The best place for better snacks? Try the dispensary

Here’s the thing about eating high: Your palate doesn’t change, but your priorities do. You want crunch. You want color. You want novelty that doesn’t require effort. You want a snack that meets you where you are — and the best place to find that snack might just be the local dispensary.

Of course, this isn’t always the case. For all their branding around ease and indulgence, many dispensaries still carry the sterile energy of a hospital lobby — albeit one with a curated Spotify playlist and a plant wall. The lighting is too bright. The air smells faintly of printer toner and eucalyptus. And you're funneled through a labyrinth of retractable stanchions like you’re about to meet a costumed mouse at Magic Kingdom, not a budtender named Jade.

That’s why it’s always a joy to find a dispensary that encourages you to slow down and browse — even just a little. Which is exactly what happened the first time I visited Sunnyside in Chicago’s Wrigleyville neighborhood.

From the outside, it looks like your standard-issue corporate dispensary, largely because of where it is. Wrigleyville is easy to dismiss — it’s the epicenter of several of Chicago’s most predictable subcultures: exuberant Cubs fans, fraternity-adjacent revelers, women in weather-inappropriate dresses clustered around The Cubby Bear. There’s a pick-up-only Starbucks next to a pick-up-preferred Chipotle, and somehow that tells you everything.

And yet, I still adore it. It’s a neighborhood ruled by enthusiasm. It lives in the ripple effect of ballpark excess. It’s got proximity to the legacy grit of Belmont and just enough chaos to keep things interesting. It’s also home to Sunnyside’s playful snack selection.

“Our goal is to provide a fun assortment of SKUs that your everyday convenience store, your typical gas station, wouldn't normally carry in stock,” Nicholas Kerr, an accessories buyer for Cresco Labs, Sunnyside’s parent company, told me when we spoke the week before 4/20 — a date most dispensaries have circled in green, bracing for the Black Friday of buds.

It’s not just about edibles anymore. The munchies get a front-row seat too.

Amid the slim packs of pre-rolled cones, Edie Parker glassware and copies of “Broccoli Magazine,” Sunnyside stocks something else entirely: colorful bags of imported Skittles, tubes of entrée-flavored chips and instant noodles in bright, crinkly packs. The kind of finds that usually require a trip to a specialty market or a deep dive down the aisles of H Mart.

“We offer a unique assortment that you wouldn’t typically find elsewhere, and that’s exactly what our customers love,” said Christine Tran, a senior accessories buyer for Cresco. “They enjoy discovering flavors they’ve never seen before — or even ones with labels they can’t read, like in Japanese — but the packaging catches their eye. We’re also noticing a strong appreciation for nostalgic, old-school favorites.”

It’s part-nostalgia, part-novelty and exactly what your altered-state appetite didn’t know it was craving. “The customer is, I would say, very explorative in their flavor profile when it comes to our assortment of snacks,” Tran continued. “So, we really look to lean into that well.”

When legal dispensaries first opened in Chicago, novelty alone was often enough. The bar was low: just being open and selling weed legally was enough to make you a destination. But now, with 25 recreational dispensaries in the city (and nearly twice that when you count the nearby suburbs) competition is real. Standing out matters. And snacks are one way to do it.

According to Kerr, the snack assortment may not be the single make-or-break factor in a dispensary’s success, but it’s a key part of the experience, especially when you consider how much of retail, cannabis or otherwise, is about the story you tell through sight. “There’s a large group of people who eat with their eyes first,” he told me. “You want to see something that catches your attention, that sets a tone, sets a vibe. Packaging can help a product stand out, sure — but it also sets the stage for the store itself.”

Tran echoed that sentiment. While Sunnyside doesn’t control the packaging of the products it carries, she explained, visual appeal is still a deciding factor in what gets stocked and how it’s displayed. “We work really closely with our visual merchandisers to help tell a cohesive story,” she said. “It’s about making the product accessible and approachable. Just like the grocery store: chips with chips, candy with candy, chocolate with chocolate. From the line to checkout, the store is designed to match the customer journey.”

This attention to detail keeps Sunnyside a true one-stop shop. “We want to make sure customers have everything they need to enjoy or elevate their cannabis experience,” Tran said. “Snacks are a big part of that. They’re baked into the culture, into the vibe. We’re always thinking about how to build on that and serve the community we’ve created here. It should feel like a place where you can come in and get whatever you need, all in one go.”

With 4/20, the stakes only get higher. “It’s not so much that customers gravitate toward one particular product,” Tran explained. “It’s that, this time of year, people just buy more of everything.” Think of it as the Super Bowl of dispensary shopping — a moment to showcase the full range of offerings. For Sunnyside, it’s an opportunity to put their snacks front and center, the grab-and-go essentials that perfectly suit the season’s “more is more” ethos.

“We really try to capitalize on that moment,” Tran said, “to show our customers what we can do with snacks.” But, as any seasoned buyer knows, 4/20 isn’t the time to read too much into consumer behavior. “It’s hard to get a read on what people are buying into because, honestly, they’re just buying everything,” she said, laughing. The season is less about trends and more about indulging in it all— sweet, savory and everything in between.

Kerr, for one, prefers to satisfy his sweet tooth. “I just tried some foreign Mont Blanc Kit Kats from Japan, delicious. If I’m going chocolate, I’m going Kit Kat, straight from the freezer. For candy, I’m all about sour—Sour Skittles, Warheads.” He paused, then added, “Next time you’re at Wrigley, pick up some Retro Sours tins. Tangerine’s my recommendation. I grew up on those, and they’re back now, hot commodity. We even did a special order to make sure we have them for 4/20. You’ve got to try them.”

Meanwhile, Tran is all about savory snacks. “I’m a savory woman,” she said, “so it’s always chips. We’ve got some wild flavors — pizza, steak — but I’m also all in on Samyang ramen noodles. That’s my jam. I could eat three packets of it. Yeah, it’s not great for you, but sometimes you’ve just got to have it.”

So next time the munchies hit, don’t settle for gas station beige. Find your Sunnyside — or whatever local dispensary stocks instant noodles with a cult following and sour candies that bite back. A good snack, like a good high, should feel a little bit like a secret and a little bit like a celebration. Go get yours.