So whats it like working in a coffeeshop?

[Hugh Jass]

A lot of people dream about being a dealer in a coffee shop in Amsterdam.

The reality is a lot different from what you imagine.

It does have it's good points, you can be a "bit" stoned when you work, but it's a job so you do need to be less stoned than what you imagine to do the job.

I never heard of a boss in any of the coffee shops being a good guy to work for, most are drug dealers trying to go semi straight.

Some coffee shops pay a decent wage, lots of the smaller ones hire people and pay them less than minimim wage, people accept this because it is "cool" to work in a coffee shop.

Your work collegues can be a really interesting bunch, half of them will be idiots too stoned to do their jobs, they don't last long. There is a real high turn over of staff in the industry.

So about ten years ago I go to Amsterdam for a weekend, I left 18 months later.

I had a job in a well known coffee shop.

I did everything there, opened up, closed up, made coffee, cooked food, sold weed.

It was proberbly one of the best jobs I ever had.

I would have a hard night out 6 days out of 7 partying! I would get on the dealers chair and try and sober up. You just sit there and sell weed.

"yes mate what can I get for you?" "gram of that, no worries" "thats 10 euro" pretty easy right.

I was a chef in good restaurants in London, so cooking food for stoned people, with stoned people was pretty easy to be honest. When I had my interview I forgot and went out partying the weekend away, didn't sleep on Friday, Saturday or Sunday night and only went to the interview because my mate called me up to whis me luck.

I got the job, they were very happy with me. Start as you mean to go on I say...

The worst part of the job was the boss.

Jesus he was an arsehole, shouting and swearing.

He would come in, in a coked up mood everyday. One day he would be great, really chilled out. The next day or even the next hour he would be going crazy over the tinyist thing. One thing we would check was the corners of his mouth for salt. He would get this gooey salt in the corner od his mouth if he had been on a really big coke binge. We would always be in for a shitty day if he walked in with that.

He was also paranoid, people being taken into the office and given a talking to because they were bad mouthing him, when they did nothing of the sort.

He then put cameras everywhere, we were watched all the time.

He would sit at home and watch us on his home computer. He would then call us up, telling us what to do.

I would get a you were 10 minutes late bollocking quite regularly, which was fair enough.

But some of the other members of staff were watched quite closely, er some of the female members of staff. He is a nasty, lonely man.

The cooking and coffes's were just like any normal coffee shop.

The weed part was not so interesting, just like serving coffee.

Some tourists would come in and presume because I was selling the weed I was some rich drug dealer. I get paid by the hour, same amount for selling weed as I got for selling coffee and wipeing down tables.

So you would weigh the weed in the morning, noting down weights next to varietys, count the float and you were good to go.

There was a runner, you call the number and tell him which weed you needed and how much you needed and he would bring it, usually with in the hour. Sometimes you had to wait three hours, he must have been busy.

I gather the runner grew some weed, but it was also his job to buy the hash and grass too and to keep track of the guys who grew the weed for us as well.

He would just come in order a coffee and have a bit of a chat, no one looking hand over a shopping bag and you would pass it onto the weed guy.

The runner weighs it and you weigh it, and you note down the weights and thats it.

I was told there was a law that you could only have 500grams of weed for sale at a coffee shop at any one time. So we had to keep to the 500g limit and use the runner. We could also only sell 5grams in any one transaction for a person for that day as well.

Sometimes I would forget that somebody had been and sell to them again, I used to have a really bad memory, ha ha ha.

Get to know the dealer and I would sell you how ever much you wanted as long as you were discrete.

you would get a discount of 25% on all the weed and be expected to buy a gram or so of the latest strain and try it so you could advise the customers, but most people didn't they just read off the description and made up stories. Like we would tell people this was going to be entered for the cannabis cup and it's just come in and fresh on the menu. Remember we are stoned too and getting asked the same question all the time was really boring.

Now the smart people would just ask, what would you buy?

I had my two favourite grasses, one 100% Sativa the other a really nice mix and a couple of nice hashes I liked as well.

I would tell them I would buy a different weed for different occasions and ask what people were planning on doing and advise accordingly.

Staff from the coffee shop were forbidden on going to the grow rooms, loose lips sink ships you know.

Imagine if someone stole the weed? or sold the address to people who would.

Remember if your a coked up arsehole, people will do this out of spite.

People would come in every so often and try and sell us weed, we would take a number or tell them when the boss would be in. Some people didn't get it others were cool.

A kilo of decent weed would be sold for around 1.50- 3.00 euro a gram. Quite a mark up for a coffee shop owner isn't it.

Our coffee shop didn't buy much weed but others would buy all they could get.

Locals and expats would come in, you get to know someone for a few months, then they come in one day with a humongus bag of weed and tell you they just brought 100grams for 350 and it looks the same if not better than what you are selling.

They only want a coffee now and the boss gets shirty with them now and they stop coming in.

So thats whats it is like working in a coffee shop in Amsterdam.

[GTWMT]

sounds a bit crazy tbf mate.

[glezga]

nice post m8. i get chatty with all the staff when im buying, nice to b nice and its seems an interesting job. only met 1 non local, a glasgow lad, tried to rip me off and set minimum limits of 3g wtf caused a big argument, he was sooo stressed! had a smoke witha local guy and his mrs after his shift, was a good night from what i remember but fuk me they can smoke! good memories

edit, the giy that owns/runs ricks coffee shop? whats his deal?

Edited February 14, 2013 by glezga

[Saddam]

So you were a glorified burger flipper selling shitty shwag and contaminated weed to uneducated tourists? Let's not beat about the bush, the Dam sucks for decent weed.

[Darwin]

So you were a glorified burger flipper selling shitty shwag and contaminated weed to uneducated tourists? Let's not beat about the bush, the Dam sucks for decent weed.

My experiences too!! Been three times now and spent a fortune not gettin high!!!

[Hugh Jass]

So you were a glorified burger flipper selling shitty shwag and contaminated weed to uneducated tourists? Let's not beat about the bush, the Dam sucks for decent weed.

Ha ha ha

Pleanty of uneducated tourists from all over the world.

The weed where I was was ok, over priced but ok. There were much worse places to get weed in the Dam,even on the same street.

I never used to rip people off, but there were pleanty of places that did, both management and staff would do this.

I even heard of one member of staff replacing good weed from the coffee shop owner, with his own shitty weed and even selling his own weed in the coffe shop too.

[Michael Luchóg]

Nice post .

I asked for a few hours in a coffeeshop but my Dutch wasn't up to scratch and it wasn't in Amsterdam .Also I guess I was foreign and a stranger at first . Got along with the owner and his GF and hung around the place for a few hours some evenings but it wasn't a typical touristy place and you wouldn't know it was a coffeeshop passing only for the smell of weed ! I got them some punters and they looked after me with hash.

It's closed down now . I think though they usually only hire pretty women

I'd like to give it a go for a while .I can imagine you'd meet a lot of interesting people .

[Hugh Jass]

If your going to Amsterdam for good weed save your pennies and grow it yourself.

If your going there for a holiday and happen to go into some of the better coffee shops you will proberbly have a good time.

Just don't go there for the smoke.

[lungbutter]

Nice post mate, pretty much how Imagined it to be. Any form of retail generally sucks in my experience.

[clawz]

Nice post

[Saddam]

I bet you witnessed some funny moments there, what did you do with people on a whitey? Drag them outside and up the street and lean them against a lamp post or something?

[Chomper]

Thanks for sharing Hugh....I'd love to know what shop you worked in, the owner sounds like someone I once encountered.

[glezga]

If your going to Amsterdam for good weed save your pennies and grow it yourself.

If your going there for a holiday and happen to go into some of the better coffee shops you will proberbly have a good time.

Just don't go there for the smoke.

i wondered why i havent been back for a while!

[Hugh Jass]

I bet you witnessed some funny moments there, what did you do with people on a whitey? Drag them outside and up the street and lean them against a lamp post or something?

Only saw one whitey when I was there. Poor girl was sitting on the cycle rack opposite the shop drinking some lucozade.

Her boyfriend didn't give a shit and was inside with the rest of the group smoking and laughing at her. What an arsehole.

I don't know why but you would see more whiteys in "Hill St Blues" see one every other time I would go in there. I did used to enjoy happy hour in there

Crack head whores were a bit of a problem, they would sit down and not move till you gave them 20 euro to go away. There was a Dutch girl working there that would scare them away, Only once did one get the better of her and stay put, She then went and got me. I don't know what she told her but by the time I walked to her table she just legged it!

The Coffee shop was robbed at knife point as well when I was there. It wasn't that scarey or anything. You kinda felt sorry for the guy, he was just another casualty of Amsterdam down on his luck. Hey but free joints for everyone, the couple of customers and the staff all smoked up for free that were there. My idea and didn't think the boss would mind, he didn't that much (better than calling the rozzers).

The boss really had a grudge against me towards the end of my stay there, he had spent about four months chatting up this Dutch girl who worked there, You could tell he was just about to ask her out., he wasn't good with women! Any way I was going clubbing and I asked a few work mates and she went and one thing lead to another... I moved in with her about a month later! Boss not happy!!!

A whole assortment of weirdo's to work with from all over the world made for an interesting time.

[Shogun]

when i lived in the dam i had a bunch of mates that worked in 'old amsterdam' just off rembrandtplein, they had a very easy time of it, kushty number and decent enough wages to live in the centre of the dam and still be able to have a decent standard of living. when working they just sat behind the counter selling bags of weed and the occasional coffee or juice, thier boss marko was sound as, used to take them out partying after hours. only down side was they were not allowed to get stoned while they were at work.

i guess it all depends which coffee shop you work at

Edited February 14, 2013 by the_shogun