Walking into Ivy Hall — Waukegan’s first cannabis dispensary — after clearing security, a potential customer passes a couch, lounge chair and small coffee table before approaching a wall displaying numerous products, including edibles, flower, oils and more.
Greeted by an agent in charge, or budtender, equipped with a tablet to help assist people with additional product information, customers like Angel Boyd of Beach Park begin to peruse.
“I’m looking around to find some oils,” Boyd said, as she looked at a variety of product mock-ups on display. “There’s a lot of variety.”
Ivy Hall opened Friday morning at 996 Waukegan Road near the Fountain Square shopping center with a complement of workers selling not only cannabis products and accessories, but clothing and giftware.
“We want to give customers a luxury shopping experience that’s very boutique-like,” Ivy Hall district manager Dominique Moses said, describing what the company labels a “sensory dispensary.”
“It’s a concierge level experience,” she said.
Moses said the experience may begin with a stop at the terpenes bar on the right, just before the large display wall. Terpenes are the active ingredient in cannabis, and they can have a variety of scents which customers can smell.
“It’s what gives you that euphoric affect,” she said. “They are in all the different forms of products like flower cigarettes, oils, edibles and tablets. They’re made by the cultivators,” she added, referring to licensed Illinois growers.
Six different scents of terpenes were on display. Moses said customers can experience the scents as they decide which products they want, and how it will affect their senses. It is like purchasing incense.
Along with the budtender giving them information, Moses said customers can use their cellphone to scan the QR code on the product package, which connects them with the company website.
Though the packages are real with items inside which might feel like a gummy or other product, Moses said there is no actual merchandise inside. The customer does not get that until they receive their product after it is retrieved by an employee in a secure storage area.
Waukegan is Ivy Hall’s third location in Illinois. The other dispensaries are in Chicago’s Bucktown neighborhood which opened in November; and Crystal Lake, which opened in January.
Starr De Los Santos of the Rosemont area said she likes the Ivy Hall experience. A customer of other shops, she decided to check out the new Waukegan location Friday with two friends.
“You get a great vibe when you come here, so I decided to try this location,” De Los Santos said. “I like seeing everything on the display and I love the swag,” she added, referring to clothing and other merchandise with logos and pointing to the Ivy Hall hat she was wearing.
Along with hats bearing the company logo, there are handbags, shirts, giftware and hoodies, including one with the message, “Buy weed from women.” Moses said the clothing and handbags with that message are made by a different women-owned company.
“We’re a minority-owned company, and we support minority- and women-owned companies,” Moses said.
Greg Elliott is the majority owner and chief growth officer of Ivy Hall Waukegan. He holds an equity cannabis license because he said he has lived in a disproportionately impacted area. He is also a Black U.S. Army veteran.
An entrepreneur by trade, Elliott said he is a longtime real estate investor and rehabber in Chicago and the South Suburbs. He recognized the cannabis industry as a growing one, and decided to get involved.
“I am super-excited that Gov. (J.B.) Pritzker has made this opportunity possible,” Elliott said. “I’m an entrepreneur, and I’m always looking for the next best thing. This is a great opportunity to get in on the ground floor.”
Ivy Hall will be open in Waukegan from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sundays.
