Vlad Parkanski

How I went from selling footwear to selling cannabis!

After immigrating in the 90s from Moldova, my family and I moved to Toronto where I grew up. In high school when everyone way aiming to go into tech. I had passion for retail stems from enjoying customer interaction, dynamic environments, problem-solving, and the thrill of sales, focusing on creating positive experiences, building relationships, and achieving goals, with opportunities to grow from front-line service to business strategy, often fueled by an interest in products, trends, or helping people find what they need. It's about connecting people with products and services, offering fulfillment through teamwork, and developing transferable skills like communication, resilience, and adaptability.

How may different job have you had during your career time?

I had many different job opportunities thus far! At age of 16 my first job was car detailing service where I learned attention to details, at age 18 I worked as a gas attendant for a full-service gas station in Guelph this job taught me strong customer service and communication skills. At age of 20 I first entered retail industry, where my passion was born. I went to work in a small family runed retail store, catering to people need, wants, budgets fashion styles. At this job I learned how to connect to my customers to listen to them to satisfy all there needs, product knowledge and understanding which product will complement and benefit my customer. 

In my 2001 I opened my first family footwear store, as they say when you are the owner you wear lots of different hats. Buying selling marketing accounting team building. I saw being an entrepreneur at a young age is an investment into my future career growth.

After 15 years on retail side, I pivoted into distribution side of the business. My focus was footwear and medical goods I had a pleasure of attending and working the floor at international trade fairs like Expo Riva Schuh & Gardabags, a major international trade fair for volume footwear, leather goods, and accessories held in Riva del Garda, Italy, a key event connecting global brands, manufacturers, and buyers in the footwear industry. MICAM Milano where Manufacturers, buyers, journalists, and industry professionals meet to design new collections and set global fashion trends for the upcoming seasons. MEDICA in Dusseldorf world's leading trade fair for medical technology and advancement. probably the most exciting of them all where medical professionals rolled out new treatment technology to save peoples lives all over the world.

• during that time, I had opportunity to work directly with major fashion houses and Medical factories that produced products for global markets, this gave me a first row seat into a large corporate operations where global business was conducted, I’ve learned how to close international deals and acquire exclusive rights for distribution of these brands and products in global markets.
• I started to explore the cannabis industry in early 2010s when Canada decriminalized possession and production for medicinal purposes. I’m a life long consumer and very passionate about the plant, I spent several years in the grow room learning everything about the plant it properties and benefits both medicinal and recreational. Looking at production opportunities as well as retail, it was only natural for me to explore cannabis retail industry, with my life experience I knew that retail is where I see my place in this sphere. 
• 2018 I registered a new company and Matchbox was born.
• The name: we really wanted something that would be easy for customers to remember and also hod some meaning from the legacy day. In the 70s and 80s dealers would sell cannabis in matchboxes and it became a unit of measure at the time.

How is it going?

So, we played the lottery and no I didn’t win. But I did go through the process and after long road we opened our first location in January 2021. We are now 6 stores tall and 35 people strong. This industry isn’t a regular …its full of regulatory complexities, new and vast innovations, its not like in any that I been in before, its fast, very fast. 

What you can expect from Matchbox experience.

We implemented things from our retail and wholesale experience into daily operation, looking for shopping trends and forecasting what our customers will want tomorrow to personalized customer service and deep product knowledge.

A new consumer that walks through the door everyday. weather they never to cannabis or a lifelong customers, Matchbox cannabis is here to provide individually tailored service with carefully curated menu. At Matchbox people are not dollar signs, they are our friends. We remember or customers names, game they watched, team the rooter for and the strain that came along for a ride. We want our customers to know that we are the friendly are always here for them!

About matchbox team!

• We are now a team of 35 , from day one we build and instil ownership into every new member and create and environment where people want to work and grow with us. to this day we have member of the team that helped us set up the stores before opening we call them the “Og team”. That’s over 5 years working together and we consider ourselves blessed for that. In cannabis industry there is always something to learn new format, new strain terpene etc..: we do R&D sessions, then share in our Matchbox group chat how was the experience and thoughts of products. Matchbox has supportive environment, strong team camaraderie, and feeling respected, appreciated, and heard. our Trustworthy managers provide feedback, empower employees, and listen to new ideas product suggestions.

What have you done for giving back that stands out to you?

We did a fun raiser for movember one year (Movember is an annual event involving the growing of moustaches during the month of November to raise awareness of men's health issues, such as prostate cancer, testicular cancer, and men's suicide. It is a portmanteau of the Australian English diminutive word for moustache, "mo", and "November".) Our team donated all their tips and matchbox matched the donation. Part of the fun raiser is if we raised over $500 dollars I would shave my head and beard. I don’t remember what we raised but I did shave my head, for good cause.

How does you day to day look?

Everyday looks different, you have days that you work on the menu order that the day you do the most research and products reviews, inventory days delivery days transfers, day to day store operations schedules supplies, supply chain building, I also like to spend few hours a week in each store on the floor to connect to the customer see what are the trends like from the instore. Work with the team on regular to perfect customer service and experience.

Achievements:

Hard work pays off! As our Sault Ste Marie Manager Brenda T. says. Eat the frog, tackle your biggest task first thing in the morning will get you closer to your goal in the afternoon. We are eating that frog everyday and slowly organically this Matchbox family of ours is growing and putting food on the tables of 35 families while making happy memories and collecting 5Star reviews in the wake.

Personal hobbies:

Other then rolling joints 😊, I enjoy riding on my Harley, downhill skiing, scuba diving in open waters, camping with my kids and playing card games with my friends.