City shops not ready to go on Day 1 of legal marijuana
Closest retail location stocked up to open today is in Edenwold
Hey Regina, if you’re looking for legal cannabis, you will have to leave city limits.
It appears the closest legal cannabis retail location opening on Oct. 17 will be in the RM of Edenwold, roughly 15 kilometres from the city’s downtown.
Saskatchewan Liquor and Gaming Authority (SLGA) refused to confirm where the seven stores opening in the province are located, but three of the locations in Regina have confirmed they will not be opening Wednesday, and the other three do not appear to be retail-ready.
That leaves Eden as the closest shop opening for Regina residents. It is owned, in part, by Allen Kilback. From 10 a.m. Wednesday until 8 p.m., there will be legal weed for sale at his store.
“We’re super excited. I don’t know, we do feel we will be busy but, again, until the actual time comes I’m not sure. It has just been a lot pulling everything together. We’re anticipating our customers will show up,” Kilback said.
Given that Regina at one point had 12 illegally operating stores, often struggling to meet customer demand, there is likely significant opportunity for Eden to cash in on the lack of stores currently open within city limits.
“It’s an excellent opportunity and it speaks well to our team, how hard we worked to make sure we’d be open on the actual date,” said Kilback, who confidently proclaimed, “We’re fully stocked. We will not run out (Wednesday).”
Cannabis was brought in from four different licensed producers.
He said opening the store has been “such an experience” and involved long hours. Beyond simply preparing the store, Eden’s owners had to source a supply, ensure proper permits were in place to ship the cannabis, create a pointof-sale system and check all the boxes when it came to legislation around security.
“There were a million things to check off to make it happen,” said Kilback. “Hence why, and I say this with respect, why other people aren’t open, because it just takes a lot to make it happen.”
While he is anticipating customers will show up, Kilback admitted that “at first, I was concerned nobody would show up.”
But those concerns disappeared when more and more people began contacting him asking about when he would open and where Eden is located.
“I guess we’ll know (Wednesday),” he said.
As for the other six shops opening around Saskatchewan on Wednesday, their locations will be posted on SLGA’S website. Beyond the seven stores set to open on Oct. 17, SLGA has also authorized three more stores to begin receiving cannabis stock and, according to a statement from SLGA, “are in the final stages of the permitting process.”