Temescal Wellness — Local services in Hudson

I'm going to recount my experience here. I was a recreational ("adult use") customer. I don't even like marijuana that much but I hate police and the government so buying weed from a dispensary seemed like a fun thing to do, given that this action would have gotten me imprisoned, like, four years ago or whatever. It was meant to be a novelty.

This was my first time buying recreational marijuana on the East Coast. It was an okay experience at best. I don't think it's the company's fault -- they are under intense scrutiny from the government -- but I really hope buying marijuana in New England can become less of a hassle. I was in Oregon last month and looked up "weed" on my phone and there were about twenty dispensaries in a 100 foot radius. I walked off the street into a shop and bought an eighth of extremely potent weed for $25 from a friendly hippy lady. She didn't even ID me (I'm 23).

This experience was nothing like that. Here's how it went down.

I plugged in directions to the actual dispensary. I thought there'd be signs about where to park, as I knew there was a shuttle, but this wasn't the case. I had to drive another five minutes or so down the road after figuring out the address of the parking area (this info is on the website but kind of difficult to find if you're on your phone, you'd think they'd make it more obvious).

I then pull into the parking area. It's in the back of a defunct police station, believe it or not. I wait around in my car figuring out what to do at this point, before going over to some sleazy looking guys smoking cigarettes in an idling Nissan. They say you're supposed to wait until the shuttle shows up -- there's no employee here to help organize things.

So I get out of my car and go over to some traffic pylons on the edge of this abandoned parking lot where some of the other customers have accumulated. It wasn't exactly a crowd of people you'd want to be hanging out in a parking lot with for an undefined amount of time. Everyone is smoking cigarettes, talking about how stoned they want to get (extremely, was the consensus), and then there's this one drunk old guy who won't stop promoting his home-grown marijuana. I really wanted to avoid interacting with him but he came over and started patting me on the shoulder, repeating complete nonsense about how much he loves buying weed. He eventually left me to go make some other person feel uncomfortable. At this point in the experience I was considering whether or not I actually wanted to buy weed, if this is the crowd that loves marijuana so much.

The shuttle arrives and a motley crew of people exit the shuttle holding white baggies containing small quantities of weed. A surprising number of middle-aged people were partaking. I get in the shuttle, and the drunk old guy sits next to me and repeats the same asinine stories, before saying he will kill his nephew if he doesn't help him buy weed (unclear if this was meant to be a joke). It's a short drive, thankfully.

You then have to walk past like four or five portly dudes in neon security outfits who are meant to control the line. This was pointless, though, since the shuttle was naturally controlling the flow of people. There wasn't really a line to speak of. So I get inside, but it's just an antechamber -- a dude with dreads looks at my ID, and I get let in to the actual salesroom.

It feels like I'm in a dentists's office, but it's kind of pleasant, I guess. I think the whole pretense of marijuana being a "wellness" product is a bit overextended and ridiculous, but here we are. I talk to a girl behind the counter, ask for the product I knew I wanted ("Lemon Lime Punch"), and then pay an outrageous $60 for an eighth. Online it says $48 an eighth, but there's a 20% tax, and then there's a fee for using your debit card. The prices are totally egregious, but I think the market will correct this over time as more and more stores come online and the existing stores get less crowded. I would never consider paying $60 for an eighth from a normal...

Good service, nice store, good employees. The edibles (watermelon lozenges, and lemonade mix) were great, yet the flower and joint I purchased were not very good.

Others stores I have been to like NEA, Cultivate, and Verilife have all had very good joints. They seem to be bud only, and full of kief as well as flower. The joint I purchased here seems as though it was shake that was sifted for it's kief. There were several stems in my joint that made it an unappealing smoke.

I also purchased Peanut Butter Breath flower. The buds were good enough, but a fair quantity of the weight in my bag was from shake, including separated stems with no flower on them at all. I had perhaps 2 medium nugs in my 3.5 pouch, and the rest was all popcorn buds and junk.

My final complaint is the product purchase limits that were not posted to their website. There was no indication that I could purchase only 1 edible item until I arrived at the store. Coming from the Boston area, it was quite a drive for only 1 lemonade powder mix; which was the item that I traveled to their store to obtain.

On the positive end; the prices were fair for the area at $48 per 1/8th during my visit. $3 more than the cheapest I've found: $45 at Verilife.

Giving cheaper options for new users such as $10 candies and $5 drink mixes is very smart. The watermelon lozenges I purchased did not taste strongly of marijuana.

They had multiple shuttles running. This made the wait outside more bearable.

My suggestion to the owners would be to package your "popcorn buds" and "shake" separately and sell at lower "shake" prices. With the prices this high in our state, they will sell quickly and more customers of the premium flower will be happy to...

Our initial visit to this branch in 2019 Q3 was fraught with sour experiences with a 1 star rating. The staff seemed overwhelmed, in a panic, and had difficulty communicating and answering questions. The stock was also very low with only 3 flower types available. Add to that, the requirement to park a mile away and be bussed to the store made it very inconvenient and problematic to schedule.

Fast forward to 2020 Q2, during 1st week of the Covid-19 reopening, they were forced to offer curbside pickup and added debit card acceptance for a $3 surcharge. They added a virtual CanPay app which requires you to give CanPay your private login to your bank. No thank you. They also take cash (exact change only) which requires you to ho inside. For my safety and convenience, I chose the DB card method. With a 20% cannabis tax already, $3 seemed trivial for the safety & convenience

Their stock this visit was also much better with 6-10 flowers available. Without the stress of having to park 1 mi away and bussing there and without staff panicked with counter clerking, I dare say it was a fast, easy, and pleasant experience.

Outdoor guard and girl order runner were pleasant and helpful. Entire process took 10 mins of waiting my turn + 3 minutes to receive/pay the order. Compared to before, driving to bus lot, being bussed to store, queuing to order/pay with a clerk, waiting for the return bus then driving back took over 60 minutes. 13 minutes was SO MUCH better.

If they retain curbside pickup after Covid-19 restrictions are removed, we'll be happy to return for our next buy and recommend to others. I hope management appreciates the benefit of this...