When a customer walked into Coconut Cannabis in Bemidji, Minnesota, with very specific questions about a product, General Manager Robert Holthaus didn't send anyone to the back for paperwork. He personally opened the package detail tab on the tablet in his hand, and the two of them read through the product's certificate of analysis (COA) together on the sales floor.
"All the information he cared about was right there on the tablet," Holthaus said.
It's that kind of interaction that's helped the fledgling dispensary build a rock-solid reputation just seven short months after opening its doors.
"Our team here is exceptionally knowledgeable, and it's done wonders for our community and our business as a whole," Holthaus continued.
But as any cannabis operator can tell you, you don't make it in this industry without clearing your share of hurdles. Here's a glimpse at how Coconut Cannabis overcame theirs and how Cova POS has helped along the way.
The Challenge: Personal Service With a Lean Team in a Remote Market
Distance is one of Coconut Cannabis' main operational challenges. Bemidji's location makes product transport difficult, and the store sits hours away from Minnesota's major metropolitan hubs.
The team is lean as well. Coconut Cannabis employs nine people in total, with at least two on every shift and three on Fridays; as general manager, Holthaus handles inventory and the store's IT management on top of running operations. But running lean doesn't have to mean cutting corners – it just means you can't afford tools that work against each other. Purchasing, inventory, and METRC compliance records all have to line up without someone chasing down discrepancies.
The Solution: A Tablet-Driven Sales Floor Built on Cova
Coconut Cannabis runs an open floor plan with no one waiting behind a counter. A tablet at reception handles ID verification and the customer queue; each of the store's three POS stations has a tablet tied to it, and every budtender is assigned one at the start of their shift and carries it through the entire sale.
Once checked in, each party is paired with a single budtender who works with them exclusively. If no budtender is free, customers wait rather than share one.
"That's your budtender now," Holthaus said. "You don't have to worry about them walking away, going to help someone else when you're looking at products."
When the order is ready, a second budtender packs it and sends it through a pass-through window, and the assigned budtender completes the sale.
The tablets are key to making that model work. Budtenders can pull up product photo galleries, COA data, and long descriptions of aromas, effects, and feelings, answering customer questions on the spot without breaking the conversation.
Tools That Don't Butt Heads
For Holthaus, Cova's value doesn't come from any single feature. It comes from how the tools work together.
"It's just the cleanliness and efficiency of all of them together," he said. "If I put something in on a purchase order, it's not going to show up in manifests and cause an issue somewhere else. I can push the button, and I don't have to worry about the button."
"I can push the button, and I don't have to worry about the button."
– Robert Holthaus, Coconut Cannabis
Cova stays open in his main browser tabs all day. His first task each morning is pulling the previous day's end-of-day report to track sales; from there, much of his time goes to Inventory Manager and the product catalog.
"I really like understanding where the products fall in the actual subdivision of all the files," he said.
Support That Respects Operator Expertise
Because he also manages IT for the store, Holthaus has firm opinions about support teams.
"One of my greatest gripes about any other IT department is when I call them, they think I'm an idiot," he said. "When I call you guys or email you guys, they just respect what I say. It's never an issue of establishing my base knowledge."
Holthaus credits Cova with keeping him informed when problems come up, including one issue update that arrived at 7 a.m. on a Sunday. He also points to steady product improvement: "Over the last nine months, I've only ever seen it get better," he said.
The Results: Growing Traffic and Shoppers Who Want to Learn
Coconut Cannabis now processes between 65 and 90 transactions a day. Foot traffic has continued to rise since a hemp retailer in town closed ahead of anticipated restrictions on intoxicating hemp products, and Holthaus expects daily transactions to pass 110 once the store's medical program goes live.
In-store shopping still dominates. About one in six customers mention browsing the website or app before visiting, and on a good day roughly one in 11 orders is placed online. To build app engagement, the store recently started sending app-exclusive announcements for limited product drops, like a run of 150 vapes, with everyone else notified the next morning.
Looking Ahead: Medical, Delivery, and a Bigger 4/20
Coconut Cannabis is finalizing its medical endorsement, a milestone that recently earned the store a local TV news segment and a front-page story in the paper. The medical launch brings new requirements, including 3-by-2-inch product labels, and Holthaus is working with Cova support on the label printing setup for the change.
The store is also evaluating a partnership with a local third-party delivery company. As Holthaus puts it, "since we're the only game in town, we just thought, why not?"
After what he calls a pretty light first 4/20, he expects next year to be much bigger. More stable product supply and vendor relationships should help, especially as a large share of this fall's harvest heads to concentrate manufacturing for vapes and carts – which Holthaus sees as the state market's biggest need.
He's also quick to share the credit for getting this far.
"I couldn't have done it without my team," Holthaus said. "My team has been there to support everything that we're doing along the way."
See How Cova Supports Full-Service Dispensaries
Coconut Cannabis shows what a small team can do when its POS keeps purchasing, inventory, compliance, and product information in one place. If you want your budtenders to spend their time with customers instead of fighting their tools, book a free demo today.