Why We Can’t Always Answer Your Questions Online…

We believe in giving you the facts to make the best choices when you shop at Northeast Alternatives. However, we can’t always be as straightforward as we’d like to be on social media, our Google Business Listing and in our VIP emails. 

We know how frustrating it is to get a vague answer, directing you back to our website or asking you to call our store when you ask us questions online. We hear you and we’re hoping that by answering some questions below, we can shed light on our process and give you transparent answers to your questions.  

Here are some things you should know: 

Instagram, Facebook and Google

As a cannabis dispensary, we have to tread lightly when speaking to our customers from our account(s) on Instagram, Facebook, our Google Business Listing (GBL). Because cannabis is still federally illegal, we cannot conduct any kind of “sales” on these platforms. To keep our accounts operational, we can’t mention pricing information, menu updates, medical discounts, or use any language that would be perceived as selling cannabis to our followers, even in a private message. 

Massachusetts Cannabis Laws and Email

The Cannabis Control Commission (CCC), the board that grants permits and governs cannabis dispensaries in Massachusetts, restricts what we can and can’t talk about in our VIP emails. We can’t mention specific price points for any of our products in our emails, but we can mention percentages off for medical patients. If you’re a medical patient, this is why we had to refer to our $40 1/8ths deal as “10% to 20% off 1/8ths.” 

Now, let’s get into some of your questions…

Why can’t you tell me when certain products are going to be on the menu?

Several different factors affect when products hit our shelves, like the changing wholesale market, grow & production schedules, lab test results, and customer demand. A third-party lab must test every cannabis product sold in Massachusetts dispensaries to ensure customer safety, and testing products can take time. For all of these reasons, it’s difficult to precisely predict when different products will be back on our shelves. 

Why can’t you tell me if a strain is on the menu, or how much it costs when I message you on Instagram?

This kind of information is perceived as “sales language” by Instagram and Facebook. The best place to find out our prices or product availability is by checking our menu. Our state-of-the-art software ensures our menu is updated in real-time, so if you see a product on our menu, it’s on our shelves until it sells out. 

Why do medical patients get discounts? Can you offer discounts to recreational customers?

In Massachusetts, state regulations on adult users are much stricter than medical patients. The CCC currently prohibits any kind of discounts to recreational or adult-use customers. For those with a medical cannabis permit, cannabis is treated by the state as medicine. Medical patients have higher limits on how much cannabis they can buy at a time and most medical products have higher levels of THC. If you’d like more information about how to get your own medical cannabis card, we can help.

Where can you answer my questions?

The best place for information about our prices, products, and general information is through our website. We also have tons of options to answer your questions. You can: 

• Chat with a live customer service representative through our website by clicking the green chat bubble on the bottom right of your screen.
• Call us at (508) 567-6761 during our regular business hours (9 a.m. to 9 p.m.) every day. 
• Email your questions to support@development.brstdev.com.
• Ask your budtender on your next visit.