Three cases of them a day, to be exact. That’s how business is doing at ZaZa Green, a new 100% minority owned cannabis shop at 311 Page Blvd. in the east side of the city.
Why bananas, you ask, if ZaZa is a cannabis store? It’s all part of the atmosphere, said company spokesman Tim Rooke. When customers enter the store’s vestibule, there’s a counter, and an assortment of fruit (including the aforementioned bananas), bottled water, cookies and granola bars.
“They take a cold water. They take a cookie,” Rooke said. “People love that it’s free.”
Rooke, 62, is a former Springfield city councilor, having served for 22 consecutive years. ZaZa Green is his personal dream, but others own it. His entrepreneurial vision was waylaid during the pandemic when his coffers ran dry, only to be resurrected and refilled by the current owners.
“They liked (my) ideas. This is like putting my soul into a store, and that’s what we did,” said Rooke.
Rooke said he’s an unpaid “goodwill ambassador” — and janitor — for the owners, Yasser Hussain, Harbhajan Singh, Joginder Singh, Kamaljit Kaur and Nabeel Shafi. They hail from Springfield, Westfield, and nearby Connecticut and New York, and stay regularly involved in business ops, with typically one partner at the site daily. Their business headquarters is in Westfield.
The owners are banking on making the shop a hub for residents of Springfield, a palpable differentiator for ZaZa Green, which enters the cannabis business at a time when the industry likely has hit its high-water mark in the Bay State.
“We want to make it part of the community, like a spa or a wellness center. It’s like a coffee shop,” Rooke said.
