They've sold rolling papers, now a Fall River store wants to add pot to their inventory

Charles Saliby is the first in the city to apply for a license to sell marijuana for recreational use without having an accompanying medical use component.

FALL RIVER — If his four years in business school could be boiled down to one sentence, it would be this, Charles Saliby said:

Listen to your customers and give them what they want.

That is exactly his plan, he said.

Saliby manages the family business, Guimond Farms, 105 Rhode Island Ave. He is working to get a license to sell marijuana at retail. His business, Greener Leaf, is the first in the city to apply for a license to sell marijuana for recreational use without having an accompanying medical use component.

“At Guimond, we’ve always sold the wraps, the rolling papers,” he said. “The wrap business was always strong and hush, hush.

“Now it is coming out into the open.”

Saliby plans to open Greener Leaf in the 1,400-square-foot space next door to Guimond Farms. That space currently holds the family laundromat. He is searching for another location to operate the laundry service, he said.

“We’ll focus on the demands of the customers,” he said. “That is what we’ve been doing for years.

“What our customers need, we will deliver.”

Sami and Nouhad Saliby purchased the convenience store in 1997. Charles and his sister, Nicole, joined the business full time when they finished school, though both got a business education stocking shelves and working the register as soon as they were old enough to help, Saliby said.

The family got a license to sell liquor 11 years ago and tailored the store to the requests from customers.

“When we got into the liquor business, we started with the main brands and began to change when our customers came in and made requests,” he said. They greatly expanded their offerings of nip bottles — two ounce bottles of liquor — because customers said they couldn’t afford a larger bottle after stopping at the store for eggs, milk and bread.

“Ever since we got the liquor license, we’ve been able to grow that part of the business,” he said. “We did it by listening to the customers.”

That won’t change, even when the product sold is marijuana leaf, oils, extracts or, eventually, edibles, Saliby said.

“We have good relations with our customers and our neighbors,” he said. “We will continue that with Greener Leaf.

“If there are issues that pop up, we will immediately address them.”

That, he adds, is just good business. Which is his goal.

“I’ve always had a passion for building businesses and I like to help people,” he said. “In business, you look for a product that sells in good times and in bad times. We think this is one of those.”

Saliby held an outreach meeting Tuesday, explaining the plans Greener Leaf has on the table. That is one step in a state licensing process that will take months to complete.

In the meantime, he is reading so much about the marijuana business that it feels like he is cramming for finals at UMass Dartmouth, Saliby said. And he is watching the wholesale market for marijuana develop in the state, trying to determine how it will affect his business.

“People want this and there are benefits they get from this product,” he said. “I’m learning. It is a work in progress.

“But I’m confident we can do this.”

Email Kevin P. O’Connor at koconnor@heraldnews.com.