27 shops can start selling recreational marijuana tomorrow, but it might not be the grand opening you expect

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) - On Tuesday, April 15, licensed shops will be able to sell recreational marijuana in Colorado Springs. However, not all stores that've applied for licenses will get their chance to sell to recreational users.

The City of Colorado Springs says 53 stores have applied for a retail license of a possible 86 licenses. As of April 14, only 27 applications have been approved.

"We've put a lot of work in on the back end, just getting the licenses and all that settled," Dustin Taylor, the operations manager for The Epic Remedy, said.

A small group of stores, like Fountain Organics on Rio Vista, are still waiting for inspections before they can start selling.

Despite tomorrow being the first day licensed stores can sell to recreational customers, Taylor says Tuesday won't be a grand opening day, "We have to kind of spend the day, tomorrow, getting that stuff into our system, getting it barcoded and getting the merchandise here in the stores so that we can begin sales."

Because of specific rules, The Epic Remedy and the other licensed stores haven't been able to even set up their stores with recreational products.

Today, the interior of The Epic Remedy store on Fountain Blvd is half empty. Taylor says their stores are still serving medical customers during the transition.

"We won't be fully merchandised right out the gate tomorrow," Taylor says. Tuesday will be more of a soft opening. They hope to be able to sell recreational products in the afternoon. Potential customers are already excited. Employees at the Fountain Ave. location say people have been calling, inquiring about recreational products all morning.

However, the true size of the Colorado Springs recreational marijuana market remains to be seen.

"This is an untapped market here in Colorado Springs. So really, we kind of have to look outwardly at Denver and Pueblo," Taylor said. "We definitely anticipate a much higher volume of people coming through, and we've done our best to prepare as much as we can.

However, not every store will start selling retail products. Taylor says The Epic Remedy location on N Academy will stay medical only. Taylor says they wanted to keep one store selling only to medical customers, and that location wouldn't qualify for a retail license anyway. Just across the street sits Unique Play Place, a child care facility.