For the DoorDash of pot, it’s all about the delivery
CEO of cannabis company talks about the convenience of bringing his products to your doorstep and the shifting marijuana climate
Just like ordering Thai food on Grubhub or DoorDash, cannabis delivery companies are making it easy for Californians to get marijuana, edibles and other cannabis products online and delivered to their doorstep.
David Benett is the founder and CEO of Bento Delivery, one of more than 300 companies licensed in California to deliver cannabis without operating a physical storefront. Bento Delivery is licensed in Oakland and serves the Bay Area.
Although many cities have sought to restrict cannabis delivery businesses within their borders, state regulators earlier this year ruled that licensed companies can deliver anywhere in California.
Customers can go to Bento.delivery to order online, or place an order by text message or a phone call. They must provide photo identification before ordering and present it again to the delivery driver.
Benett, a Bay Area native, lived and worked as an attorney in Japan for six years before returning to the United States in late 2015. Bento Delivery launched in May 2016.
Benett spoke with this news organization about his company and the challenges of running a cannabis business in 2019.
Responses have been edited for length and clarity.
Q
How did your company get its name?
A
My last name in Japanese is Beneto, and when I first started learning Japanese, some of my friends thought a cute nickname would be bento, which means lunchbox. And it kind of stuck. When I came back in the states to start my cannabis business, it seemed like a natural fit, the idea of a little to-go container lunch.
Q
Why did you decide to leave law to go into the cannabis business?
A
I’ve always been very interested in uncorking new markets. When 2015 came around, I thought, OK, this is really starting to pick up steam. The Amazonification of consumer behavior seemed to be an increasing trend. And I looked at the Bay Area, which has a pretty affluent populace, (as an) underserved area because of the lack of dispensaries. So I thought it presented a unique new market to try to reach.
Q
What makes delivery appealing to people instead of a storefront? A
The people that want to go to a dispensary … are people who want to browse and have a lot of questions, and then people who are real experienced tend to want to browse too. We find a lot of people, once we’ve established trust, and know … that the product is as we represent it, the convenience of having it brought to their home really wins the day.
Q
Is your business growing?
A
It’s increasing rapidly. I would say, currently, we are doing approximately 6,000 orders a month. Business has, in the last 12 months, more than doubled, and I think we’re on track to double again before the end of the year.
Q
What makes your company different from unlicensed, black market delivery services?
A
I think the main difference is that we operate in full compliance with California law … and that means all of our products are received from licensed manufacturers and growers. They are all safety tested, packaged in child-safe packaging, and they’re brought with unbelievable customer service. I think people value the fact we aren’t some flyby-night place. We’re a reliable, go-to source for trusted cannabis products.
Q
What kind of challenges do you face, legal or otherwise, with being a cannabis business in a shifting environment?
A
The tax scheme is quite burdensome for the cultivators and retailers who are trying to operate in competition with the black market … limited access to banking proves to be a challenge. And from an operations perspective, sourcing effectively is a challenge. A lot of the big cultivators have their own licensing issues. For example, we were working with a group in Calaveras County that was given a license and invested a lot of money, then they had their license revoked by the city. … Subsequently, the city has changed their tune, but in the interim, they went offline. You’ll be working with a distributor, and they will have a product and then there will be a new type of testing requirement the state will enforce, and maybe that product won’t be available anymore.
Q
What’s the public perception of your business? How do you think attitudes toward cannabis are changing?
A
I find here in the Bay Area, people are very open to (cannabis delivery) and are very interested.
When I first started in 2016 and I was meeting new people and they asked what I did, I told them I was an attorney. But now you have big companies making large investments (in cannabis). When the licenses were initially announced, delivery was thought to not be such a lucrative one ... (companies) wanted to place their money in cultivation or manufacturing. But the smart money has really identified retail as the place to be.