Photo | Courtesy of Joe O'Grady
Joe O'Grady, owner of Cambio Natural Products
August 4, 2020
Q&A: CBD store reopens in Worcester Public Market after Polar Park eminent domain
Cambio Natural Products, which specializes in CBD products, just reopened in its new location in Worcester Public Market. Owner and local businessman Joe O’Grady spoke with WBJ about the decision to pursue his CBD business after the City of Worcester took the company’s previous location through eminent domain, as part of the ongoing $132-million Polar Park baseball stadium project. Although he had originally planned to open a cannabis dispensary in the location, O’Grady, who also runs the Worcester strip club Hurricane Betty's, said he believed pursuing CBD was the right decision in the end.
What does Cambio do?
Cambio Natural Products focuses on broad spectrum CBD supplied from a Massachusetts-licensed Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources supplier. We're also a bit of a lifestyle company. All of our advertising shots, all of our media, is gained from a buddy of mine who owns a travel company I helped him build. I've been doing that for the last 15 years, and CBD is a natural fit for travel and for sports because of the health benefits.
Why did you decide to stick with your CBD endeavor after losing your building during your attempt to start a dispensary?
Well, a couple of reasons. One was, by the time the city took my building after I had already owned a building in the appropriate zone, I was poised to be one of the first dispensaries open. Once they told me that address wasn't going to be allowed, there was really nowhere else in Worcester to find a property at that time.
If you remember, when all of these big companies were coming into Worcester, they were putting down money to rent a couple different properties within the zone just so they could have the best location when they went to meet with the city.
So basically, I was frozen out and then I didn’t want to be the 25th dispensary to open in Massachusetts. And CBD is a longer-term play. There’s health benefits; it’s medicinal. You’ve already started seeing it in cosmetics, lotions, shampoo. You’re going to start seeing it all over the place.
How has the reopening in Worcester Public Market gone?
It was slow to start with construction delays. We got open, and then three weeks later the pandemic hit. So, it was tough because since the city took my building, I was down about a year, and because of the pandemic, without sales. We got back open July 1.
How did you end up in the Worcester Public Market?
Allen Fletcher, the owner of Worcester Public Market, actually came over to my store, and a friend of his had had a pleasant experience shopping with us and used my CBD. He came over and extended an invitation to move into the market.
What makes your CBD products different from your competitors?
We have transparency: third-party testing with MDAR license. We know where all of our products come from. We test for carcinogens and heavy metals. We can say there's zero THC because it's industrial hemp. We can track exactly where it came from. So that right away cuts more than half of the competition out. Any CBD you get from a gas station, a smoke shop, or anything like that, you don't know where it comes from. It's not lab tested, a lot of it's counterfeit.
From there, we specially formulated our products through trial and error. We're more than two years old now. A lot of the companies you see coming in are brand new, so they're still going through all those trial-and-error stages. I believe I'm the only company in Mass. with the array of products that are all zero-THC and industrial hemp from an MDAR-licensed manufacturer.
What are some of your best selling products?
Our 500-milligram salve. It’s a pain product and one of our best sellers. We have a sports lotion, which is like an all-natural Icy Hot. Our vapes are really good. We don't have any coconut oil in our vapes. They're just hemp oil and terpene. So there's no cut. There's no filler. We do an energy and a calm line, which is formulated for us by the supplier.
Is there anything else new happening?
We do online sales. We have a redone website up this week. It’s www.cambio-usa.com. A lot of people don’t know where we went because we had to shut the building down, and then it’s been almost a year since we reopened. A lot of people don’t know where to find us.
A lot of people are still being educated about CBD. That’s a huge thing for us, educating people about CBD because there’s so many bad actors out there and a lot of online companies, a lot of gas station companies. People are buying that stuff, and they don't realize they could be harming themselves. Once we have someone come in and try our product, then we know we have a repeat customer.
This interview was conducted and edited for length and clarity by WBJ Staff Writer Monica Busch.
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