image

ONTARIO REC SALES DOUBLE, COMPLAINTS LODGED

Ontario saw sales double in the first month of REC retail. Even with only 22 REC stores in the province, it’s seems clear the public wants to buy legal REC in physical stores rather than online.
MJ Biz Daily

  • April REC sales totalled $19.6M, compared with $7.6M in March and $7.5M in February.
  • April sales made Ontario Canada’s number one spender on REC, though Albertans still buy more cannabis by volume.
    Global News
  • The Ontario Cannabis Store lifted its weekly cap on purchasing nine products for which they have “enough inventory.”
    Globe and Mail
  • The products in question have low THC and CBD, while high-THC cultivars are most popular.
  • Twitter commentators interpreted the move as a prelude to the OCS getting rid of products that aren’t selling and won’t get ordered again. “Could literally happen to hundreds of SKUs once license bottleneck eases and we have way too many LPs pumping out product,” lawyer Matt Maurer said.
  • Cannalyst “GoBlueCdn” imagined the OCS will “1. Slap a low price online and undercut their new retailers 2. Return product to LPs for a credit. 3. Wait it out and sell stale inventory slowly.”

The OCS, according to the Ontario Ombudsman, is “the single most complained-about government organization of the fiscal year ending March 31.”

Quick Hits

  1. The Cowichan Tribes, the Vancouver Island Coast Salish community that is the largest First Nation in British Columbia, accused the province of a conflict of interest over cannabis retail. The provincial government, which has delayed their REC retail licenses for six months, is also competing with the Cowichan Tribes for shopping-mall real-estate In Victoria, where they wish to open a BC Cannabis store. BC’s cannabis minister signalled the government is willing to stand down.
    Vancouver Sun
  2. BC’s first Indigenous-owned REC retailer, Kure Cannabis Society, opened on National Indigenous Peoples Day in the Skwah First Nation, near Chilliwack.
    The Tyee
  3. Okanagan, home of BC Bud (according to some, mainly Okanagans), finally got its first REC retailer, eight months in.
    National Post