Hashtag Cannabis and the Coronavirus in King County, Washington
by Jeff Eckenrode, director of operations, & Christine Bryant, marketing & creative director
Read on for our current policies
Updated Wednesday, June 24, 2020, 4:55pm
This week, Gov. Jay Inslee has issued a statewide order for all Washington state residents over the age of 5 to wear face coverings while in public. For more information on the order, please click this link.
What to know about this statewide order
This order goes into effect this Friday, June 26, and it requires everyone to wear a face covering or face mask when they are in any indoor or outdoor public space unless you have a medical exemption.
In accordance with this statewide order, we will no longer be serving guests who do not wear face masks at Hashtag unless a guest states that they have a medical exemption (like a respiratory condition, where masks interfere with their breathing.)
Can Hashtag Cannabis give guests a mask to wear?
Yes! At each store, we have a very limited supply of disposable masks which we can give to guests who do not have their own mask or face covering.
We also encourage all of our guests & staff to continue taking every precaution to limit your exposure to the virus by following the CDC’s guidelines (link here) for limiting the spread of COVID-19, which include:
Wash your hands regularly with soap and water, especially before/after going to the bathroom, before eating, and after blowing your nose/coughing/sneezing. The CDC recommends you scrub your hands for a minimum of 20 seconds before rinsing the soap off. Hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol is an alternative if traditional soap and water hand washing isn't feasible.
Maintain a safe distance (at least 6 feet) between yourself and others.
Avoid sharing beverages, joints, pipes, bongs, etc. with others.
Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth.
New guest occupancy limits are set at 30% of our maximum building occupancy. This means we will now be allowing a maximum of 10 shoppers at our Fremont store, and 7 shoppers in our Redmond store at any given time. This limit does not include our own staff in the calculation.
Updated Wednesday, May 20, 2020, 6:52pm
Recently, Gov. Inslee's office has provided Hashtag and other essential businesses with updated guidelines for in-store operations.
And as always, Hashtag is focused on taking every precaution we can to keep our stores safe for the guests that we serve and for our staff who serve them.
With this in mind, we have updated several of our store policies to comply with these new guidelines and, ultimately, to promote better health and well-being for everyone who visits our stores. These updates include:
Continuing to encourage guests to wear face masks
As you may already know, wearing cloth face masks will help to reduce the transmission of COVID-19 by reducing the spray of droplets that naturally occur when we speak loudly, cough, or sneeze.
Just as our staff members each wear a mask while at work, we ask that you wear a cloth mask when you visit us. Read more about this public health directive here.
You currently cannot apply for a free face covering from the City of Seattle or King County -– they are being distributed by community-based partners. However, cloth face coverings can easily be made at home with any piece of cotton fabric! The CDC has step-by-step instructions on how to make a cloth face covering.
If you are part of an organization that needs free cloth face coverings, contact the Seattle Mask Brigade. United Way of King County is collecting volunteers and donations for cloth face coverings. Learn more about how to help.
Limiting the number of guests in our stores
New guest occupancy limits are set at 30% of our maximum building occupancy. This means we will now be allowing a maximum of 10 shoppers at our Fremont store, and 7 shoppers in our Redmond store at any given time. This limit does not include our own staff in the calculation.
Placing distance markers outside each shop
To help us all navigate these changes, we have placed distance markers outside of each shop (just like the X's on the floor that we use inside our stores). This will help us maintain six-foot physical distancing requirements for customers who are waiting to enter our stores, and to reduce crowding during peak hours.
Updated Friday, April 3, 2020, 4:42pm
Please Wear a Cloth Mask when Shopping at Hashtag
Today, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published a new recommendation that all people should wear cloth face coverings in public settings like grocery stores, pharmacies, and our very own Hashtag Cannabis, especially here in King County, Washington, where we have high rates of community-based transmission of the novel coronavirus.
Wearing cloth face masks will help to reduce the transmission of COVID-19 by reducing the spray of droplets that naturally occur when we speak loudly, cough, or sneeze. The CDC shared today,
We now know from recent studies that a significant portion of individuals with coronavirus lack symptoms (“asymptomatic”) and that even those who eventually develop symptoms (“pre-symptomatic”) can transmit the virus to others before showing symptoms. This means that the virus can spread between people interacting in close proximity—for example, speaking, coughing, or sneezing—even if those people are not exhibiting symptoms.
Following this recommendation to wear cloth masks will increase the safety of each of us when we shop or work at Hashtag Cannabis.
That said, we will ask each of you to briefly remove your mask when we check your ID, so we can fully verify your identity and age.
Please order online, wait until we text you that your order is ready, and wear a cloth mask when you visit.
Updated Thursday, March 26, 2020, 11am
New Ways to Shop Safely at Hashtag
We’re taking every precaution to keep our store safe for each of you and for ourselves, and to that end, we have new policies and more information to share.
Many of you have asked us, “What’s the safest time of day to pick up my online order?”
We advise that you visit during our slowest times, which are 9am to 11am, and 9pm to 11pm, every day.
We have upgraded our NEW Digital Line — just look for the sign below, and follow these instructions, near our front door, to use our iPad kiosk to enter your name.
Look for this sign near our front door.
We have a waiting area for online order pickup, to the right, in front of our tinctures area near the ATM. Look for the sign below!
Pick up your online order.
To help all of us stay a healthy 6 feet apart from each other, we have marked X’s and lines on the floor
at our registers,
our ATM,
and in front of our display cases. Look for the sign below!
Shop behind the line to keep us safe.
Finally, we have installed sneeze guards in front of each register, to keep our staff as safe as possible.
THANK YOU ALL for all the kindness you keep showing us when you shop at Hashtag! We are doing our very best to keep you supplied and safe.
Updated Tuesday, March 24, 2020, 1:47pm
Cannabis is Essential, for Real!
Hashtag is open and staying open for the foreseeable future. There is no need to panic buy from Hashtag. We are open every day from 9am to 11pm.
When your stash is running low, please order online, and get 15% off all full-price products in your cart.
And if you work in the service industry, you get 25% off all full-price products we sell through March 31. This offer excludes products on sale, and discounts do not stack. Your online order will only show the 15% off discount, but don’t worry—we will apply your full discount before you check out with us in person.
Please wait at home until you get a text that says your order is ready. Then come visit us!
When you arrive, add your name to our NEW digital line, and please keep a safe, healthy, 6 foot distance from all others while you wait.
We’ll call your name when we’re ready to serve you!
Updated Monday, March 16, 2020, 4:03pm
As the situation surrounding COVID-19 develops, the Hashtag team is working hard to keep our employees and our guests as safe as possible.
To that end, all Hashtag employees will now uphold several new policies, as follows:
Starting today, to help maintain the cleanliness of our stock, we will handle all products for you until you complete your purchase. This will help us keep your products as clean as possible before you buy them.
We strongly encourage you to order online and make a quick visit to pick up your purchase. We will be open 9am to 11pm, seven days a week. We hold online orders until the end of the day they were placed.
Questions, concerns, and comments are all welcome! You can reach us by email at [email protected] or by phone at (206) 946-8157. We will return your message as soon as possible.
Published March 11, 2020
To our Hashtag Cannabis community,
The health, well-being, and safety of our guests, as well as our employees, is of the utmost importance to us.
In light of recent developments surrounding novel coronavirus (COVID-19), we wanted to take a moment to communicate the actions that we have taken at Hashtag to help protect you, your loved ones, and our employees.
Currently, Hashtag's administrative team is closely monitoring this situation as it progresses. We are basing our company policies on the latest information and guidance from both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Washington State Dept. of Health.
In response to their recommendations, Hashtag’s staff has instituted new processes for sanitizing all commonly used and shared surfaces in our store on an hourly basis, every day.
In addition, we have repeatedly encouraged all Hashtag employees who are sick to stay at home.
We have encouraged our employees who are most vulnerable to this virus to work from home at this time.
This morning during a televised address, Gov. Jay Inslee issued a temporary ban on events involving 250+ persons in King, Snohomish, and Pierce counties.
In accordance with this ban, Hashtag will be postponing all of our outreach events through the rest of March and April.
Regarding Guided Shopping for Seniors, our April 8, 2020 meeting will be canceled.
Our next meeting of Guided Shopping for Seniors is tentatively planned for May 13, 2020.
The entire Hashtag team and I understand that you and your family may be feeling anxious visiting public spaces at this time, including our store. Rest assured, the entire Hashtag team is focused on providing you the same great products and service that you love in the cleanest, safest environment possible.
If you choose to visit our store, you will receive the same great customer service you have experienced with us in the past, even if you are wearing a face mask.
However, should you wear a mask during your visit to Hashtag, you should know that our staff is required to check your ID in order to serve you.
As a result, they will request to see your full face and ask you to remove your mask momentarily during your visit. Doing so will allow us to identify every guest that we serve accurately and to eliminate any possibility of selling cannabis to a minor or an individual with an invalid ID.
All of us at Hashtag understand the severity of this virus and the risks it poses to public health and safety. And our hearts go out to those most seriously affected by COVID-19.
As the circumstances surrounding COVID-19 develop, one thing will remain constant: Hashtag will continue to prioritize the health, wellness, and safety of our employees, our guests, and our greater community in every decision that we make.
If you have questions, comments, or concerns, then please do not hesitate to reach out to our administrative team via email at: [email protected].
Best,
Jeff Eckenrode
director of operations