BIG RAPIDS — A Farmington Hills couple hopes to expand their recreational and medical marijuana shop in Clio, Freddie’s, to Big Rapids on April 20.
“We felt Big Rapids is the type of community that would embrace the business and enjoy having it here,” co-owner Barry Goodman said. “We’d like to fill this building with activity — not just in the cannabis industry, but activity in the community — and make it alive again.”
Co-owned with his wife, Nicole, Freddie’s is a cannabis dispensary which sells products such as edibles, oils, vape cartridges, CBD and paraphernalia needed to use medical and recreational marijuana.
The couple hopes to open shop in the old Great Lakes Book and Supply, 840 Clark St., Big Rapids, which closed in the summer of 2018.
“(Freddie’s) is a very passionate thing for me,” Nicole Goodman said.
According to her husband, Freddie’s was inspired by Nicole’s father, Freddy.
“Freddy Farber was my wife’s father, may he rest in peace,” he said. “Cannabis was a lifestyle for him for over 60 years. (His) only care was to make you happy. So, we’ve sort of made that mantra at Freddie’s.
“You’re not a customer … you’re a friend.”
While Freddy was often trying to make friends with everyone he met, Barry Goodman said his father-in-law never had the opportunity to live his life without the stigma cannabis had hanging above him.
“He had to hide behind the doors of his home in able to enjoy (cannabis),” he said. “Now that it’s legal — there shouldn’t be a stigma.
“Even if you don’t use the product, you shouldn’t be scared of this industry coming to town, because it’s providing you with additional services, employment in the community and an ability to take an empty building and make it stand out. I think that’s great for any community that has that opportunity.”
However, the couple has not signed the papers on the Clark Street building just yet. Nicole Goodman said the vote on March 10 regarding recreational marijuana sales will be a factor on whether they decide to open business in Big Rapids, noting they want to be a recreational and medical shop.
Should recreational marijuana sales be allowed in the city of Big Rapids, Nicole Goodman said she hopes to begin right away.
“I’m hoping to be open by April 20, four-twenty,” she said. “So, construction would be right soon after the March 10 ballot.”
Nicole Goodman references a number that is well-known in the cannabis community, her husband said, noting 420, to him, means a time to indulge.
“It’s always 420 at Freddie’s,” he said. “It’s time to enjoy life.
“We’re here to make people happy. However you came in, we want you happier when you leave.”
According to Barry Goodman, Freddie’s will be run by him and his wife, as well as Freddie’s Director of Operations Brian Pierce — an individual who helped the couple in their early years as they tried to navigate the legalities that come with owning a medical and recreational marijuana business.
“We got to know Brian over a couple of years, and Brian became much more than just someone to assist us to move down a path to be licensed and open,” he said. “We said, ‘Brian, you’re a friend, you’re family, just like every customer that comes into Freddie’s, we want them to feel the same way.”
Should the couple expand their business to Big Rapids, Barry Goodman said the goal is to rehab the Great Lakes bookstore and eventually bring in more tenants who are interested in renting space in the building.
“We want to be a part of the community,” he said.
To learn more about what Freddie’s has to offer, visit freddiesjoint.com.
