Pipe Dreams Smoke Shop Now Accepting Crypto Currency

Tucked just a few blocks from the beach on Memorial Drive, Pipe Dreams is a local standout in Asbury Park, New Jersey ─ a town where the sand, surf and Springsteen sightings blend into a culture-rich coastal experience.

To help create a more seamless customer shopping experience, the hybrid cannabis shop recently started accepting crypto payments. Utilizing PDX Beam, this crypto payment gateway converts digital assets into local currency in seconds at the point of sale.

“We provide a premium experience in Asbury Park,” says Mahmoud Heikal, owner of Pipe Dreams. “We provide the customer with agency, so I have a hard time saying ‘no’ when they request a particular payment method. We already have ATMs in the store and recently started accepting Venmo payments. We never want to refuse a customer’s money.”

Integrating a Crypto Payment Option

It’s no secret that banks aren’t a huge fan of cannabis retailers. Not only do they make it almost impossible for cannabis retailers to receive business loans, but banks also make it difficult for them to accept certain credit cards as a form of payment.

“We’ve experienced a lot of issues in the past with different merchants,” explains Heikal. “We’re in almost our ninth year of business, and we’re on our now sixth merchant. Past providers have either kicked us off their platform or dropped us.”

When merchants make it difficult for cannabis shops to conduct business, it can lead to low customer satisfaction, which is not an option for Pipe Dreams. So, when PDX Beam reached out to introduce the idea of crypto payments, Heikal was happy to give customers even more payment freedom.

“We try to make it as convenient as possible for the customer,” says Heikal. “We found that paying an additional fee to have a secondary merchant account set up at all times was worth it.”

Crypto Currency Excitement

Pipe Dreams has been offering the crypto payment option for about seven months. And while there’s still only a small percentage of customers utilizing this payment option, Heikal expects that to increase.

“We’ve had seven crypto payments in just a few weeks, and every customer who’s used it has been enthusiastic,” he says. “They see our flyer about crypto payments and ask questions ─ they’re ready to finally use their crypto, not just hold it.”

With Asbury’s summer crowd fast approaching, Heikal expects crypto usage to rise. Pipe Dreams averages 2,000 transactions a month during the season, and he estimates 12 per month will be crypto conversion sales.

The Benefits of Offering Crypto Payments

There are a variety of benefits to adding crypto payments to in your cannabis store. Not only is it a great secondary merchant account to have in case your main one shuts down, but you can also get your money the same or following day.

“There are a lot of merchants out there that hit you in the head with crazy fees, some of them charging illegal amounts just with the way they structure their platforms,” says Heikal. “The majority of people want to conduct transactions from their phones ─ nobody wants to use cash for anything anymore. And that’s a sizeable part of your business to be losing out on.”

Crypto payments has the ability to change retail POS completely. With crypto sitting idle in consumers’ wallets, those who have it can easily use it to purchase products.

And the more that word gets out about easy this option is to integrate into your store, the more that dispensaries will want to use crypto currency.

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