Welcome to The High Life, a new series profiling budtenders across the Valley. Know someone we should spotlight? Get in touch.
Robles credits her eight years in retail sales as the secret weapon behind her impeccable customer service skills, friendly disposition and ability to locate the perfect product for each customer.
Phoenix New Times sat down with Robles to talk about her favorite products and why she refers to all her customers as “patients.”
Phoenix New Times: What made you want to transition from retail to cannabis?
Carmen Robles: I did eight years in retail as an assistant manager and kind of gave up on it because I was burned out. I spent a year as a housewife, but it wasn’t for me. I had already been a weed consumer, so when I saw that Arizona Organix was doing a hiring event, I thought I would give it a try.
PNT: Where you nervous to reenter the workforce after taking the year off to stay at home?
Robles: It was a little intimidating because I there was so much I didn’t know about cannabis. But Arizona Organix really takes the time to train its budtenders and properly prepare them for work.
PNT: What was the training like?
Robles: They put us through a five-day course that was eight hours a day. We learned about all of the cannabinoids and what effects they have on the body. I used to think that there was just upper and downer weed, but there are so many different things that go into achieving the high you want.
PNT: What has been the most enlightening thing you’ve learned about cannabis since becoming a budtender?
Robles: You see elderly people come in here because of their neuropathy, or they've been coming in for high blood pressure. I didn't know that marijuana has the ability to help those things until I started here. I am continually learning so I can educate the patients that come in here, not just sell them weed.
PNT: Do you find that you’re customer base is mostly medical consumers?
Robles: I actually refer to all of my customers as patients because everyone who purchases marijuana is doing it to help with something — whether it's anxiety, insomnia or neuropathy. They have medical reasons even if they don’t know it yet. They're smoking weed for a reason.
PNT: What do you think your budtender superpower is?
Robles: One thing I thrive on is working with angry patients. Maybe they have just had a bad day and need someone to listen. Or, maybe, they are just in a lot of pain and need their medicine to feel better. I try to recognize what is behind their behavior, and I adapt to help them leave happier than when they walked in. That’s what gives me the most job satisfaction.
PNT: What is the one question that you get asked most often by patients?
Robles: People want to know about edibles — how long the high will last, how goofy will I feel — things like that. You can’t ever predict how a product will react with someone’s physiology, but I do always remind my patients that when consuming an edible, go slow. You can always build up to your high, but you can’t really reverse it if you take too much.
PNT: What is your favorite way to consume cannabis?
Robles: I like taking a tincture of RSO and mixing it into a big tube of coconut oil from Costco to make a salve. I use it on every part of my body when I am hurting, and it does wonders. But I also love a good dank flower sometimes.
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Arizona Organix budtender Carmen Robles is still new to the cannabis industry, but as her customers can attest, she’s a natural. Robles credits her eight years in retail sales as the secret weapon behind her impeccable customer service skills, friendly disposition and ability to locate the perfect product for each customer.
Phoenix New Times sat down with Robles to talk about her favorite products and why she refers to all her customers as “patients.”
Phoenix New Times: What made you want to transition from retail to cannabis?
Carmen Robles: I did eight years in retail as an assistant manager and kind of gave up on it because I was burned out. I spent a year as a housewife, but it wasn’t for me. I had already been a weed consumer, so when I saw that Arizona Organix was doing a hiring event, I thought I would give it a try.
PNT: Where you nervous to reenter the workforce after taking the year off to stay at home?
Robles: It was a little intimidating because I there was so much I didn’t know about cannabis. But Arizona Organix really takes the time to train its budtenders and properly prepare them for work.
PNT: What was the training like?
Robles: They put us through a five-day course that was eight hours a day. We learned about all of the cannabinoids and what effects they have on the body. I used to think that there was just upper and downer weed, but there are so many different things that go into achieving the high you want.
PNT: What has been the most enlightening thing you’ve learned about cannabis since becoming a budtender?
Robles: You see elderly people come in here because of their neuropathy, or they've been coming in for high blood pressure. I didn't know that marijuana has the ability to help those things until I started here. I am continually learning so I can educate the patients that come in here, not just sell them weed.
PNT: Do you find that you’re customer base is mostly medical consumers?
Robles: I actually refer to all of my customers as patients because everyone who purchases marijuana is doing it to help with something — whether it's anxiety, insomnia or neuropathy. They have medical reasons even if they don’t know it yet. They're smoking weed for a reason.
PNT: What do you think your budtender superpower is?
Robles: One thing I thrive on is working with angry patients. Maybe they have just had a bad day and need someone to listen. Or, maybe, they are just in a lot of pain and need their medicine to feel better. I try to recognize what is behind their behavior, and I adapt to help them leave happier than when they walked in. That’s what gives me the most job satisfaction.
PNT: What is the one question that you get asked most often by patients?
Robles: People want to know about edibles — how long the high will last, how goofy will I feel — things like that. You can’t ever predict how a product will react with someone’s physiology, but I do always remind my patients that when consuming an edible, go slow. You can always build up to your high, but you can’t really reverse it if you take too much.
PNT: What is your favorite way to consume cannabis?
Robles: I like taking a tincture of RSO and mixing it into a big tube of coconut oil from Costco to make a salve. I use it on every part of my body when I am hurting, and it does wonders. But I also love a good dank flower sometimes.
