Cannabis dispensaries see sales surge
Cannabis is flying off the shelves at local dispensaries as people prepare to stay at home for the next few weeks.
Half a dozen dispensaries reported seeing a surge in customers over the past week as they shifted their business operations to limit contact with customers.
“It’s kind of what’s going on in the grocery stores,” said Mariellen Jurkovich, owner of Humboldt Patient Resources. “People are stocking up.”
Deliveries have gone up and people have started buying cannabis in larger quantities, dispensary owners said.
“There was a big surge this past week,” said Simone Mellor, co-owner of Proper Wellness Center in Eureka.
“It’s not quite double” the usual sales, said Savannah Snow, coowner of The Humboldt County
Collective in Eureka. “I’d compare it to a normal Friday for us. Our Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday sales were quite a bit larger.”
Customers can only buy an ounce of cannabis a day at Eco-Cann in Eureka, but dispensary owner Jeff Poel said, “there are signs people are stocking up.”
“People are coming in and making $500 purchases, then coming back the next day and making another $500 purchase,” Poel said.
Most of those customers are returning ones, but Jurkovich said she’s getting some new customers looking for ways to get through this stressful time.
“People are coming in that have never used cannabis before,” Jurkovich said. “They hear CBD might alleviate stress.”
CBD is a compound in cannabis that doesn’t produce the intoxicating effects of other compounds found in cannabis, such as THC, but is associated with stress and pain relief.
Dispensaries are allowed to stay open through the county’s shelter in place order, which is set to last through April 9 with a possibility of extending it, because they are considered essential to the quality of life.
In order to stay open, dispensaries have to make some changes though. People can’t smell the cannabis before purchasing it anymore and many are no longer allowing people inside, having customers order online or outside the building instead.
Several dispensary owners also encouraged online orders or calling ahead of time.
Humboldt Patient Resource Center already took online orders and has a curbside pickup window, so Jurkovich said it wasn’t too different for her business. But the dispensary is still allowing customers inside, but only two at a time so they’re on opposite ends of the store, which “is way further than 6 feet apart,” Jurkovich said.
Poel said he thinks the governor doesn’t want to crush a fledgling legal industry “while it’s still in the crib,” but that COVID-19 is already disrupting his supply chain.
Some vendors have already shut down and “distributors are dropping like flies,” he said.
“We’re going to run out of stuff and we may be out of it for a very long time,” Poel said. “But we’re working as hard as we can.”
Other dispensary owners didn’t seem as concerned about the supply chain because they said a lot of their suppliers are local.
Snow said she’s making sure her vendors are following every health and safety precaution before accepting deliveries, particularly from the Bay Area.
“I’m refusing deliveries from the Bay Area unless they’re able to assure me and show me their policy where they have to be wearing gloves and masks,” Snow said. “I denied one because they weren’t wearing gloves.”
Being in the cannabis business for almost two decades, Jurkovich said she’s seen a lot of changes and stress and isn’t a “doomand-gloom kind of person.”
“My main concern has been my employees” since unemployment will only pay them 60% of their wages right now, Jurkovich said.
“They rely on this job,” Jurkovich said. ” … People are feeling that need to work because that’s how they can live.”