You’ll find two compelling business stories in this week’s Seven Days. Derek Brouwer’s colorful cover feature explores the thrift-store shopping trend and, in particular, the way the nonprofit ReSOURCE has successfully tapped in to it. Derek, a seasoned thrifter, calls its Williston store his “second home.”
This is also the week Seven Days publishes a guide to another rapidly expanding business sector: legal cannabis. Find the inaugural Vermont Cannabiz Guide inside this issue. It’s timed to arrive just before 4/20.
While our writers have been covering cannabis for years, we stepped it up with an entire publication because dispensaries and new cannabis-infused products are popping up everywhere. When it became legal to sell cannabis in Vermont for recreational use, or “adult use,” on October 1, 2022, there were just three dispensaries in the state where customers over the age of 21 could buy it. Two and a half years later, there are more than 100 of these operations, all mandated to sell only cannabis products that have been grown and manufactured in Vermont.
In fiscal year 2023, the cannabis sector reported more than $58 million in sales, according to data from the Vermont Department of Taxes. In fiscal year 2024, that number spiked to $128.5 million, which generated more than $18 million in tax revenue for the state.
The first time I bought cannabis, I got it from a medical marijuana dispensary in Burlington — I qualify to be a patient because I have multiple sclerosis. After filling out a ton of paperwork, paying $50 for a state-issued ID card that took forever to arrive and waiting months for an appointment at the dispensary, I finally purchased a tincture and a small bag of weed, which I barely touched.
Truthfully, I only persevered through the process so I could write about the experience for Seven Days‘ 2016 Wellness Issue. At the time, journalists weren’t allowed to tour dispensaries, but I had an unusual way in. Lucky me!
My next foray into legal weed began a few weeks ago as I did research and sourced products for this guide. I visited several dispensaries for the first time, some I’d noticed before and one I found by looking through a spreadsheet we got from the state’s Cannabis Control Board.
I was surprised by how different, and frankly how interesting, these visits were.
Based on the name and signage, I was expecting Winooski Organics to be similar to a crunchy food co-op, full of educational materials about local producers and discerning but enthusiastic young staffers. Indeed, that’s what I found, down to the stuffed buds crocheted by an employee that were for sale at the front counter.
But Sweetspot in Essex Junction totally surprised me. I had no idea what to expect from the nondescript, farmhouse-like building down the street from the Champlain Valley Exposition. There’s no window-shopping at these businesses; dispensaries can’t have anything inside visible to the outdoor public. Often, the only way to find out about their products and vibe is to walk inside.
Entering Sweetspot felt like stepping into a spa. The sparse, tastefully appointed space is suffused with natural light; a mural in soothing colors dominates a back wall. To make purchases, customers approach an uncluttered counter that supports a bank of iPads. The welcoming attendant, or budtender, I spoke with proved eager to listen and offered nonjudgmental guidance. It was almost the opposite of what I found the few times I walked into “smoke shops,” filled with overstimulating, trippy tapestries and tie-dyed apparel, where employees would give you the side-eye if you didn’t look like a member of the canna club.
Over 21? It’s worth visiting your local dispensary, if only to experience this unusual retail environment that didn’t exist a few years ago.
Just be ready with your photo ID. You have to present it when you enter and again if you buy something. That’s one of several tips we included in the guide. In it, you’ll find a directory of licensed dispensaries, a glossary of terms, a few product recommendations — for cannabis-infused items such as beverages, edibles and whipped body butter — and some safety tips. The most important: Keep this stuff locked up and away from kids — and pets.
We hope this resource helps you better understand a relatively new sector of Vermont’s economy — and maybe find a way to chill out about the stressful state of the world, at least temporarily.
This article appears in Apr 16-22, 2025.
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