Cannabis Sales Bump Expected Canada Day Weekend
Retailers Say Cannabis Sales Bump Challenging Liquor – LPC
According to the Calgary Sun (see link below), cannabis retailers claim a cannabis sales bump this Canada Day weekend. This is the first Canada Day celebrations since cannabis was legalized in October 2018. Mark Goliger, CEO of National Access Cannabis (NAC) which has 15 stores in Alberta, said seeing a cannabis sales bump this weekend is natural.
“Long weekends are a time for people to relax and enjoy more of everything,” he said. Goliger added that those who do celebrate with cannabis should feel free to do so without stigma. “It was illegal but now there’s a freedom.”
Polls suggest that acceptance of cannabis consumption has grown, though the fear of a cannabis consumption spike didn’t happen.
But a cannabis sales bump is almost inevitable this weekend. A poll conducted by Maru/Blue last week indicated that Atlantic Canada and Alberta will be among the highest users. In Alberta, about 25 per cent of the population plans to consume cannabis over the weekend.
“That’s one in four compared to one in five (across Canada),” said Jo Vos, managing director of Leafly Canada, which commissioned the poll of 1,513 people.
Millennials will make up the largest portion of the cannabis sales bump with about 33 per cent saying they will use cannabis this weekend.
“We know there are behaviour patterns very similar to alcohol in the lead-up to weekends,” Vos said.
Alberta Leads the Way in Cannabis Retail Stores – LPC
Alberta is the fact that it has by far the most stores in the country at 136. That’s at least part of the reason there will be such a large cannabis sales bump. Recent statistics showed that in Ontario, cannabis sales more than doubled in April when retail stores opened. Reasons include wanting to see the product first and not wanting to leave a paper trail that could lead to problems at the US border.
The government of Ontario initially released 25 retail cannabis store licences almost entirely in southern Ontario. Seven cannabis retail stores were fined $50,000 for not opening by certain dates including April 30.
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