City getting first pot shop outside of core
Kasa Kana opening Wednesday, becoming fifth legal marijuana store in Peterborough
Kasa Kana, the fifth storefront business to offer cannabis products in the Peterborough area will be opening its doors this Wednesday after months of preparation.
The cannabis retailer in the city’s west end will be the fifth store to open in the city and the first to be located outside of downtown Peterborough.
The storefront location is at 1840 Lansdowne St. W. in the Mapleridge Plaza near the intersection of Lansdowne Street and Brealey Drive.
Aren Arkarkas, co-owner of Kasa Kana, said he and his brother Evan, who is his business partner, are excited to be opening after the hard work put into getting everything ready.
“It feels great,” Arkarkas said. “It’s been a long time coming, we have been waiting about two years to get our store open. We couldn’t be more excited to finally be up and running on Wednesday.”
The store offer about eight categories of products, he said, along with accessories.
“Whether it is flower, vape cartridges, topicals, which are creams, we will focus on edibles, beverages and then all types of accessories,” Arkarkas said. “The sky’s the limit, there is an endless amount of product in the market.”
The store will offer products from many different growers, including both smaller craft growers and larger growers.
“What we have done is curated our assortment to focus on product t h a t ’s really well grown,” he said. “We focused on some craft growers and we are working with some of the bigger brands in the marketplace.”
He said he and his brother have been cannabis enthusiasts for many years and they have great passion for its many uses.
“(We) have been extremely passionate about cannabis and just the benefits that come along with it,” Arkarkas said.
“We’ve both have used cannabis for many years.”
Turning their passion into a business was something that he and his brother spoke about in depth with one another, he said.
“We both looked at each other and said we want to be happy in life and at the end of the day it was a directional change for us,” Arkarkas said
“Cannabis brings people together and our true passions have always been cannabis and just being with people, so we felt it was a great synergy and we jumped on it.”
It has been a journey to get the store opened, he said.
“We’re just really happy we are starting a new business in the pandemic,” Arkarkas said.
“At the end of the day people need jobs and we have seen so many job losses over the last nine months.
“I am extremely proud, and I know Evan is extremely proud we are able to offer employment.”
Other stores in the city that have been allowed to open are Growers Retail at 225 George St. N., Happy Dayz at 291 George St. N., The Peace Pipe at 408 George St. N. and Sparq Retail at 340 Charlotte St.
Seven other applications have been made for stores either downtown or along Lansdowne Street.
Kasa Kana’s website is at Kasakana.com.