Photo | Monica Busch
The entryway to New Día
February 25, 2021
New Día, Worcester’s first economic empowerment cannabis applicant, opens
Photo | Monica Busch
Ross Bradshaw stands inside New Día, located in what were previously three different shop fronts, which were remodeled for the adult-use dispensary. The process to open the dispensary took several years, during which Bradshaw received offers from outside investors to help him through the process, although he spurred their offers in order to keep majority ownership.
On March 2, 2020 Ross Bradshaw used a Sawzall for the first time in his life. Learning while doing — in a previous life he was a professional CPA — Bradshaw was working with a small circle of family and friends to demolish and build out a multi-year dream in the making: New Día Cannabis Supply Co.
A full year later, on Monday, March 1, that dream will come to fruition as the Worcester adult-use dispensary opens its doors to the public for the first time — the first economic empowerment applicant to receive final licensure in Central Massachusetts, and only the fourth in the state.
“One of the things that's different about us is that we specifically looked for communities that were identified by the state as harmed [by the War on Drugs] or had a high arrest rates, because that's what we want, that's where we can make the most meaningful impact,” Bradshaw, who grew up in and lives in the city, said Thursday afternoon from his 118 Cambridge St. shop.
When Massachusetts voters first legalized recreational, or adult-use, cannabis at the ballot in 2016, the new law said the new industry should benefit communities adversely impacted by the War on Drugs, but nearly all of the licenses awarded since that time have gone to businesses barely meeting that criteria. The economic empowerment applications from the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission are designed to help cannabis businesses from disadvantaged communities receive licenses. Bradshaw, who is biracial, is Worcester's first economic empowerment applicant to receive his final license from the CCC, which he got in January, and now the CCC has given him the go-ahead to commence operations, which is the final step, so he can open on Monday.
It’s impossible to extricate Bradshaw's mission to benefit the community from everything he and his team plan to do with New Día. Among the first steps after they officially open their doors: The company will donate its first $5,000 in sales to the South Worcester Neighborhood Improvement Corp., a 52-year-old nonprofit operating a food bank, among other services.
“Those guys, man, if you’re talking about people that care about community, they’re just shining examples of the folks that we want to work with,” Bradshaw said.
Generous by any measurement, it’s a decision which holds a lot of weight for Bradshaw, who turned down large investors in exchange for maintaining 93% ownership of a business he built from the ground up, a standout choice in an industry dominated by mostly white, multi-state heavy-hitters with deep pockets.
But that decision came with costs — among them, time. Bradshaw described a shopping trip with his father around Thanksgiving, when the pair were buying turkeys to donate to the community ahead of the holiday, the kind of effort New Día might engage in once up and running. Bradshaw grew frustrated that day, shopping cart full, because he wished they would have been able to provide more.
“I was pissed ... because we couldn’t do anything,” Bradshaw said. “I didn’t have money [and] we had all these intentions of giving back, and I couldn’t do anything.”
Photo | Monica Busch
Art in the dispensary's entryway, painted by local artist Ferdinand Nazario.
His father, he said, offered a sobering perspective.
“He said to me, ‘It's never going to be as much as when you give when you don't have,’” Bradshaw recalled. “And then I was like, that's the first thing we do — we're going to do right by this, we're going to make this happen.”
And so, Bradshaw said, he decided the first to benefit from New Día would be the community itself.
Sticking with retail
New Día, a shop spanning what were originally three different store fronts, will be a retail-only venture, selling cannabis products from a variety of large and small companies. It is the sixth adult-use dispensary to open in Worcester, following Good Chemistry on Harrison Street, Diem Cannabis on Grafton Street, Resinate on Millbury Street, Mission Dispensary on Lincoln Street, and The Botanist on Pullman Street. The latter three are co-located dispensaries offering adult-use and medical sales.
Unlike at other dispensaries, wholesalers doing business with New Día are provided a unique display space behind the sales counter, highlighting the variety of merchandise available, which Bradshaw is particularly proud of, and only partly because he designed the space himself without hiring outside help.
“What I've done is I've designed it so that basically all these different sections are devoted to brands; and they come in, and they design it with their own thing,” Bradshaw said. “I give them the freedom to do it however they want.”
The result is a collage of textures, colors and props representing the different cannabis manufacturers in the state.
Asked whether he’d ever consider expanding into growing and manufacturing New Día products, Bradshaw said not right now.
“I like the consumer side,” he said, adding that he is already exploring expansion options.
Photo | Monica Busch
Ross Bradshaw, at New Dia.
Eventually, when the pandemic dies down, Bradshaw would like to use the open space in the center of the retail room to host brands for pop-up events.
“They'll be able to talk about how they grew [their cannabis],” Bradshaw said. “They'll be able to talk about their story, and then just create that community aspect that, once again, I just don't see in this space.”
The idea has been and remains, Bradshaw said, to do things differently at New Día than at other dispensaries in the commonwealth. Looking at the company’s financial structure, the hands-on remodel and plans for hefty community involvement, that’s already the case. It also means that some things are going to look different than at other dispensaries, but from Bradshaw’s perspective, that’s not a bad thing.
“The thing is, with my team, we're in uncharted territory, we’re in uncharted waters. So why not just do it our own way? Why are we going to try to follow everyone else's recipe?” Bradshaw asked.
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