JUNE GROWER OF THE MONTH: GRASS MONKEY

Grass Monkey a true family business:

10 years ago, I was working for my Dad’s sign company when a good friend of his, Gary Howard, talked him into getting involved in the cannabis industry. After being in the sign business for so many years, he was ready for a change. So in 2013, Grass Monkey was born and we started growing pot my father’s garage. This felt weird and a little bit terrifying. My father started this business alongside my cousin Jared, and I helped out parttime while continuing to work for the sign business. As the cannabis business grew, and after we lost a whole crop due to a power outage, we decided it was time to move out of Dad’s garage and into a more professional setting. We scored our first warehouse in Westbrook where we made tons of mistakes but had so much fun. Again, we outgrew our grow, and we knew recreational would be coming so we found new warehouse space to start preparing to open a store. During this time, our small family business turned into a much larger family business. My brother Tucker joined us in 2017 and along the way; two uncles, two aunts, six cousins, and a handful of family friends. We employed so many family members that the Noyes family Christmas started to look like a staff meeting. 

 “To me, this place is very special. I’ve seen so many people (including myself) grow here. It’s given me opportunities I never thought possible. It’s given my family opportunities they likely wouldn’t have received elsewhere. Lifelong friendships have been made-I met my husband here. Never in a million years would I have thought that I would make a career out of selling weed with my Dad but here I am.” - Katryna

The storefront:

Recreational took way longer than anyone expected, so in 2019, we opened our store as medical. We really wanted to create a unique experience for our customers, so we spent a lot of time researching stores out in other states and hired a company to help us bring our vision to life. For my dad, he wanted this space to feel welcoming and fun. He obsessed over little details-mostly the volume of the music, it was never loud enough. My father passed away this past January, his presence is missed terribly but his vision for this company was so clear, it has been easy to navigate our next steps and to keep going. 

Our Mission:

Our mission is all about the experience. There are so many excellent growers in the state that we can’t just hang our hat on growing quality cannabis. This shopping experience can be so intimidating, especially to the newer user, so our approach is to allow the customer to come into the store and lead the conversation. We do a lot of listening, the goal is to sell them something that is actually going to help, not to just sell them something. We have four categories to help customers understand the effect of what they’re purchasing, unwind, sleep, relieve, and energize.

Our Values:

We value, collaboration, connection, staff experience, honesty, learning and customer relationships. These past few years, we really have focused on our company internally. We have worked hard to develop a team of people who can not only do the job, but who want to be here. Our company had remained small enough to know each other-and care about each other and I think that pours out into our customer service. 

Our Cultivation:

All of our product is grown in house, we don’t outsource any flower! We follow state guidelines with testing and are transparent and honest with results. Over a decade of growing experience!