Marijuana connoisseurs now have another option for buying weed in Redmond as Origins Cannabis has opened downtown.

The store, which is the second location of the chain with another store in West Seattle, had a soft opening last week and is eyeing a grand opening in early December.

The interior of the store is covered in wood paneling and filled with booths. Racks of back-lit flower buds line the walls.

The store is run by Jon Sherman and Andrew Cornwall, both of whom had experience in the medical marijuana markets before I-502 passed in 2012, legalizing recreational marijuana.

“We decided to tackle the 502 space together,” Cornwall said

They’ve tried to translate some of the principles of the old marijuana market, which was ended in the state, to their commercial enterprise.

One of the big changes they saw was the move from a vertically integrated market found in medical marijuana, to a more commercial approach.

In the medical market, growers and retailers had robust relationships with each other, and knew the quality of the growers and their product.

“It’s about going out and smelling the product and understanding what good product is,” Sherman said.

Cornwall and Sherman said they are dedicated to preserving this, and keep in close touch with the growers they buy from.

They additionally test all of their products quarterly for pesticides, and put all the results of their products on their website for customers to check out.

“A lot of these guys on our shelves, these are medical growers,” Cornwall said.

Experience in the recreational market has helped them pinpoint what customers are looking for too.

This includes a campaign they ran at their West Seattle store, where they asked customers to bring back an empty package from their previous purchase and fill out a survey. In return, they would get a discount on their next purchase.

One of the complaints was their weed was too dry, so they put humidifying technology into their packaging, and all their marijuana concentrates are kept in a modified refrigerator to keep them fresh.

“We care a lot about the product,” Cornwall said.

The pair hopes to create a space where people who haven’t tried or been interested in marijuana before can come and feel comfortable checking out their product.

Part of this is their creation of a system that breaks the different flowers, concentrates and vape cartridges down by their effects.

The effects of marijuana are based on the chemical composition of each strain and the ration of THC, the active ingredient, to other compounds like CBD combined with an individual processes marijuana.

The chemical composition is measured and classified, so when people come in, any strain in that class will likely provoke similar effects.

These are broken down by strains that they say generally promote various states of reflection, relaxation, medicinal properties or social effects.

“Those spectrums have all been defined in our store,” Cornwall said.

Daily and weekly specials are also offered.

In the near future, the store will be opening a coffee shop and a merchandise store adjacent to the marijuana shop with the hopes of demystifying cannabis.

“We really want to find ways of making it more approachable,” Sherman said.

Origins Cannabis is located at 16390 Cleveland St.