Alex Kardos, Founder of Sage Dispensary- Interview Series

One aspect of the cannabis industry that is under-reported—yet could produce some fascinating stories—is the history behind the buildings that licensed dispensaries operate out of. While some dispensaries have their own buildings expertly designed and constructed, others move into thriving shopping centers or breathe new life into mostly vacant ones. Some have taken over former Walgreens and CVS locations, which helps build indirect legitimacy for medical cannabis. Interestingly, other dispensaries have begun moving into spaces that were once memorable, locally-owned restaurants and pubs.

Sage Dispensary is one such business, operating out of a space that was once an iconic diner in Laurel, New Jersey. For a deeper look into this unique dispensary and the process of converting a diner into a fully licensed and regulated facility, mycannabis.com spoke with Alex Kardos, Founder of Sage Dispensary.

Growing up in Cherry Hill, what wholesome memories do you have of visiting The Sage Diner? What was it like visiting, and how was the diner a staple of the community when you were young?

I remember the diner’s actual opening when I was in elementary school. I lived and went to school within a few miles, so it was literally part of our neighborhood. It was a natural place that my family and I wanted to check out. We’d go there as a family, and it was an easy place to end up after school or when we just wanted to go out together. I remember the feeling of it being right there and becoming part of our routine.

I always think of it as our Ponzio’s. Ponzio’s is such a South Jersey institution, a place where families went for breakfast or dinner, where you’d see people you knew and where generations of families had their own memories. The Sage Diner had that same kind of neighborhood familiarity for us. Because we lived so close, it wasn’t some special occasion to go there; it was just one of those places that was part of everyday life. Looking back now, I realize how much those kinds of places become woven into your memories of growing up.

What inspired you to move to Los Angeles and pursue film production? How much of an adjustment was it when compared to New Jersey?

The irony is that I actually never ended up getting into the film business! I went out there in 2007 to start from the ground up in the entertainment industry. I drove out with a used car, $2,000, and not much else. And when I got out there and was getting settled, there was a writer strike. So, there were no jobs to be had in the industry for probably a year.

That’s when I pivoted over to cannabis, which I had always been into using and selling when I was younger. And I walked by one of the earliest dispensaries, called The Farmacy. And my life was changed. It was the first branded dispensary in all of California, and I started there, learning everything I could about the business from the ground up. It was a really special experience.

I ended up doing a lot of business development, opening more locations for the company throughout Southern California and Colorado. Ultimately I decided it was time for me to go into business for myself.

When did you first enter the California cannabis industry and what interested you about working in that industry? What were the largest differences between those early medical days and how California dispensaries operate now?

The differences are night and day. When I came out to California, cannabis was still both a social taboo and legal grey area, so you were operating in an environment where there was a lot of uncertainty about what the future was going to look like.

Today, people are putting a tremendous amount of thought and resources into their buildouts and into every aspect of the customer experience. There are now entire companies dedicated to serving the cannabis industry: POS systems, HR, accounting, compliance, technology, analytics and all of these other functions that are ingrained as a vital part of running a successful cannabis business.

Back then, you were basically figuring everything out yourself. There wasn’t this established ecosystem of companies and professionals saying, “We want to work with cannabis.” Now you have businesses in virtually every sector making a direct appeal to the industry and building products and services specifically for cannabis operators. I can see that evolution in everything from how dispensaries are designed and operated to the technology, data and professional services supporting them. It’s a completely different industry than the one I entered almost 20 years ago.

How did those roles in California give you an excellent, detailed understanding of successful cannabis operations across multiple departments? Simultaneously, how did you witness the potential career opportunities in this industry?

That’s a great question. I’ve seen a wide variety of different types of personalities and different levels of competency throughout my years in the cannabis business. A lot of these projects never get off the ground – and some of those have been mine.

It really takes a lot of passion and determination and resilience to open a store, to operate it without failure. And watching other people’s cautionary tales has been very helpful in terms of crafting a business model in an industry that is very complex.

How did you ensure that cannabis operations stayed efficient and successful when expanding into other state markets such as Colorado and Northern California?

Capital is vital, and lack of access to capital is probably one of the biggest challenges in the industry. But just like every other business, it is also important to have the right people by your side when you’re doing these projects. You can’t assume that what works in one market is automatically going to work in another.

Every project is different. Agriculture is completely different from retail, and manufacturing is completely different from agriculture. Even within the same part of the industry, there are huge differences from one market to another. The climates are different in Southern California, Northern California, Colorado and New Jersey, and the regulations, consumer preferences and trends are different in all of these markets.

So you have to be willing to adapt. A big part of operating successfully in different markets is understanding the local environment, surrounding yourself with people who know that market and keeping your ear to the street to understand what is relevant. So, it’s really about keeping your ear to the street and knowing, you know, what is relevant.

How long after New Jersey began recreational sales did you conceive the idea of turning the old Sage Diner building into a dispensary? Where did the idea first come from?

Around the 2020 elections when it became clear that Jersey was going to legalize rec sales, I was intrigued by the opportunity of coming back to do a store and possibly a grow. I had spent so many years on the West Coast building businesses and learning the industry, and I started thinking about what it would look like to bring that experience back home. At that point, I didn’t know exactly how I was going to pull it off or where I wanted to do it.

Then I started thinking about growing up in South Jersey and in the Cherry Hill area and how cool it would be to do something in an area that I know very well, where I could see a lot of old family and friends. I knew the community, I understood the market, and I had a personal connection to the area that I didn’t have in other markets.

As I started looking at the opportunity more seriously, I became more interested in bringing my knowledge and experience to a local market that I understand and trying to better the community. And that’s really where the idea started to take shape.

From a location and zoning standpoint, how was the diner a perfect spot for a dispensary? How does the former diner’s location serve as a convenient spot for New Jersey cannabis consumers?

So, it’s very tough to find property in this business for a lot of reasons. One, the zoning is restrictive because of sensitive-use locations, such as schools, and there are a lot of requirements you have to take into consideration before you can even determine whether a property is viable. And then finding a property that’s actually viable is even harder in some ways.

I look for certain things when I’m looking for a property. You want to have cars driving by, because visibility and accessibility are important, and you want to have enough parking to sufficiently serve your customers. Those are things that can make or break a retail location.

Another thing I look for is a property that’s already paid off. Because of the sensitivity to federal legality, you actually can’t rent or buy a building with the bank involved. So finding a property that checks all of those boxes is extremely difficult.

The Sage property was unique because it already had a lot of the characteristics I was looking for. It’s a recognizable location with a lot of visibility, there’s parking, and it’s accessible from both Route 73 and Church Road. It’s also a property that people in the community already know. So you’re not trying to create a destination from scratch. You’re taking a location that has been part of the community for years and giving it a new purpose.

From a retail standpoint, that’s really valuable. You want people to be able to get to you easily, park their cars and get in and out without it being a whole production. And the fact that the property already had that infrastructure and that history made it a very unusual opportunity for a dispensary.

As someone who visited the diner all the time in your youth, how are you keeping the spirit and all the great memories of Sage Diner alive and well through the dispensary’s operations?

What we’re doing is keeping the history of Sage intact while updating it for the future. For me, it was important that people who remember the diner could pull up and still feel that sense of nostalgia and welcoming.

We’ve kept the exterior and the parking lot virtually unchanged, so when you arrive, it still has that classic diner feel. That’s really important because the building itself is part of the history of the community. We want to preserve that connection.

We also kept the original delivery window from the diner. We’re hoping that, if it’s approved by the township, we can eventually utilize that window for drive-thru service. So there’s a little bit of the old Sage Diner still built into what we’re doing, but we’re finding a new way to use it.

The diner was a different kind of business, obviously, but it was a place where people came together. We’re trying to carry some of that spirit forward. A lot of traditional brick-and-mortar restaurants have had a difficult time staying in business, especially since COVID, and this gave us an opportunity to keep the property active and preserve some of what made Sage familiar to people while giving it a new purpose. For me, that’s what makes this so special.

How are you utilizing your years of experience in West Coast cannabis operations when running Sage Dispensary? What have been the most useful and transferable strategies from West Coast operations that you’ve used in the New Jersey and other East Coast markets?

Well, we just opened a month ago with our soft opening, and we have our grand opening coming on October 24th. Over the years I’ve been able to see what works, what doesn’t work and, just as importantly, how quickly this industry can change. That experience has really helped me understand that you have to be willing to adapt and listen to the customer.

And there’s things I’m learning now that, you know, are surprising me. For example, a lot of the customer base is really interested in shopping online for cannabis. That’s something that we’ve been paying a lot of attention to and figuring out how we can make that experience as easy and convenient as possible while still giving people the opportunity to come in and talk to our staff and learn about the products.

Our grand opening party will be a good example of what we’re trying to create at Sage. We’re going to have food trucks, interactive games and activities, special guests and a lot of things happening throughout the day. We want people to experience the store and the property, but we also want it to feel like an event and something that the community can be part of.

There’s all sorts of surprises and tricks I have up my sleeve; but again, there’s still stuff we’re trying to figure out so that we can stay relevant. New Jersey is its own market, and you can’t just take what worked somewhere else and assume it’s going to work here. We’re constantly learning from our customers and refining what we’re doing day by day.

What are some notable future plans you have for Sage Dispensary? What do you envision the next few years holding for the New Jersey cannabis industry?

We have a lot of fun things in store for both the Mount Laurel community and the cannabis community. We don’t want our community involvement to be limited to the four walls of Sage. We want to actually get out there and participate in the community we’re part of and support charitable causes that are important to people locally.

We’ve also really been focusing on the guest or customer experience and making it better for them by refining our process day by day and looking for new ways to accommodate customers. We’re open later than some of the others in the area, and we’re looking at expanding some services, if we can get township approval. We also want to continue doing fun daily specials where you can win tickets to sporting events, as well as really good deals on cannabis products.

The grand opening on October 24th will be one of the first opportunities for us to really bring all of that together. And we’ll continue doing events off-site for the community as well.

As far as the New Jersey cannabis industry, I think we’re still in the early stages. There’s a lot of opportunity ahead, but it’s still a very complicated business. I think the operators who are going to succeed are the ones who stay focused on the customer, understand their local communities and continue to evolve as the market evolves. That’s what we’re trying to do with Sage.

Thank you for joining us, Alex! For more information on Sage Dispensary, please visit its website.