The iconic New York department store, Barneys, has recently announced plans to open up a 300-square foot luxury cannabis boutique on the fifth floor of their Beverly Hills location. The store is set to open its doors for the first time in March of this year.
It’s no surprise that Barneys would choose California as the shop's location; the Golden State has been at the forefront of the cannabis legalization movement since its very beginning. Medical cannabis has been legal in California since 1996, and residents legalized recreational marijuana (for adults ages 21 and up) back in 2018.
Beboe, one of Los Angeles’ largest upscale cannabis producers, is teaming up with Barneys to make the fancy little marijuana boutique a reality. The shop will be called the High End and will feature luxury marijuana accessories aimed at cannabis connoisseurs looking to drop some extra cash in exchange for high quality, and even higher priced, marijuana paraphernalia.
[caption id="attachment_12684" align="aligncenter" width="878"] Source: Beboe[/caption]
Or, as co-founder of Beboe, Scott Campbell, aptly put it in a recent interview with Market Watch, “ex-punk rock stoner kids who now make a little money and can buy nice stuff…dinner party culture people. We kind of made something that’s a little more grown up. The cannabis genie is out of the bottle to a point now where it’s not ever going back in. People are embracing it, and accepting it. And it’s finding its place in contemporary culture.”
According to the creative director of Barneys New York, Matthew Mazzucca, “We’ve witnessed a cultural shift when it comes to cannabis, and many of our customers have made it a part of their lifestyle. With the High End, we’ve created a category that caters to their need with the same level of quality and service they expect from everything they find at Barneys New York.”
Some of the products that will available include several lines of expensive beauty products infused with cannabidiol (CBD), a $950 Siemon and Salazar bong, a cannabis grinder made of sterling silver, priced at over $1400, and marijuana-themed gift boxes containing vapes and edible products, each running on the order of $150 and up.
Said Mazzucca, “Everything in the landscape right now feels more on the medical side of things, and we felt like we could differentiate. This isn’t driven by the flower itself; it’s really about creating beautiful products you can keep in the home, whether you smoke weed or not. It’s more about lifestyle. The focus is on the home wellness piece, however. CBD and THC integrate into that and in the future will be adapted into that philosophy. The timing and the speed at which these things are going to market is accelerating, and I love the fact that we are riding the wave when this is all happening.”
The High End won’t be the first shop to attempt to fill the niche for luxury marijuana products. The Plug, another high-end Los Angeles weed shop, has previously been called “the Barneys of weed” by LA Weekly.