Secret Shopping is one of the most reliable tools in retail.
Mystery shopping has been used for decades to give operators an accurate, independent picture of what customers actually experience, not what internal reviews assume is happening. Above Board brings that same discipline to cannabis retail: discreet, standardized audits conducted by trained shoppers, evaluated against a consistent framework.
Your store looks the way you expect it to when you are standing in it. The question is what happens when you are not. Does staff verify ID at checkout every time. Does the budtender guide a first-time customer toward the right product, or toward the fastest sale. Does anyone mention the promotion running on the wall behind them. Are the compliance steps followed under a post-work rush, not just on a quiet Tuesday.
These are not questions your team can answer about themselves. They are too close to the store to see it from the other side of the counter.
What we do
Above Board conducts discreet, standardized secret shopper audits of cannabis dispensaries. A trained shopper visits your store as an ordinary customer, follows a defined persona, and evaluates the full experience from entry to checkout. The visit is documented against a standardized 1–5 framework, and you receive a written report identifying what is working, where compliance risk sits, and where sales are being left on the floor.
The work is objective, repeatable, and built to be acted on. No opinions dressed up as findings. A clear score, clear evidence, and clear priorities.
Three Ways we Evaluate Your Store
A shopper visits in person and evaluates the complete floor experience: entry and first impressions, staff engagement, product knowledge, compliance, merchandising, upsell behavior, and checkout.
Audits can be timed to rush and lull periods, so you learn how the experience holds up under real conditions, not only when the floor is quiet.
What You Receive
Every audit produces a written report scored against the variables that consistently shape the customer experience, from entry through checkout. Each report separates highlights from opportunities, so your team knows what to protect and what to fix. Findings are specific enough to train against.
Conducted consistently over time, audits reveal patterns, not just single-visit snapshots, so you can see whether an issue is isolated or ongoing.
Built For Operators
Above Board is built for cannabis retailers of every size, from independent single-location stores to multi-location operations. We understand the constraints of lean organizations firsthand: limited staff time, no dedicated compliance department, and no budget for enterprise-grade tools. Our audits are designed to deliver clear, actionable insight without requiring any of that infrastructure. Whether you operate one store or several, you do not need a large team to know exactly how your store performs. That is what an audit is for.
See the Work Before You Commit
The clearest way to understand what an Above Board audit delivers is to read one. Request a redacted sample audit from a real visit, with all store and staff identifying details removed. No obligation, and nothing shared without your consent.
Serving cannabis dispensaries across New York and New Jersey.