SV grads plan to educate about CBD products
CRANBERRY TWP — A new CBD store recently opened on Route 19 that is owned and operated by three longtime township natives and Seneca Valley graduates.
Bruce Bailey, Wayne Bell and Shaun Painter opened Your CBD Store in March, with a focus on creating a comfortable atmosphere in which customers can enjoy and come to better understand the product.
“We're going to be the Starbucks of CBD,” Painter said. “With (other stores) and all this, they'll all carry it, but they won't explain it.”
CBD — or cannabidiol — is a compound found in certain hemp plants and processed to remove any THC. Extractors then add oil to it, typically coconut oil, to bring it down to a usable potency.
“There's no psychoactive effect,” Bailey said. “It's not what you feel. It's what you don't feel.”
He said the way their customers know it's working is when they stop feeling pain or anxiety.
Open less than two months, Painter said they've seen many customers' lives improved, including parents, veterans, athletes and the occasional medical professional.
“The amount of people we've helped out at this point ... it's been great,” he said.
Bailey, a pharmaceutical professional and veteran, said CBD has improved his quality of life and the lives of his fellow veterans, many of whom struggle with post traumatic stress disorder.
Additionally, Bailey said CBD offers pain relief to those in need, noting that doctors now have begun prescribing fewer pain killers in response to the opioid epidemic. Bailey said CBD is not a narcotic.
From the start, the owners said they wanted to help their customers understand what it is they are buying, its health effects and how to get the most out of their product.“We wanted to have an atmosphere where people could come in and get educated with educated people,” Painter said.This means one-on-one interaction with customers in the store as well as putting on events showcasing different products and their uses.Employees are given an in-depth CBD education before they begin interacting with customers. Additionally, many of the store's products come with a QR code on the back, so customers can look up information about the contents and the research that went into it.Bailey said customers don't need a prescription to buy CBD. The store does not sell CBD to customers younger than 18 years old and does not recommend CBD products to pregnant women since not enough research is available on potential side effects.However, Bailey said they see many parents buying CBD products for their children.The owners said they still have to fight the stigma that CBD is a drug or that it's a type of marijuana, Painter said.However, more research is coming out, and CBD products are becoming more mainstream with professional athletes recently believed to be seen playing golf while chewing CBD gum, he said.“That was the best marketing for us,” Bailey said. “That whole next week we sold out of our gum because of all the golfers in Cranberry.”For more information, visit the store's Facebook page or call 877-200-1686.
