So my wife and I are making plans on opening a local Headshop/Grow Shop that will deal in everything heady and grow equipment including our own line of units. My question is does anyone use thier local grow supply store for their purchases of things like lights, nutrients, soil, hydroponic equipment etc… Or do you just Amazon all the shit? And if you dont have a comprehensive grow store in your area would you support it and purchase from them vs online?
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Only if the prices were competitive or the service is far above what anyone else offers.
It would be great to have good grow shop advice available. We see a lot of new growers in the forum who have gotten really bad advice from grow shop employees.
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agree with this statement
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I try to buy all my stuff at our local grow shop. But I work there!!! 
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I use my local grow shop Way to Grow in the Denver metro for Soil and nutes. They rep FoxFarms so they have all their soils pretty cheap. They also rep HLG but holy cow the pricing is outrageous. I really just go to pet Nero. A pit with a head bigger than mine.
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Not to be a naysayer but brick and mortar stores having a ton of trouble. We closed ours and went online. We could not achieve the foot traffic needed to cover a physical location. My wife and i are both retired retail management. Whole Foods and Bed Bath and Beyond respectivly. 40 years each. The climate is rough. Do not let my words dissuade you please. Just take into account the current buying habits of the day. If a strong online presence also chances for success greatly improve.
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One advantage i think we will have is we live in a newly legal state with very lax laws and in a college town. Our biggest disadvantage is were less than 50 miles from a reservation and theyre raking it in right now
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Also, keeping stock to beat what they have online. Especially grow mediums, and nutrients. If you have dry ice like my local shop used to, I would love to stop in. 
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I definitely support my local shops , Walk in load up my ocean forest soil in buggy pay an roll it out to the truck Along with whatever else I need at the time. I’m in a unfriendly state and honestly They have a wide variety of anything I need. Follow your dream @Ebb open that shop up.
Good luck 
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I have shopped at my local grow store but they didn’t have much different than Lowe’s or home Depot and the price wasn’t very competitive either. Either they didn’t have what I wanted (weed dryer with fan and filter) or the price because of their volume was crap ( nutrients & compost). Maybe if you are a dispensary that happens to carry items that people can grow at home you’d have different results but I doubt it since if people are growing their own won’t come back to buy your weed. Just my $.02
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I actually rely on a “local” (it’s 45 minutes drive) to get my Soil… Amazon is a pain to get Roots Organics at times… Plus I save money.
They carry everything… But this hobby is illegal in my state so… I prefer using internet for most purchases.
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Can you say Employee Discout
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i would just grow in the store lol
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We tried to purchase locally as long as the price was close. All of our hlg lights came from the shop. I still try to get the coco at the shop but usually theres a crowd of hang arounds and the transaction takes too much time so everything except the coco i get online.
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I use my local Agway store as much as I can get my soils and most of my nutes there. Since NY became legal local store’s have been embracing the new cannabis boom. The nearest Hydo shop is 50 miles away but has been in business for 20 years so is possible to make it
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Unfortunately i do not have time to visit brick and mortar often if i do, i will. If you do set up a shop, start up an online sales portion of it.
I do every thing i can to avoid the evil empire (amazon).
I will use them as a search engine however. Find a product i desire and then go to that stores web page and buy it.
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A buddy of mine’s brother ran one back in the 80’s, changed the name from Hydroponics to Greenhouse Supply to get more than the weed growers in there (back when it was still illegal). Most growers paid cash, and at the end of the year his accountant would ask how much tax he “wanted” to pay and then tru half the receipt books out! He also acted as middleman between growers and buyers (paid $2800/lb, charged 3200/lb). Anyways, he sold out to another buddy of mine from school, and last year they went out of business. Now it’s legal, most folks get online now. I go there still as the second hand store got all their old inventory and is selling the stuff real cheap! But not much good stuff left 
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Do you get an employee discount? 
That’d be suhhh-weeeet!!
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Island dweller, Island prices or go off island.
FFOF $10.00 cheaper, off island, 2.5-hour trip.
Choices?
Found off island grow shop, candy store and i am poor.
New owners? Yes, but unfamiliar with history.
Got my first intro to trim bin value (saw it, bought it).
LOVE it.
They have more stuff in their inventory, so with time, we will become better friends.
@noddykitty1 and @Spudgunner Northern Lights Store, formerly, in 98273 close to I-5.
I generally only buy heavy bulk (heavy) items from local shops as it’s basically the only thing they are competitive price-wise with due to shipping cost…
My local grow shop is also a brew shop, so I do shop there for grains as they sell them by the ounce and thus I can pick and choose a bunch of different ones, even in very small quantities and like big bulk items this actually works in my favor due to the shipping cost of multiple small items…
And it’s not just grow and brew stuff, we get a vast majority of our weekly/monthly household needs now on Amazon subscribe and save, same price or lower than the local stores but delivered to my front door without the hassle of having to go shopping… The fact that many of the local stores stopped being open 24 hours during COVID and never returned to 24 really forced our hand as we always did our shopping late at night, and since they refuse to go back to 24 hours they lose even more…
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