Budding business: Barneys will now sell bongs alongside Berkins

Luxury retailer is opening a cannabis concept shop at its Beverly Hills location

Barneys Beverly Hills Mens’ Floor (Credit: Steve Harris Architects and iStock)
Barneys Beverly Hills Mens’ Floor (Credit: Steve Harris Architects and iStock)

The rich and famous of Los Angeles will soon have a one-stop shop to buy their sterling silver pot grinders, $1,000 Louboutin heels and $4,000 Prada dresses.

Barneys, an upscale department store based in New York, announced it is opening a “luxury cannabis and wellness concept shop” in its store in Beverly Hills next month, Bloomberg reported.

Barneys is partnering with Beboe, a local pot retailer, to sell a wide-ranging net of weed paraphernalia, including French hemp rolling papers and $1,500 pot grinders.

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Weed, however, will be missing from the menu as the department store does not have the proper license to legally sell marijuana.

Appropriately dubbed “The High End,” the head shop will open at the store at 9570 Wilshire Boulevard sometime in March, with other locations in the state to follow. It could also expand to other states as recreational marijuana becomes legal elsewhere.

Since California passed a law legalizing recreational marijuana in January 2018, a plethora of new shops, restaurants and cafes have been popping up. Late last year, West Hollywood signed off licenses that would allow businesses to operate at least eight lounges where people can both smoke and consume weed-infused products, a la Amsterdam.

The cannabis industry has also seeped beyond retail recently, expanding into co-working and commercial real estate. In Downtown Los Angeles, a seven-story office building that will cater strictly to businesses in the cannabis world is nearing completion. A co-working firm, Paragon, also opened a cannabis-centric location in Hollywood last year. [Bloomberg] — Natalie Hoberman