Dearest Patient: In the spirit of motivational speakers the world over, please know that you are valuable. While you have intrinsic value as the wonderful and caring soul that you no doubt are, you also have value to whomsoever you choose to share your hard-earned money with when you purchase your medicine.
As the following shows, the schoolchildren of Washington should be thankful to you (both for funding their education and for de-funding the pushers that would otherwise prey upon them).
I assume that many of our vulnerable Patients have chosen to quit using Cannabis medicinally now that the regulated system seems to be having some implementation difficulties (look for an upcoming PSA on the lack of access currently hammering patients statewide).
I assume this because I simply can’t see the good Patients I’ve met that depend on this medicine actually breaking a state law regarding Cannabis (I’m not talking about the idiotic Federal laws–, but am asking should our State laws not be respected? —- remember that our police occasionally distribute Doritos and we should reinforce such decency). I can’t see the good patients I’ve met in this industry willfully denying our schoolchildren the tax revenues they need to be what is considered adequately educated in these ignorant times.
However, the following data make clear that even the small subset of you that have chosen the crapshoot that is the regulated-system-trying-to-be-medical are already making your impact (and value) felt by the taxed/regulated side of Washington’s Cannabis market. Pusher John (and Pusher Jane) may not like it, but the retail stores sure are feeling your presence.
OK : to the numbers that just came out today-
Prior to July, the ONLY day during which Washington’s State-legal Cannabis market generated more than $1 Million in excise tax was on 4/20 of this year. GO FOUR-TWENTY!!!
During the month of July, 4 out of the month’s 5 Friday’s each saw over $1,000,000 generated in excise tax.
During the month of July, the average daily sales out of retail (not counting taxes) exceeded $2 Million for the very first time. Check out the growth of Retail vs the Growth of wholesale (on an average daily pre-tax sales basis) between June and July:
Patients – even the small numbers of you coming over are already making a significant difference to the market through your early explorations. Let’s hope you can continue to make your voices felt and that the retailers (and regulators) of the State quickly come around to a set of rules and practices that enable you to source what you need from the regulated system in a fashion that is affordable and accessible.
You are worth that much. You are worth much more than that much.
Do one thing for me, though. When you shop in the regulated system, please make it a point to ask for the lab-testing summary they have on the product. If a store can’t quickly produce it … turn around and walk out. You should not give your money to those unprepared to meet this basic need.
Be medicated. Be well.
I hope to see you at Hempfest. I’m on a medical panel on Sunday afternoon, but will be there all 3 days.
Not every year one gets to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the greatest Protestival that the planet has ever known.
Jim,
For the store that I have been involved in, the up-tick was immediate, extremely noticeable, and sustained. And it has nothing to do with the registration database, and everything to do with the gray and black market shops being shut down. I can tell you 100 anecdotes from our first 30 days after July 1. It is a very fundamental shift in our marketplace, and not just on dollar volume. It is several very different, new markets that we did not previously see.
Most people think our marketplace is simple – just one or two markets for retail. But that is sooo not true! We have numerous very distinct and identifiable markets, and on the showroom floor, we don’t need data to know that. It’s that clear.
But thanks for the data anyway – it’s helps for those not on the floor every day.
Steve … while folks with their feet on the floor may well see patterns and changes occurring in their store, I assure you the picture gets much more interesting when one looks beyond the obvious (new customers mean new sales) and begins to focus on the VARIABILITY in growth at the store level. Your store happened to be “typical”, but at less than 1% of retail sales volume in July (statewide), it is not representative of the larger market. It is representative of IT’s market.
You are welcome for the data (anyway). What I posted were initial (and quickly generated) observations. I’ve now looked more closely at the data. Very interesting.
Would like to see the average markup per retailer. Every retailer in Spokane seems to want Good Bud for $2.00 a gram? What gives?
So would I, Ken. Thank-you for asking.
I have been looking at different variants of store-level markup for a few weeks now.
I’m close to having a stable/robust metric with which I’d be comfortable reporting on local outliers (at both ends of the scale).
My current expectation is to publish a PSA on this either Sunday or Monday (Aug 7/8).