The Community Store

Wellington’s first cannabis storefront opens

Tom Stevens grew up in Prince Edward County and like many young folk, he left the County for a while as his work took him to multiple continents. The County holds many memories for Stevens from childhood through to early adult. A broad proud smile comes across his face as he mentions how he grew up just three doors down from his new store; he went to school here and his parents owned the village gas station at the time. Now in his early 30s, this Prince Edward County boy finds himself settled in the County where a desire to pursue a different kind of business interest translated to an opportunity seized and a dream realized. Many know him, some went to school with him, others may be familiar with the family name. Having explored and enjoyed various business ventures far from here for a time, he has returned to his roots to pursue a passion to bring the first legal cannabis dispensary to the village of Wellington.

If you are partial to pie, and who isn’t, or maybe pizza, Wellington has choices, but when you sandwich cannabis between pie and pizza, it may just be a winning formula. A modern single-storey building set back on Main Street, just a bit along from downtown and across from Wellington Beach, the Wellington Plaza is small with just four tenants. It’s been a while since it saw full occupancy as businesses came and went. Step inside the former dollar store—and before that some may remember it as a dental office— and Stevens ensures the experience is more than just picking up a favourite edible. The plaza’s newest tenant, The Community Store, opened for business on December 23 and they are eager and ready to serve the community of Wellington, Prince Edward County and beyond, whether it’s flower-based products, concentrates, vapes, topicals, edibles or beverages. “There was a real opportunity for us to bring something to life,“ says Stevens.

It’s about not only returning to a place that holds many fond memories for Stevens, a place where he can reacquaint with friends, but it’s also about building a unique community and giving back to a community he has been a part of for 30 years. Locally owned and operated, he opened the first Community Store in Belleville in September 2021; Wellington is his second location. While Stevens is new to the storefront side of things, he isn’t new to cannabis, the industry and a lot of the behindthe- scenes stuff; he was familiar too with a lot of the strategies other cannabis retailers were taking as he made the business decision to get into the industry.

Tom Stevens, co-owner of The Community Store, opened Wellington’s first cannabis outlet on December 23.

Step into the new Community Store on Wellington Main Street and not only will you be able to pick from a vast selection of certified cannabis products, but customers will benefit from a unique experience, one that takes the visitor on a journey. What’s important to this co-owner and cannabis enthusiast is not just education about the product and its 21st century history, but a fascination with the influence the drug has had on society generally over the last 100 years or so. Stevens offers a different kind of experience inside The Community Store. You can linger here if you wish, sit and stay awhile if you choose, relax and enjoy the experience, learn more about the product range, and reminisce about the music legends on the walls, all in a warm, friendly space with a welcoming fireplace and a small seating area.

The name of the business is as intentional as his business model, because this is about community and serving the local community. The newly refurbished space hints of nostalgia with walls adorned with memorabilia and County touches. He wants folk to feel welcome here and it’s why there are familiar faces on the walls older patrons may recognize and nostalgic touches with a little County history thrown in for good measure. For the younger demographic, there is a chill zone with movies and music playing, a video game console and vintage arcade game too. “I understood that in order to make people feel comfortable, especially with the stigmas and the walls that are still up around the topic, it needed to bring out some nostalgia in everybody, even down to the music, because cannabis was a big influencer for many musicians,” he says. As someone who grew up in Wellington and as a cannabis user since high school, he gets how the stigma is still very real. “Yes, I would like to succeed as a profitable business, but also I feel I have the experience and the ability to present this to the public in a way that’s more informative and helps break down those barriers in a more constructive way, so people understand why they are coming to us instead of going somewhere else.”

The Community Store is not just a store selling a product with experienced, knowledgeable and passionate employees, but they offer an experience. For Stevens, that experience is not just about fulfilling customer demand and expectation, but offering education and transparency in what is an emerging and super-regulated industry. He explains how he was drawn to the general store concept of rural, small-town Ontario, a warm familiar environment that sells almost everything. For those who remember it, he talks about Kate’s Pantry (now East and Main Bistro) whose inventory included a wonderment of products, not quite a general store, but somewhere you could pickup a vast assortment of ingredients and food items. “Kate’s Pantry was a big inspiration for me; the floors would creak when you walked in, you get the smell of spices, the smell of the candies, the soaps, and that for me is rural Canada to a certain extent as it was in an older building with a lot of character and a lot of charisma,” says Stevens. “That was something I wanted to go for because not only is that something that works here, but it really works in any rural town.”

He appreciates that it takes time for people to adjust their buying habits and preferences and many need to feel comfortable about where they choose to buy cannabis products, perhaps afraid of being seen by friends or neighbours and the associated stigma that comes with. There’s no question the industry at just a few years old is in its infancy, and many are still cautious at buying a legal product in a legal establishment in unfamiliar surroundings, something Stevens notes isn’t really anything new as he draws parallels to tobacco and alcohol, both of which were illegal substances at one point during Prohibition. It’s a vastly changing market and a vastly changing time, one Stevens said will slowly catch-up eventually, and he hopes 10 years or so from now, picking up cannabis will be as normal as picking up a carton of milk.

“We are trying to position ourselves not only for strategic business success, but to provide a more convenient, more accommodating, safer and more responsible service for everybody,” he says. “Some would say combining pies, pizza, cannabis and ice cream next door is a pretty solid cornucopia; it’s exciting, it’s been a wild ride, all in the name of cannabis.” The Community Store is located at 186 Wellington Main Street (Unit 3) and is open daily 9 a.m. to 8.30 p.m. where all (ages 19 and over) are welcome. The Community Store can be reached at 613.399.5777 or visit thecommunitystore.ca