Marijuana Business Magazine

126 • Marijuana Business Magazine • November / December 2017 Colorado’s recreational marijuana sales began in 2014. “Make sure you adhere to the regula- tions that are on hand,” he added. “That will create opportunities for success.” Stock Up Retailers, in particular, need to pre- pare for a demand surge. In early July, for example, Nevada marijuana retailers were deluged with customers after the start of adult-use sales – a situation that left dispensaries with dwindling product inventories. Before the first day of adult-use sales, Falconer recommends that California shop owners stock up on as much prod- uct as possible. In his mind, it’s impossi- ble to have too much product on hand. “Plan for the Armageddon of weed,” he said. In January 2014,The Clinic in Denver was one of the first 10 loca- tions that opened for recreational sales A s California prepares to implement statewide regu- latory reform on its massive marijuana industry, many dispensaries will be coming out of the gray market and into the state’s regulated medical and/or recrea- tional markets. The transition into a fully regulated market represents a structural change that amounts to a fundamental reshap- ing of California’s marijuana business landscape. Existing dispensaries that manage to acquire a medical or rec- reational license will need to make significant operational changes to comply with the new laws. But they have an economic incentive to do so, based on evidence from other regulated markets around the country. According to data in the 2017 Marijuana Business Factbook, dispensaries in regulated medical markets across the nation see, on average, 57% more customers per month and nearly 20% higher transaction amounts than dispensaries in unregulated markets. For licensed rec stores, profit margins are 17% higher than those of an unregulated MMJ dispensary. Here’s a closer look at how some key metrics for Cali- fornia’s unregulated dispensaries could change as they convert to the regulated market. The data reflect nation- wide averages: C alifornia D reamin' SNAPSHOT: DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MEDICAL AND RECREATIONAL MARKETS when Colorado launched its adult-use program. CEO Ryan Cook remembers a line of about 1,000 people by 8 a.m. the first day. It stayed like that for about week and a half, he said. “It was obviously a pretty exciting time,” Cook said. “We had to make sure people were still happy, that we could process them through the line while still giving them a real dispensary experience.” Keep Customers Happy The Clinic’s customers were kept happy with food and attempts at entertainment. For instance, a map was placed in the hallway of the shop so people could place pins marking where they were visiting from. “Everyone had driven for quite some ways to stand in line for hours to say that they purchased product on the first opportunity in the United States,” Cook said. Budtenders also hung out in the hallway handing out strain books and providing information to help ease the amount of questions. “You had to go above and beyond,” Cook noted. Cook said many of these customers hadn’t been to a dispensary before and they wanted to “at least have an oppor- tunity to explore and see if the product was going to work for them.” Customers came in with countless questions related to medical issues, either for themselves or family mem- bers. It took a few days of working through that before Cook and his crew could understand what the recreational customers really wanted, which was mostly flower of all kinds. He tried to take care of his budtend- ers by adding extra staff and making sure all their meals were provided, and the excitement of the first days helped propel everyone through.