Made my first trip to a recreational dispensary in NJ this morning.
So I had been doing some research lately on the few recreational dispensaries that are open now in NJ. There's around 12 if I recall (weedmaps is not up to date on this btw). The ones closest to where I live (about 20-30 minutes away) all had bad reviews of very long waits (90 minutes was normal for one location!) and also limited options with high prices. I found that the Rise shops in northern NJ had significantly better reviews and their menus, while limited, felt more like dispensaries I had been to out west. So I went to the Bloomfield Rise before work today. It was completely empty which was perfect. In and out quickly. The prices are definitely high, but seemed comparable to my last dispensary experience in Las Vegas and a past experience in a Boston dispensary. I bought two different 8ths of strains. One was 45, the other 55. So after 90 total, it came out to $108 with taxes. That's what gets you. $90 for a high quality quarter isn't terrible pricing alone. Well, I guess quality will be determined tonight, but I have to assume this is grade A bud based on what I saw when ordering.
But overall, considering how new this all is here, the experience wasn't as bad as I expected. If the weed is good, I expect I'll be back.