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Michael Vlasich, left, and Shaun Barsick, best friends and business partners, are opening Mother Nurtures, a medical marijuana dispensary, at 520 S. Third Ave., in Big Rapids. The facility is expected to open in early 2021. (Pioneer photo/Cathie Crew)
lessMichael Vlasich, left, and Shaun Barsick, best friends and business partners, are opening Mother Nurtures, a medical marijuana dispensary, at 520 S. Third Ave., in Big Rapids. The facility is expected to
... more
Michael Vlasich, left, and Shaun Barsick, best friends and business partners, are opening Mother Nurtures, a medical marijuana dispensary, at 520 S. Third Ave., in Big Rapids. The facility is expected to open in early 2021. (Pioneer photo/Cathie Crew)
lessMichael Vlasich, left, and Shaun Barsick, best friends and business partners, are opening Mother Nurtures, a medical marijuana dispensary, at 520 S. Third Ave., in Big Rapids. The facility is expected to
... moreBIG RAPIDS — Mother Nurtures, a medical marijuana dispensary opening soon in Big Rapids, plans to offer customers a different kind of experience.
Business partners, and best friends for decades, Michael Vlasich and Shaun Barsick are the brain trust behind the new dispensary at 520 S. Third Avenue.
“Both of our mothers have experienced cancer, so it is something quite near and dear to our hearts,” Barsick said. “As we progressed through their stages with them, this was born out of it. That is what got us started.”
Barsick added that they feel they have certain talents from their former careers in corporate America that will enable them to deliver a unique customer experience.
“We feel like we can leverage our personal experiences with medicinal marijuana and our corporate experience and merge the two in order to give our patients/customers the best experience, while keeping in mind that it is still a drug,” Vlasich said. “It is heavily regulated, as we have learned through the process, but I think our specific talents will go a long way toward making this the best experience for our customers.”
Initially, Mother Nurtures will only offer medical marijuana products, with plans to expand into adult recreational use in the future.
What will set Mother Nurtures apart from other marijuana dispensaries is the setup, Barsick said. Rather than being an open showroom where product is displayed and purchases are made, their operations will more resemble a visit to the doctor’s office.
“From a medical standpoint, we feel that so many of the dispensaries in the state are 'Apple Store' operations with very open spaces. We, instead, will offer patient consulting rooms,” Barsick said. “We believe our patient consulting rooms will translate to a certain demographic that is looking for a couple of things — a one-on-one consultation with no one else in the room to discuss their medical issues privately and the attention of the patient care consultant.”
Barsick emphasized that while other retailers refer to them as “budtenders,” they will have “patient care consultants” that will have experience and training in the medical marijuana industry.
“The open concept can be intimidating to some, especially if you are a first-timer and are not familiar with the products or the procedures,” Vlasich added. “We will always try to give people that experience of going to the doctor, and that is why we have set it up this way.”
Barsick added that patients will be able to walk into one of the consulting rooms and go at a pace they are comfortable with.
Along with the one-on-one patient care consultations, Mother Nurtures will offer consultations with a licensed medical professional for patients to receive a medical marijuana card.
“Our plan is to have a doctor come in one day a week and see patients,” Barsick said. “If there is someone that wants a medical card, that service will be available. The medical professional can write the prescription the patient will need to get the medical card process underway.”
BRIDGING THE GAP
Barsick said part of their goal is to try to allay some of the fears and anxieties that people may have about marijuana use and break the stigma of cannabis.
“We are firm believers that it is therapeutic and can help people, and we want to help this community break through their own personal barriers if they have them,” Barsick said.
" ... There is not only privacy within our building, but you also have privacy in the parking lot," he said. "We are off the beaten path; we are 100 yards off the street; we have 13 parking spaces where you can wait in your car, if that is your choice.”
Vlasich added that even though Big Rapids has been welcoming legislatively as far as marijuana goes, and despite the fact that the majority of residents voted in favor of it, there is still a segment of the population that are against it and they hope to change that.
“We can hopefully bridge that gap,” he said.
That includes plans to establish an education room on site, where community members can come in and watch educational videos or listen to lectures from professionals in the industry.
“We want to help educate the community, especially the seniors, because their entire life they have heard how bad it is, and we believe it can really help them,” Barsick said. “For my family, if the choice is multiple opioids or cannabis to alleviate ailments, I am going to choose cannabis.”
Barsick said they hope to open the facility by the first of the year, but it all depends on how quickly the state moves in approving everything, including the COVID-19 protocol that has to be approved prior to opening.
“Regarding the COVID-19 protocol, we are going to be following the CDC guidelines, everything we have been hearing for the last seven months,” Vlasich said. “There will be specific procedures on how we handle the product and how we interact with customers.”
The COVID-19 guidelines will include requiring face coverings for all customers that enter the facility, social distancing designations, hand sanitizer available and alcohol wipes for wiping down objects and surfaces, as well as fiberglass guards at the registers.
“The curbside service will be touchless,” Barsick said. “The product will go into some sort of basket and the money will go in there too. Everything will be sanitized before it is used again.”
Vlasich said the private consultation rooms will play very well into the COVID-19 protocol keeping the customers separated, as well.
PART OF THE COMMUNITY
Once opened, the facility plans to employee around 15 local workers to start and will look for people that have some knowledge and experience in the cannabis industry, Barsick said.
“The more knowledge they have of the cannabis sector, and especially the medicinal value, the better,” he said. “Those are the type of team members we would love to employ.”
Vlasich added that although prior experience would be a benefit, it would not be a requirement.
“We are very focused on the community and want to hire people that are focused on the community,” he said.
Vlasich said he and Barsick have become very vested in the community while going through this process and hope to become active in community and charitable events.
“We value that as part of who we are, being a productive member of the community,” Vlasich said. “We are not here just to make money off the community, we are here to be part of it.”
“You will start seeing is our faces at charitable events, because that is the other arm that is so near and dear to us,” Barsick added. “If the community is going to patronize our store, then we want to give back to the community.”
Having interactions with the community, sponsoring and hosting events at the facility and providing an educational piece are all part of their plans to become an integral part of the community, he said.
Barsick and Vlasich both agreed that the project has been a labor of love.
“It takes a team, and there are a lot of people that have sacrificed and worked on this,” Vlasich said. “It has definitely been a labor of love.”
“From the builders, to the contractors, to the city, to our family and friends and everybody that helped us get here, we would not have been able to do it without all of them,” Barsick added.
“We feel like the city is behind us and we feel a responsibility to be a community partner from employment, to taxes, to offering people a different experience,” he said.
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