Pot shop lottery winners race to be ready by April 1 deadline
25 owners licensed in Ontario to sell weed scramble under tight timeline to open doors
When Clint Seukeran spotted the email revealing he would be among the first Ontarians to get the chance to open a cannabis store, he thought the missive was spam.
Then his brother took a peek and pointed out it was real.
“My first reaction was shock, but then I realized we have a lot of work to do,” said Seukeran, who owns a coconut water distribution company, but has never dabbled in the cannabis business. “I knew I was a fish out of water.” He quickly set to work, choosing a Brampton plaza for his Ganjika House store, but with under three weeks until opening day, he said finishing construction and hiring staff were still on his to-do list.
Seukeran and 24 other winners of the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario’s Jan. 11 lottery were given fewer than three months to prepare cannabis stores to open April 1.
They say it’s been a tight timeline to learn how to navigate a new industry triggered by Canada’s Oct. 17 legalization of recreational cannabis. While Ontarians have been able to purchase recreational cannabis online since then and through the underground market for far longer, the lottery winners, who beat out 16,905 other entrants, will be the first to bring the substance to brickand-mortar stores in the province.
Their victories have required them to receive approvals, lease and renovate real estate, install surveillance systems, train staff and undergo inspections — all with the threat of losing part of the $50,000 in credit they had to put up through the lottery if they don’t open by April 1.
While Seukeran is “absolutely confident” he will open on time, one of his fellow winners was just as sure her shop wouldn’t be welcoming customers by that date.
Lisa Bigioni, a University of Toronto employee behind the Choom Cannabis shop slated for Niagara Falls, said she was later than others in seeking retail store authorization from the AGCO. That process kickstarts a mandatory public notice period, when the city and locals can raise concerns that the store owner must address before opening.
Seukeran, for example, faced community complaints about his store’s proximity to children. (Under AGCO rules, stores must be at least 150 metres away from schools. Seukeran said his store is about 800 metres away from the nearest one.)
Bigioni must wait until her public notice period ends on March 19 to hear what issues people might have raised about her location, but the AGCO’s website showed some Hamilton stores had ending dates far later than hers.
From the notice period end, Bigioni estimated it could take another10 days to wrap the process, giving her scant time to open.
“The first might not be in the cards for us,” she said. “The short timeline has pushed us to work harder and faster than we otherwise might have, but it has also put a lot of stress on the decisions that have to be made and how quickly we have to make them.”
Because Bigioni still has to place orders, train staff and finish construction, she will likely open in mid- or late April.
The delay will come with a price.
By not opening April 1, she would lose $12,500 out of the $50,000 she had to put up as a line of credit. Another $12,500 would be lost if her store is not open by April 15, and the bal- ance would be gone if she isn’t operating by the end of that month.
“It has been incredibly stressful,” Bigioni said. “However, I am now seeing a light at the end of the tunnel.”
The process, she said, has been a whirlwind since it began when she and her husband, a small retail business owner, both entered the lottery thinking they were unlikely to win.
Within 20 minutes of her victory, her phone was pinging non-stop with Facebook and LinkedIn messages from cannabis companies, lawyers and consultants seeking partnerships. She quickly recognized bringing a partner on board would be “incredibly advantageous” and settled on B.C.based cannabis company Choom, because of its pharmacist involvement and emphasis on education.
Like Bigioni, cannabis store owner and “entrepreneur at heart” Daniel Telio realized the challenges early and aligned himself with cannabis company Spiritleaf to open a shop not far from Kingston’s waterfront.
Telio had been quicker to get through some of the first tasks, meaning his public notice period ended long before Bigioni’s.
It’s one of the reasons why he’s “right on track” with construction and training, and already envisioning an opening-day line bigger “than if the Maple Leafs were in the Stanley Cup.”
But that doesn’t mean the process was a breeze. When asked if he wished he had more time, he said in an email: “Let’s just say I haven’t been getting my eight hours of sleep and I have definitely been eating my Wheaties.
“Fingers and toes crossed that we will be able to open as early as possible, and we have certainly done everything within our power to make that happen.”
It’s a feeling Heather Conlon shares.
The co-owner of a lock and safe company has been busy for months getting her Nova Cannabis store on Toronto’s Queen St. W. ready for April 1.
After winning the lottery, Conlon beelined for Edmonton-based cannabis company Alcanna Inc. because her business had worked with the company for nearly a decade. “Pretty much right away” they secured a location and got started on construction.
With under three weeks until April 1, she had just sent out job offers for store positions and said shelves were being installed.
“But I am confident we will be ready.”