Providing a map to well-being
By Karen Watts Nauman
For the TODAY
What do elephants, Goonies and sign wars have in common?
Strange combination but there is a link; T.E.R.P. Collective in Lincoln City. Owners Summer and Ari Lopez love elephants and “The Goonies,” so they incorporated this passion into their name and logo.
T.E.R.P. stands for “The Elephants Recreational Pot” Collective. It is also short for terpenes, which are the flavors and scents that occur in the cannabis plant and determine the effects of the different strains. Meanwhile the business logo is the treasure map from “The Goonies” a madcap tale of adventure on the Oregon Coast.
The playful spirit behind T.E.R.P. was on display during the recent sign wars, started by floor manager Tina Kogel who wanted to brighten lives during the difficult times of the pandemic.
“I was tired of the grumpiness,” she said, “so I came up with the idea and was happy to see how it took off and brought much needed smiles.”
This is what a small community, mom-and-pop business does, and this is what this shop is all about. Run like a family, the employees love their jobs, come to work ready to help others and their loyal customers reward them not just in sales, but also in baked goods and other home-made gifts.
Office manager Jeremy Pflaum talks about how easy it is to work with his fellow employees.
“I don’t have to babysit them,” he said, “I trust them completely, they are true professionals who love their job.”
Community involvement is important to T.E.R.P., like pitching in to help in the aftermath of last year’s Echo Mountain Wildfire.
“We offered a massive discount to Otis residents,” Jeremy said, “and had a clothing drive with lots of cool swag offerings from our vendors.”
Ari and Summer opened T.E.R.P. in 2015, having had experience in different aspects of the cannabis business, with a focus on helping cancer patients. Their business includes the local lab, Elephants Extract and Elephant Farms based nearby in Dallas. This is what is called farm-to-counter, which allows control over the entire process, ensuring excellent quality.
You can’t just walk off the street and get a job in a dispensary. To be called a ‘budtender,’ one must go through extensive training, spend $100 to get a state license and commit to ongoing education. Each budtender’s license number is on their badge, and they are held accountable for any mistakes they make. This is highly regulated industry where customers are abundantly protected.
T.E.R.P.’s budtenders bring knowledge along with a passion for helping anyone who walks into their shop. They want to help de-stigmatize the cannabis plant and aspire to answer any and all questions. Their wish is to have you come back to say you’ve been able to cut back on medications and are feeling better than when you first walked in.
When I was at the shop for this interview, one such customer couple came in. Georgia and Michael Spence, 63 and 53, of Devils Lake, are considered part of the family after Georgia was able to get off five meds that came with terrible side effects.
“I walked in my first time so nervous. I had so many what I thought was probably, stupid questions. The budtender assured me that no question was stupid and told me to ask away,” she said. “I am a petite woman to start with, but I was down to only 89 pounds because of the side effects of all the meds. After I started my cannabis therapy guided by the lovely budtenders here, I was able to get to back to 115 pounds and felt so much better.”
“These young professionals have become family,” she added, “I love visiting and bringing them my home-made gifts. They helped me save my quality of life.”
Local dispensaries are gifted with two customer bases, locals and tourists. I asked Jeremy what differentiates them.
“Locals tend to be older in age, are loyal regulars and know what they want,” he said. “They love the specials that we offer like our senior and veteran discounts, which can be combined. The tourists enjoy our different daily specials and those visiting from outside Oregon get a kick out of our ‘deli style’ presentation.”
That deli style approach allows customers to see and smell the product rather than it being sold in bags, like it is in other states.
We are lucky to have local dispensaries with such caring professionals who are there to help you with your recreational or medical needs. Don’t be nervous, just walk in and ask questions, they have all the answers and more.
T.E.R.P Collective is located at 4355 NW Hwy. 101 at the north entrance to Lincoln City and is open from 10 am to 8 pm daily. For more information, call 541-614-1711.