Hyseni is working 18 hours a day to launch his marijuana store where, he hopes, customers won't feel like they're get fleeced. This will play out Saturday at his North Seattle store's grand opening, where Hyseni hopes to have the most affordable marijuana, at least for the day, even though he said he'll take "a big loss."

But it will be worth it to show his appreciation to customers for voting to legalize cannabis because without that "we would not be here," he said.

The shop is a nondescript storefront at 9724 Auora Ave. N. The legal recreational pot store is a dot in what Hyseni calls "the green mile," where medical marijuana dispensaries are as common as the strip's used-car lots and cheap motels. It's a prime place to sell taxed marijuana at prices comparable to non-taxed weed at medical marijuana dispensaries, he said.

Tackling the black market is a Herculean task when you consider that cannabis is going for around $25 a gram, including tax, at legal pot stores compared to around $11 a gram on the street and in dispensaries. But Hyseni is putting his formidable entrepreneurial skills to the task, and is selling what he calls "medium shelf" marijuana for $15 a gram.

"That is the cheapest so far," Hyseni said.

A Sea of Green

From the start, people called him "Ocean" because they couldn't get the hang "Oltion." That's not good for a peddler of real estate whose success in large part hinges on name recognition. So he embraced the name Ocean, putting that on his for-sale signs and business cards.

"And then I love pot," Hyseni said, unapologetically. "It's not a secret. I have been a pot smoker for years."

This is why his friends gave him the surname "Greens." He is to many people Ocean Greens, which is also the name of his store. While he's still a real estate broker, he's focusing on launching the store, which had its soft opening Oct. 2.

Since then 200 to 400 people a day have been sidling up to an old bar to buy marijuana and related paraphernalia.

"We are finding out that definitely we are a neighborhood store," said Hyseni whose Ocean Greens Seattle store is the third legal marijuana shop in the city after Cannabis City in Sodo and Uncle Ike's in the Central District, where members of a church next door protested earlier this month, urging that Ike's be shut down.

To keep prices low, he has to buy low. Under state rules he cannot sell product for less than he pays for it. In addition, it's critical to understand how the supply chain works from top to bottom.

"You've got to be smart and you've got to know what you're doing," he said, adding that it's key that more growers and processors get into the business.

Hyseni's main focus is helping the industry grow and keeping his store open. Yes, the rollout of the legal pot business has taken a long time, and people have been frustrated. It will, he said, take time and coordination.

"We want to do this right from the beginning," he said.

Stop in and feel the Ocean Greens Seattle WA difference. Visit our Washington medical marijuana dispensary near you and online store