No slacking for pot shops as some strains sell out
A day after Canada made pot legalization history, hordes of shoppers continued to descend on Calgary cannabis stores Thursday, stripping the supply of some product lines.
Hundreds of people continued to queue outside two cannabis shops along Macleod Trail S. on Thursday, unable to find a few cannabis strains that sold out the day before.
At Nova Cannabis Willow Park, a strain dubbed Strawberry Ice discounted at $6.95 per gram as a “black market buster” sold out within two hours of the store’s Wednesday opening, said Dave Crapper, spokesman for parent company Alcanna.
“We’ve only had one supply issue so far,” said Crapper, adding as soon as that discount bud sold out, its lower price was slapped on another strain.
“They’re still lining up. People wanted to be part of an experience that’s historic and it looks like that is still in effect.”
He said it’s possible some product lines will be exhausted in the coming days, but there’ll always be alternatives for customers.
“People will be OK with experimenting with some other lines of product if there are shortages,” he said.
A few blocks to the north, staff at Four20 Premium Market at 9737 Macleod Trail S. were also still dealing with large crowds after several thousand showed up Wednesday, leaving the store’s operators stunned, said vice-president Ryan Kaye.
“There were 150 people lined up at midnight (Tuesday),” he said. “From all the expectations we thought it could be, it’s bigger than that.”
Of 60 product lines at the store, two of them were sold out, said Kaye, who was confident its stock would withstand total depletion until the next shipment from Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis arrives.
The longer-term supply situation could change, however, as more Calgary stores open, he said.
“Will there be two more stores, 20 more in the next little while?” asked Kaye.
And that rush on his store’s supply, he said, likely won’t slacken too much in the coming days.
“We’re leaving the crowd barricades up through the weekend when the out-of-towners show up, from where they don’t have stores,” said Kaye.
Industry players and observers have warned for months there’ll be shortages of cannabis in legalization’s opening months until producers have hit a higher capacity level.
Several cannabis strains were marked out of stock on the AGLC’s online purchase site Thursday.
But commission spokeswoman Kaleigh Miller said those are being replenished, though they ’re having to do some juggling for both their website and the private retailers they supply.
“For the time being, we’re having to be creative with stock, to make sure it’s spread around, but soon enough we’re going to be inundated with it,” she said.
In the first 15½ hours of its operation, the AGLC’s albertacannabis.org website recorded 8,300 sales worth $730,000 while being visited 84,000 times.
Private retailers shouldn’t worry the AGLC would hold back supply from them to feed their website sales if shortages did occur.
“It’s a unique situation where we’re a retailer and regulator, but we’re always going to keep retailers top of mind,” said Miller.
“We’re here to ensure access to all Albertans. It’s not to make a buck.”
Meanwhile, Canada Post workers could begin rotating strikes as early as Monday, which could mean delays in the delivery of cannabis products ordered on the AGLC website in the next day or two, she said.
The commission has arranged Purolator Courier to be its backup service.
A Mackie Research Capital Corp. study conducted this month states 19 per cent of Alberta adults are recreational marijuana consumers, or about 650,000 people.
A high-end annual marijuana consumption estimate for the province is 128,137 kilograms, said the report.