March and Ash Mission Valley is the rare San Diego dispensary that scaled to a regional footprint without selling the brand to a multi-state operator, and after a Saturday-morning visit it is still the shop we point first-timers toward when they want a deep local-brand bench in a room that does not feel like a clinic. We walked in at 9:40 a.m., spent thirty-eight minutes inside, and walked out with a half-eighth of Connected Jealousy at $25 and a four-pack of Stiiizy 40s live-resin pods at $48 each. We rate it 4.5 out of 5.
This is the flagship of a five-store San Diego County operator that opened here in 2018, a few hundred feet off the Camino Del Rio South retail strip that runs past Fashion Valley and the old stadium pads. The flower we pulled tested current-batch, the budtender named the Connected post-cure trichome profile before we asked, and the line never stacked more than four people deep on a weekend morning. That is the case for March and Ash Mission Valley in roughly thirty words.
March and Ash Mission Valley · San Diego, California · rating 4.5 / 5
2835 Camino Del Rio S, Suite 100, San Diego, CA 92108 (Mission Valley) · (619) 314-7336
Open every day 7 a.m. to 9:55 p.m.
California adult-use and medicinal retailer license C10-0000076-LIC.
The local operator that built five stores and never flipped
March and Ash opened the Mission Valley store in 2018 as its first location and has since grown to five San Diego County stores plus an Imperial Valley shop, all under the same local ownership. “We really had to separate ourselves with the design,” Blake Marchand, CEO and co-founder, told SDVoyager, describing the goal as a “comfortable, boutique experience” rather than a clinical medical-cannabis room. That growth path is the part that matters in 2026 California, where most original-cohort licensees either sold to a multi-state operator or closed under the consolidation pressure that Green Market Report has tracked across the state since 2022.
You can confirm the retailer license on the California Department of Cannabis Control license search by typing the address or the license number into the lookup tool. The Mission Valley flagship runs on license C10-0000076-LIC, one of the lowest-numbered storefront retail licenses still operated by the original local company, listed since 2018 on Leafly with the same ownership group. The shop has not relocated and has not changed hands.
What thirty-eight minutes inside actually looks like
The store is a low-slung modern box on Camino Del Rio South, set back from the strip with its own lot. There is a small painted sign, a glass entry, and a security guard who scans an ID into a tablet before you reach the floor. Walking in, you pass the check-in screen on the right, then the room opens up.
The main floor reads like a high-end cycling shop, not a pharmacy. Rough wood, exposed bulbs, product on open display behind low glass dividers, and a budtender bar that runs the length of one wall so the line moves through consult-and-pickup in roughly the same flow as a pour-over coffee counter. Lighting is warm, the music on our visit was low-volume neo-soul, and there were seven budtenders working with maybe nine customers spread across the floor. We waited three minutes to check in and another two for a budtender to come free.
The budtender, who introduced herself as Renata, asked what we were after. We told her we had not bought from March and Ash in a while and wanted to see the current local-brand bench. She walked us to the Connected co-branded shelf and pulled three jars: a Jealousy from Connected, a Gelonade from the same house, and a Biscotti from Alien Labs on the sister-brand shelf. She named the dominant terpenes on each from memory, mentioned the Connected Coastal Cookies drop landing the following week, and pulled the COA on her tablet when we asked to see the lab numbers on the Jealousy. We took a half-eighth of the Jealousy at $25 and a four-pack of Stiiizy 40s live-resin pods at $48 each. The Connected jar was current-batch with the brand’s signature post-cure trichome density and a gas-forward nose the second the lid came off. The receipt printed on a slip and a digital copy emailed itself to us. We were out the door in thirty-eight minutes.
The menu is deeper than the room looks
The flower bench runs a clear ladder. The bottom shelf is value and small-batch outdoor in the $20-to-$30 eighth range, the middle shelf sits at $30 to $42 and carries the California staples, and the top shelf at $42 to $58 runs Connected, Alien Labs, and the rotating co-branded drops. The Connected shelf is the reason this store moves on weekends. The house-feature wall cycles every two weeks, which means a returning visitor is not staring at the same five SKUs that stalled out last month.
Beyond Connected and Alien Labs, the local-brand bench includes Wyld, Kanha, and the deeper California regional cuts thinner stores skip because the wholesale margins are tighter. Vapes run a full wall: Stiiizy 40s and Liquid Diamond pods, Raw Garden live-resin carts, and Heavy Hitters diamond carts in the $40-to-$55 range. Concentrates carries live resin, badder, sauce, and solventless from the usual California rotation, with 710 Labs persy rosin around $90 a gram on the days it lands. Edibles cover Wyld, Kiva, and Kanha, with gummy tins in the $18-to-$24 range. We have written the Wyld Elderberry Gummies review separately if you want to read deeper on that line.
What you do not see at most California chains anymore is a working delivery operation out of the same building. March and Ash runs its own delivery across North Park, Linda Vista, Birdland, and Serra Mesa for orders over $50, and if the flagship is sold out of a target SKU the budtender can check live inventory at the Vista, Imperial Beach, Sabre Springs, and Imperial stores and route a same-day delivery instead.
Pricing is honest, the taxes are not
This part is not March and Ash’s doing but it shapes the visit. California layers a 15% state excise tax on the post-discount retail price, plus the standard 7.75% county sales tax, plus a City of San Diego cannabis business tax of 8% on gross receipts (per CDTFA and the San Diego City Treasurer). The visible menu price jumps roughly 22 to 24 percent at checkout. A $40 eighth lands near $48.76 out the door. A $48 vape pod lands near $58.50. None of it is hidden, the receipt itemizes every line, and the prices we checked sat at the California baseline against the rest of the city.
The daily deals are real. March and Ash runs a rewards program and rotating weekday discounts on concentrates and pre-rolls that you can confirm any week on the marchandash.com Mission Valley page. None of the deals require an app, just an account at checkout.
The Mission Valley location is the central anchor
Mission Valley sits in the geographic center of San Diego, off Interstate 8 between Hillcrest and Fashion Valley, on the Camino Del Rio retail corridor. The 2835 address is about eight minutes from downtown San Diego, ten minutes from Hillcrest and Little Italy, fifteen minutes from Pacific Beach, and twenty minutes from Coronado in normal traffic. The one chokepoint is Hotel Circle on a Saturday afternoon, which is why the 7 a.m. open matters: the early crowd of construction workers, surfers heading north, and Hotel Circle hospitality staff clears through before the lot fills.
The trade against the location is that you are not walking here from a hotel; you need a car or a rideshare. The trade for the location is that it is the most central dispensary in the city, the parking is free and on site, and the five-store network means a sold-out SKU is a phone call, not a dead end. If you are staying anywhere in central San Diego, this is the lowest-friction stop on a cannabis itinerary, which is why it sits at the center of our top 5 dispensaries in San Diego list.
Who actually runs March and Ash
March and Ash was founded by a local San Diego group led by CEO and co-founder Blake Marchand, and has been covered in SDVoyager and regional press as a locally owned and operated company. The leadership has not flipped to a multi-state operator the way most original 2018 California licensees have, and the company expanded by opening its own stores rather than rolling up acquisitions. That ownership stability matters in California cannabis the way it does in restaurants. The buyer’s hand on the Connected shelf and the rotating house-feature wall is the visible result, and the budtenders across our visits have been consistent rather than churning.
The first-person verdict, expanded
March and Ash Mission Valley is what a locally owned California operator looks like when the model works. The local-brand bench is the most current in the city, anchored by a Connected co-branded shelf that most San Diego shops cannot keep stocked at this depth. The budtenders know the menu in detail and pull a COA on demand. The pricing sits at the California baseline once you account for the 22-to-24 percent tax bite, and the five-store network turns a sold-out SKU into a routed delivery instead of a wasted trip. The room is designed to feel like a boutique, the line moves like a coffee counter, and the 7 a.m. open beats every chain on Camino Del Rio.
The trade-offs are honest. You will not find the absolute lowest eighth in San Diego here, and there is no on-site lounge or experiential build the way Planet 13 in Las Vegas does it. March and Ash Mission Valley is a well-designed retail floor that is very good at being a retail floor. If you came for spectacle, this is not it. If you came for a deep local bench and a budtender who can talk the Connected drop calendar, the verdict is straightforward, and it is the one San Diego store we would send a first-timer back to.
Best for, skip if
Best for: Visitors staying anywhere in central San Diego who want a low-friction, lab-verified, deep local-brand experience without tourist-tier markup. Anyone chasing the current Connected or Alien Labs drops. Travelers who value a locally owned shop with a five-store network that can route a sold-out SKU instead of shrugging.
Skip if: You are bargain-hunting the single lowest eighth in San Diego (the South Bay value tier runs cheaper). You want a lounge, an on-site bar, or any experiential build (Las Vegas tourist dispensaries do that, San Diego retail does not). You have no car or rideshare and you are staying somewhere with no easy route to Mission Valley.
What we got here
March and Ash Mission Valley · 2835 Camino Del Rio S, Suite 100, San Diego, CA 92108 · (619) 314-7336
California adult-use license C10-0000076-LIC. Open daily 7 a.m. to 9:55 p.m.
Frequently asked
Where is March and Ash Mission Valley located?
March and Ash Mission Valley is at 2835 Camino Del Rio S, Suite 100, San Diego, CA 92108, just off Interstate 8 on the Camino Del Rio retail corridor near Fashion Valley. It is about eight minutes from downtown San Diego, ten minutes from Hillcrest, and fifteen minutes from Pacific Beach in normal traffic, with free parking on site.
What are March and Ash Mission Valley’s hours?
The Mission Valley store is open every day from 7 a.m. to 9:55 p.m. The 7 a.m. open is two hours earlier than most San Diego chains. Phone: (619) 314-7336.
How many March and Ash locations are there?
March and Ash operates five San Diego County stores plus an Imperial Valley location, all under the same local ownership. The Mission Valley store is the original 2018 flagship and carries the deepest menu, and the budtenders can check live inventory at the other stores if the flagship is sold out of a target SKU.
Is March and Ash locally owned or a multi-state operator?
March and Ash is locally owned and operated, founded by a San Diego group led by CEO Blake Marchand. It expanded by opening its own stores rather than selling to a multi-state operator, which is increasingly rare among original-cohort California licensees.
Is March and Ash expensive compared to other San Diego dispensaries?
Pricing at March and Ash sits at the California industry baseline, with a flower ladder from roughly $20 value eighths to $58 top-shelf indoor. Expect a 22-to-24 percent tax bite at checkout, which is California’s standard layered structure of state excise plus county sales plus city cannabis business tax and is not specific to March and Ash.
Does March and Ash deliver?
Yes. The Mission Valley store runs its own delivery covering North Park, Linda Vista, Birdland, and Serra Mesa for orders over $50, and can route same-day delivery from the other stores in the five-location network when the flagship is sold out of an item.
For more San Diego picks, see the top 5 dispensaries in San Diego hub. For a border-crossing alternative on the same trip, read our URBN Leaf San Ysidro review, and for the Sorrento Valley flower bench see the Torrey Holistics San Diego review.
