Two Las Vegas businessmen have unveiled a 40,000-square-foot marijuana dispensary in the city they’re calling the largest pot shop in the world.
Planet 13, named for the 13th letter of the alphabet𑁋“m” as in “marijuana”𑁋debuted earlier this month just west of the Strip on Desert Inn Road with 40 cash registers for ringing up bags of the stuff along with an array of edibles and vape-based products for both recreational and medical customers.
Bloomberg describes the place as akin to “an upscale jewelry store inside a night club”.
“Planet 13 embraces the gaudy showmanship that lures more than 40 million tourists to the desert each year to gamble and party,” the wire service notes. “Besides the 15-foot lotus blossoms on the roof, there’s a glowing 20-foot orb sitting in a fountain out front—strategically positioned for maximum visibility from thousands of hotel rooms nearby.”
Inside, “The floor lights up when you step on it,” and “Massive screens play trippy 3-D images.”
Buds are displayed in wood and glass cases in containers shaped like wine goblets for customers to sniff and even scrutinize with a magnifying glass.
Plans for the $8 million superstore, the brainchild of partners Bob Groesbeck and Larry Scheffler, include a coffee shop and tasting room and ultimately a smoking lounge if local authorities approve “on-premises consumption”.
Their target market, they say: the millions of free-spending tourists who make what happens in Vegas stay in Vegas.
“These are the same people who are paying $12 for a beer and don’t bat an eye,” Groesbeck said. “We wanted to take this out of that head-shop mindset.”
The company backing them, Planet 13 Holdings, which is publicly traded in Canada with a market cap of around $125 million, also owns two growing facilities𑁋one housed in a former brothel 120 miles north of the city𑁋with a production capacity of 2,500 pounds a year.
And, of course, this being Vegas, Planet 13 is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
As Groesbeck put it, “We want this to be a destination.”
