Inside SuperMarket, Superette’s kaleidoscopic cannabis shop inside a shipping container
In a sea of cookie-cutter, über-minimalist cannabis dispensaries, Superette stores stand out when it comes to design. Each of the brand’s four (and counting) locations across the city are decked out with branded props that revolve around a particular theme. Their newest shop, inside Stackt Market, is a kaleidoscopically coloured pseudo-supermarket made to feel like a neighbourhood grocery store that just happens to carry cannabis. Think faux cereal boxes, orange juice bottles, baskets of perfectly picturesque (plastic) fruit.
Beyond the façade is a wide range of cannabis products—this location has a particular focus on edibles, but you can also get buds, oils, accessories (including some from Superette-exclusive design collabs), topicals, magazines and merch. The design-forward approach is about more than differentiating the brand—the idea is to make cannabis shopping friendly and non-intimidating for beginners and seasoned aficionados alike. Here, a virtual tour of SuperMarket.
Here’s the entrance, complete with sunny bouquets of (faux) flowers:
Welcome:
There’s a system in place here that should frankly be available at every retailer: pick up a green basket if you need help or are otherwise open to chatting with the friendly staff, and grab a red one if you’d prefer not to be approached.
What’s that—a bottle OJ? A can of beans? Or a nifty illusion designed to make it feel like you’re just out on a milk run?
Inside the jars are Superette-branded lighters, papers and pre-rolls. The fridges, meanwhile, work as out-of-sight storage—the tiny shops at Stackt don’t exactly have space for a back room:
Notice the wheel on the top right: each time you visit, you get to spin and (potentially) claim a prize—a lighter, pack of papers, one-buck medicated beverage (move over, Buck-a-Beer), or a surprise manager’s pick:
Some magazines on the shelves are just for show, but you can find real issues of various on-theme publications like Dope Girls, Gossamer, Double Blind and Kitchen Toke, which is all about cooking with cannabis:
Packets of gummies are nestled among the cartons of strawberries. This brand is known to be particularly delectable, with a minimal weedy aftertaste:
These mags, and the cans beneath them, are just for show. It’s like being in a not-scary, cannabis-infused episode of The Twilight Zone:
Here we have a selection of merch and accessories. The ketchup-looking thing (also available in mustard and relish) is a grinder-slash-stash-box, and a collab with High Variety. Behind it, another stash container designed in collaboration with Studio A-OK. There’s also a Superette Nalgene bottle, branded papers, a cute cap and an eco-friendly bottle that funds ocean plastic collectors with every purchase:
These unisex sweaters are by the Brampton-based designer 4YE. They’re hand-dyed and printed on repurposed vintage:
SuperMarket at Stackt Market, 28 Bathurst St., superetteshop.com
Liza Agrba has worked as a freelance journalist in Toronto for over a decade and has earned multiple awards. She covers food, business and culture and writes memoir-style pieces. Her work frequently appears in the Globe and Mail, Maclean’s, Toronto Life and many other publications
