Brandon’s 1st Retail Cannabis Store |

BRANDON, Vt. — It’s been a week since the town’s first retail cannabis shop opened, and the three young men from Pennsylvania who own and run it say they are feeling pretty good.

“It’s just the three of us,” said Greg Yelnosky, one of Pine Grove Organics’ owners. “We do everything from managing the business and making sales, to cleaning the toilet and building the website.”

“We’re the graphic design department, marketing and sales department,” said Nate Reitman.

Yelnosky, Reitman and Ben Hsiung, all 28, are the trio who own and run the shop at 335 Grove St.

“We stayed here and worked on it and once we had enough permits to get things really going, we moved out and started renovating it to make it the space it is today,” said Reitman.

The building they’re in is along Route 7, north of downtown. It was formerly a residence, but has hosted businesses in the past.

“We all grew up in central Pennsylvania together,” said Yelnosky. “We’ve known each other since we were 6. We went to school together, all through high school. Nate and I went to college together. After college, we all went our separate directions.”

Yelnosky entered the cannabis industry about six years ago, he said, while living in the Pacific Northwest. He said he worked in retail outlets, as well as production operations.

“All with the intention of learning as much as I can, so I could build something of my own,” he said. “Vermont legalized (cannabis) two years ago. I called these guys and was like, ‘You guys want to open a weed store and quit your day jobs?’ And they were like, ‘Hell, yeah,’ so we started working on it two years ago.”

Reitman said he was in marketing for medical devices prior to this.

“I was doing software implementation and analytics for hospital software,” said Hsiung. “I did that for six years, and that was cool, and it was fun. But it’s been interesting taking that and applying it to point of sales and tracking and that sort of stuff here.”

Hsiung said that each of them had been to Vermont before. When it came time to look for a location for their cannabis shop, they needed a place they could afford, that was in a commercial or mixed-use zone, and in a town that had voted to allow retail cannabis sales.

That narrowed down their options quite a bit, he said.

“I was really charmed by the town the first time,” said Reitman. “The more time we spent here, the more smitten, I guess is the word for it, that we became.”

Yelnosky said Vermont cannabis regulations are good for small owners like them. Here, a retail license runs them about $10,000, whereas in other states said licenses can be much pricier.

Vermont is also more permissive with “vertical integration,” said Reitman, which is good since they’d like to see Pine Grove do more than retail sales at some point.

All three said they’ve found Brandon to be a welcoming place, and that working with local inspectors, from fire marshals to zoning administrators, has been great.

There were a few delays regarding permits, they said, but nothing major.

“We knew delays would be inevitable, so we kind of knew what to expect going into it,” said Hsiung.

The shop is open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday.

Those hours might change as the owners are researching when people are mostly stopping in. For the time being, it can only accept cash, but there’s an ATM onsite, and the owners plan to accept debit cards within a week or so.

keith.whitcomb @rutlandherald.com

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