently get what you get, but at least you can pick the strain - which is a given. This budtress was not as knowledgable about clones or cloning as she was the edibles and dried medicinals. As for the edibles, when i was checking out, the 2nd Budtress was telling a new patient who just came in that they had "yummy sample to try of almost everything" and that "you get a free joint with any edible purchase". So I was never told about samples or the free joint (subsequently didnt get it either). Also, there were two bags of the chex mix with one being an obvious 15-20% bigger than the other. She was going to grab the big bag, her hand hovered ove rit then looke closer and grabbed the smaller bag (the sample bag maybe). Again, I didnt confront any of the issues because I wanted to seem oblivious to give an honest review. For now, its worth it so I can narrow down to a clean, honest collective that has my interests as a patient in their best regard. I can help drive patients away or to them without any in shop conflict.
The other Budtress (#2)... Tall, cute, friendlier with the freebies to a new patient.
The delivery guy... a large obese man and a some B O issues. He looked as if he might be an over the road truck driver with stains on his shirt. But, he is delivering and carrying a lot of boxes... On his departure through the door, he tried to make the girls laugh and said he had to rush home and get ready for his Orgie - this made the customers and the girls seem a little uncomfortable becasue he just kind of stood there in the door and giggled, seemingly not wanting to leave until somebody asked for an invite. Don't know if I would want him coming through the storefront all the time but needless to say, nobody asked.
The customers - All cool people, no homeless or Venice beach street types. Cleanly dressed, friendly, nobody that would make a newb (or veteran) uncomfortable.
Final thought: next trip in there will probably just be for clones and edibles, but you never know. I also will not appear such a newb and ask for a specific clone vs let them pick as well as point out wanting the bigger bag. Now comes the interesting part.
I have to large prescription bags and have to exit the front of the store back onto La Brea. I park two blocks North on a side street to be away from the school. I did not have a backpack with me, which I will have in the future. So I had to walk the two blocks with me fairly large prescription bags. I was going to go left at the first street to access the alley way to the truck but looked right at the school letting kids out - no reason to chance an incident. So I keep walking up La Brea to the street where my truck is parked on and make the left. I have a cap on the bed and the key is in the glovebox. I toss the bags in the back seat (ext cab) and grab the key. As I walk to the back of the truck to unlock it (empty handed) an LA Sheriff Deputy almost sideswipes me and parks to car lengths in front of me, almost as if making a rt turn onto La Brea. I am having problems with the left lock on the cap and open it, appearing to try to fix the bolt in the air while I grab a quick glance his way. No he has is rear emerg lights on and is just sitting in his car watching me through the side mirror. So my issue was, Im told to put my meds in the back and lock them while dricing. But here he is watching me. I said F it and appeared to successfully have fixed my lock, got in and made a turn onto La Brea. He turned off his lights, pulled out and followed me to I10... Then kept going on La Brea while I got on the on ramp. I didn't see anyone or marked cars when I exited the building. Just things to make you go hmmmm.
