When the Issaquah Cannabis Company opened Friday, there were no packed parking lots at the office building on 230 N.E. Juniper St., no lines out the door, no crowds clamoring for their first taste of entirely legal, non-medical marijuana.

After all, more than six months after the first licensed stores opened in Washington state, the novelty has dissipated somewhat.

There was exactly one customer waiting in the shop’s lobby for the stroke of 10 a.m., when the store opened. At the top of the hour, 63-year-old Randolph “R.A.G.” Grove — a retired Marine and four-year Issaquah resident — was led through the hallway beyond the ID checkpoint, past a large canvas photo print of early 20th century Prohibition czar Ames Woodcock, into the store proper.

There he was greeted by General Manager Cliff Gehrett and a clerk, in a wide-open room lined on two sides by glass cases filled with bongs, pipes, vaporizers and edibles.

Those didn’t interest Grove. He made a beeline straight for the counter and its display of smokables. His eye caught the preloaded Liberty Reach vaporizer pens first — or, more accurately, their $75 price tag. Taking into account the 150 puffs each pen provided, he calculated the price up to the equivalent of an ounce of plain Mary Jane.

“My God, that stuff’s like gold!” he exclaimed.

Gehrett then guided Grove over to the display of flowering buds, more modestly priced at an average of $17 per gram — a far cry from the sky-high prices seen in the first days of legal pot, but still more expensive than what might be obtained at a medical collective. He paid rapt attention as Gehrett went over the various indicas, sativas and hybrids before settling on 2 grams of Orange Dream, a sativa-heavy hybrid of Blue Dream and Orange Crush.

Randolph Grove, the Issaquah Cannabis Company’s first customer, purchased two grams of Orange Dream. PHOTO BY DANIEL NASH

Grove said he never thought he would see legalization in his lifetime, at the state level or otherwise. But he was extremely skeptical of the legalization movement in Washington state, going so far as to call it “the biggest crock.” Not because of his distaste for the product, but because he felt the black market would always offer a greater supply at lower prices.

“Street prices have been $40 for an eighth for 30 years,” he said.

Grove was strictly there to support the fledgling business and Riley Shirey, the owner of the building, he said. Nevertheless, he was left dumbfounded by what would be a mundane occurrence in any other retailer: the clerk gave him back a handful of $1 and $5 bills.

“I’ve never had no drug dealer give me change back,” he said, putting his hand up to the clerk and Gehrett for a round of high fives.

Then Grove was gone, leaving just Gehrett, staff and a smattering of local media.

The quiet opening was just fine by Gehrett. In fact, when asked the day before if he anticipated a first-day rush, he momentarily cringed.

“We hope not,” he said, with a small chuckle.

He elaborated that he didn’t know what to expect, but he had repeatedly heard from some locals that they planned to stop by at some point on opening day, giving him reason to believe they would have a soft and steady start. And well before that day arrived, people had shown up unannounced to satisfy their curiosity about the business. Or to ask — unsuccessfully — for an early crack at the inventory.

Mostly Gehrett felt relieved to be at the end of a long road of exhaustive preparation. Preparation that included the state license lottery, extensive background checks, a search for retail space that would satisfy state and local zoning restrictions, establishment of supply and permitting.

“It feels fantastic,” he said. “We’ve spent over a year now getting to this point. Peter started this process a year and three months ago when he applied for a retail license.”

That’s Peter Van Dam, the license-holder for the Issaquah Cannabis Company. Van Dam and Gehrett, named as the business’s financier, were old friends from their days as students at University Prep in Seattle. The former continues to work as a graphic designer and Gehrett was formerly an investment banker who had worked in the Middle East and New York City before returning to Washington state.

When Initiative 502 passed in the November 2012 election, the two smelled a business opportunity and formed Reach Island LLC.

Cliff Gehrett, the general manager of the Issaquah Cannabis Company, shows off the glassware the business carries for sale. PHOTO BY DANIEL NASH

The voter initiative not only legalized marijuana possession for all drinking-age adults, but established a white market industry and taxation model that included licensed producers (the growers), processors (the packagers and manufacturers of derivative products, like cannabis brownies) and retailers.

The catch was that the number of such businesses would be carefully regulated by the state Liquor Control Board. When the Board released its retail distributions by city and county, Issaquah was assigned only one shop license. Like the rest of the 334 licenses, it went up for a lottery among qualified applicants.

“Peter was the lucky guy,” Gehrett said.

The business wasn’t able to open with the first wave of retail stores during summer 2014, but the delay had its benefits, Gehrett said.

Prices on marijuana product within the state sanctioned system — which, due to the taxes imposed on recreational pot, began and have remained more expensive than medical and street prices — have dropped precipitously as more producers and processors have come online.

While prices on flowering buds at retail shops were averaged at $25 per gram in July, according to the Liquor Control Board, they have since dropped 40 percent to an average of $15 per gram.

Gehrett acknowledged that, for heavy users, it still made fiscal sense to buy outside of the state-sanctioned system. But he believed that convenience and reliability would win out.

“We hope to drive traffic at fair prices and generate repeat business,” he said.

The company also opened into a geographical market vacuum. The next-closest Eastside marijuana retailers are Green-Theory and The Novel Tree, which both opened in Bellevue in October and November respectively.

The store is already advertising through press relations, social media and online portals such as Leafly — the Yelp of marijuana. Gehrett added they would look at constructing a small road sign near the business in accordance with zoning regulations.

Reach Island LLC will soon open a second licensed retailer in West Seattle, he said.