There’s a lot of bad actors in the weed scene. I come from the legacy market and spent years risking my freedom in the name of helping patients. While profits were always a concern, the overwhelming sense of community and the commitment to an ethics that placed the group above self outweighed turning a buck.
Now, with hundreds of stores opening we hear statements like “Poor is More” and “Let’s take market share from the independents.” It makes my skin crawl but we can do something about it.
By telling stories about the weed workers of Canada and promoting brands that put people first we can shine a light on both the bright and dark corners of this amazing community.
We worked together to legalize this plant and we can work together again to vote with our dollars. We can use these dollars to out the Brads n’ Chads in their Armani suits who brandish Rolexes while their workers struggle to make ends meet. We can spend a few extra bucks to buy from the independent stores that were born from—and survive—in a place of passion. We can at least make our collective financial voice heard while zombie-walking through this capitalist game we’re forced to play.
Let’s smoke good weed that’s grown and sold by good people. Let’s organize and scare the suits who viewed legalization solely as “the green rush”.
Let’s show them what the people can do.
NOW OPEN: ONTARIO CANNABIS RETAIL STORE LANDSCAPE GETS DENSE
The number of retail stores in Ontario reached 1,000 in September of this year. This led David Lobo, the interim CEO of the Ontario Cannabis Store to a stark conclusion: “Unfortunately, this rapid growth will likely result in some retailers being faced with increased competition and a crowded marketplace, which could result in some closures and market rightsizing.”
The same kind of consolidation we’ve seen in the licensed producer space has been happening in the retail sector as well. Chains like Tokyo Smoke and Canna Cabana continue to buy up licenses from independent retailers. Some say the increased competition will lead to better offerings for customers. If a shop wants to survive they’ll need to find a profitable target market and compete for that.
While the bigger chains compete with each other to be the next Walmart of Weed many entrepreneurs are finding innovative and creative ways to get loyal, repeat customers. Instead of trying to showcase all 700+ shops we decided to focus on just a handful we think are standing out among the crowd.
Read about them in our cannabis retail store section of the blog.
