Where’s the best place to buy CBD? The importance of shopping small for hemp products
Where to get CBD
Since we opened Bear Dance, I have always put myself in the customer’s shoes by googling what I would google if I was the average person seeking out CBD products or information about hemp.
When you google something along the lines of “best places to buy CBD” and/or “buying CBD online versus in person”, the results have always yielded some articles from big online CBD retailers arguing for why you should buy online. While this was surely true at some point, (been there, done that) and is probably still true for some areas, these days there’s a lot of really good reasons for shopping locally for CBD.
The information out there — as well as the industry as a whole — has improved quickly over the years as the dust has begun to settle for hemp, so these days you’ll also find results that will say your “best bet” is to shop at a “mom & pop store” or “CBD specialty shop”. A lot of places will also share tips about avoiding gas stations, pharmacies or grocery stores for CBD. These things we agree with!
So for my take on the best place to buy CBD, I’ll borrow a few of the points typically used by big online retailers to argue for buying online and use them to flesh out this issue a little further.
Saving Money
Big online CBD retailers argue that buying online saves money because you can always find sales and promotions on products.
However, in my experience this is not necessarily true. Smaller businesses are often motivated to offer more competitive prices and deals because our continued existence relies heavily on customer satisfaction.
Additionally, a company that is ALWAYS offering significant discounts and promotions typically has the margins to do so for a reason, and it’s not a reason that you’ll like if you care about quality as well as value. Which leads to the next point…
Quality Control
Big online retailers will argue that you can be discerning about quality online because COAs (certificate of analysis) are readily available and easy to find.
I have a serious bone to pick with companies that claim they are the best but their only evidence is the bare minimum standards that every hemp company must follow.
Making third-party-tests/COAs available for customers is the least we should all expect, regardless of how/where you’re shopping. This does not make any hemp company unique.
One of the best reasons to shop locally in general is that small businesses tend to truly care about their customers because our survival necessitates that we do our absolute best work at all times.
If I’m going to purchase products from a company, I need to know a LOT more about the company's process and values, because there’s so much that goes into every step of growing & manufacturing. When we’re vetting a new hemp supplier we want to know what truly sets them apart as people.
At Bear Dance, it was not originally our goal to stock exclusively local products. This now crucial tenet came about quickly after we opened as part of our search for the best products we could possibly offer. We found a lot of solace in our relationships with vendors by having face-to-face interactions with the business owners and having the opportunity to visit their grow sites and manufacturing facilities.
There’s plenty of writing out there that criticizes the hemp industry by pointing out how consumers must take a “leaf of faith” and trust that companies are being honest. While we really hate this and it makes us sick, this is unfortunately pretty accurate.
This is why we have always been transparent with our customers about what we think of our own products. Fortunately for us, we are in charge of what is on our own shelves. We wanted to be able to say we stand behind every single product on our shelves, so we employ a very simple principle: if we don’t like it, we don’t carry it! Over our 3 years in business, we’ve established trust among our customers.
More Options
Big online retailers will argue that the almost unlimited options available to a CBD consumer online are a pro to shopping online. However, more is not always better.
From our perspective, over-saturation of an unregulated market is not always a pro for consumers.
To sort of reiterate my quality control point above, you’ll find TONS of companies touting the same cut & paste values and quality standards, so this makes it more difficult to sort through the haystack and find companies run by people who truly care about what they are putting out into the world.
Product Information
Some big companies say shopping online is better because of the vast amount of information & research available to shoppers.
However – again – more is not always better. Many consumers feel overwhelmed by the amount of information available about hemp products, some of which is conflicting or confusing to the average person.
In our experience, the best way to fit products to a customer is one-on-one.
Our first step is to ask the customer what their goal is with CBD. What effects are they looking to achieve? What’s their prior experience with cannabis? The answer to these two questions helps us tailor our responses to best serve their interests. It takes an experienced budtender who is up to date on all the latest cannabis research to give a customer a nuanced perspective on their situation.
Further, not all companies are completely honest with their claims. I’ve seen several large CBD corporations use the lack of knowledge about CBD products to take advantage of people. One common example of this is the claim that THC-Free or 100% pure CBD oil is superior to full spectrum CBD. It’s already widely accepted by medical professionals in the cannabis space (see: Cannabis Is Medicine: How Medical Cannabis and CBD Are Healing Everything from Anxiety to Chronic Pain; Bonni Goldstein, MD) that cannabis is best used in its most natural state, which includes the full spectrum of terpenes and chemicals that are naturally available in the plant.
In conclusion
When you shop local for CBD, you have the chance to get a better value and better quality product.
Buying Virginia-made CBD helps keep money in our community and boost our local economy.
The mom-and-pop hemp community is made up of individuals who are willing to take on the challenges of an over-saturated, under-regulated, and quickly evolving industry because we have first-hand experience with what cannabis can do and we are dedicated to helping others.
Finally, businesses like ours are typically committed to advocating for a fair and equitable market for those who were disproportionately affected by prohibition. At Bear Dance, we feel it’s impossible to separate our industry from its racist history, so we donate to relevant organizations and engage in challenging conversations with our audience.
The way we see it, there’s always more reasons to shop locally than not! Support small hemp. <3