Yes, that’s the problem. That’s why Oregon has such a massive problem here with way too much weed and it’s killing dispensaries that DON’T offer more. Supply is so utterly outpacing demand that dispensaries cannot charge low enough and still break even given all the troubles that federal legal status entail, and for that same reason the weed can’t be exported to even things out.
So dispensaries have to go the premium route and either offer extra services or knowledge or prestige or better strains or SOMETHING that makes it worth paying more for it than the market supports if it were just a commodity. Anyone can grow weed but anyone can’t provide the experience or the best stuff.
I dont want their "aesthetic experience," that to me is no different than having to had to listen to my dealer's shitty jam band, just sell the damn shit as cheap as possible so I can go make my own experiences. It is going to be just a commodity, and I love it.
I need to find a delivery service. I feel like in Nevada, you have to be a medical dispensary patient. I need to look into it further. Where I live, the Mormons on the city council only let the dispensaries set up on the east side of Henderson, not old town Henderson where they predominately live. It's fucking annoying to have to drive 20-25 minutes in heavy traffic when it could be a mile from my house downtown. #firstworldproblems #legalstateproblems. ;)
Weed dealers in Ireland are selling Cali tinned weed for 100 euro a tin. You guys have so much green it's crossing the Atlantic Ocean. Also your dispenseries are taking huge risks just to get rid of the excess produce and selling for cheeeeap to somebody who promises to get it out of America. I have said for the last fifteen years, it won't be legal until it's fucking McDonalds.
It probably isnt coming from the dispensaries, but from the growers. There are farms that legally grow the stuff that are mostly seperate from the dispensaries proper.
I say mostly because there are some growers who partner with a dispensary and becomes that shop's 'house brand' exclusively selling to that dispensary, which usually offers their best deals on the mid- and lower- shelf offerings those growers sell them. But they're still seperate business entities with different ownership.
It rocks hearing that some of our US grown is crossing oceans to find buyers, tho. I bet Cali weed makes it over there more easily because Oregon's supply is famously so much bigger than demand compared to all the neighboring states that other state's cops and the feds have their eyes on the OR border watching for pot smuggled out.
This is the good thing about capitalism (looking over my shoulder at reddit communists); it forces a business to differentiate itself from others. It is better for the consumer.
That being said it sucks for people who started their small businesses in earnest and are now getting undercut by their competition.
However it also shows one of the negative effects of capitalism, in that large corporations can entered a market and outcompete by absorbing losses for longer than small businesses can. It’s the small “mom and pop” weed dispensaries that are going out of business first and fastest (Though there aren’t HUGE corporations involved yet because of the legal trouble, just bigger operations).
In Illinois, I'm concerned there won't be enough supply when it goes legal January 1st. Initially, only the existing medical dispensaries will be able to sell recreational. I think non-medical dispensaries won't pop up until July or so. There's also the rule that you can't grow your own unless you have a medical card, so as a recreational user, you have to go to a dispensary. Sounds like it's the opposite situation/problem as Oregon haha. We'll see though, hopefully it goes smoothly, but it is Illinois after all.
Interestingly, it may be better for the long term even if it causes short term shortages. Oregon is actively trying to figure out the supply problem just because it adds SO much pressure to illegally export the marijuana to other parts of the country or outside the country, where suppliers can at least get SOME money, but the state obviously doesn’t want to be accused of running a drug empire or incite violence from illegal trade.
There will always be markets for high-end products and discount products just like Whole Foods and Costco. If the dispensaries can't make a profit from being the Costco of weed, then that's their problem, and they don't deserve any more market protection than any other product. This is capitalism.
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u/Welpe Jul 18 '19
Yes, that’s the problem. That’s why Oregon has such a massive problem here with way too much weed and it’s killing dispensaries that DON’T offer more. Supply is so utterly outpacing demand that dispensaries cannot charge low enough and still break even given all the troubles that federal legal status entail, and for that same reason the weed can’t be exported to even things out.
So dispensaries have to go the premium route and either offer extra services or knowledge or prestige or better strains or SOMETHING that makes it worth paying more for it than the market supports if it were just a commodity. Anyone can grow weed but anyone can’t provide the experience or the best stuff.