TRENDS, which stands for ‘The Real Experience Needs Different Stories’, is the creation of brothers Rodney and Brandon Carter . The store spans 6,000 sq. ft., making it the largest cannabis dispensary in the neighborhood.“We actually live in this community. Me and my father moved to Long Island City back in 2015, we grew up in Jamaica, Queens,” said Brandon. “ grown to love this neighborhood. We knew this is where it had to be. This feels like Manhattan outside of Manhattan.
For Rodney and Brandon, taking away the stigma is incredibly important to the customer experience at TRENDS. They want to foster an environment of inclusivity and education, so customers can feel rest assured they are walking away with the best information possible with their purchases. “Being that my background is in health and wellness — I run a fitness gym in Harlem — we definitely wanted to focus on holistic wellness in our store as well, in addition to having specialty and novelty items,” said Rodney. “We like to do things differently.”
“We intend to hold all types of events, anywhere from comedy shows to fashion shows, to movie nights, elevated yoga. We’re looking to do tea parties, a few dinner parties, our art gallery,” said Rodney. “We wanna transition into an art gallery at some point and also have like monthly installations, listening parties for different artists and book signings. So it’s a lot of different engaging immersive experiences we like to bring to the community.