Feature of Month
Could Consumers See Temporary
Product Shortages at Local Dispensaries ?
Editorial by Clayton Stallings
At the time of writing this column , Missouri ’ s Adult Use Cannabis market has just survived its first month in its short operation history since its launch on February 3 , 2023 . I used the word “ Survived ” because , as many budtenders , operators , distributors , cultivators , managers , trimmers , or any position working in the cannabis industry would tell you , it has no doubt been one of the longest grueling months of their / our cannabis careers . No one could have really predicted the number of new adult users that would funnel through the doors of Missouri dispensaries in the first few days and weeks . Although industry leaders tried to forecast for the best preparation , the turnout far exceeded everyone ’ s expectations .
The state Department of Health and Senior Services ( DHSS ), on March 3 , reported Missouri ’ s nearly 200 marijuana dispensaries collectively generated $ 102.9M in sales for February . That is from February 3 through the 28 , which is only a partial month of adult-use sales ! Consider this , during the first month ( January 2020 ) of adult-use sales in Illinois , the industry generated just $ 39.2 million in a state with twice the population of Missouri .
While sales are better than expected for Missouri , unfortunately , this has led to long lines and product shortages for the consumers , and a much higher potential for employee burnout in a highly stressful work environment . Fortunately , consumers are buying and smoking or ingesting cannabis in volume , so ironically , the same thing that is causing the issue corrects it .
40 April 2023
I recently reached out to several industry leaders and workers to get some feedback about these issues and what they expect going forward through 2023 . The following are their responses .
DISPENSARY PREPARATION –
David Craig , VP of Marketing , Illicit Gardens and From The Earth Dispensaries
“ The moment we knew the Amendment was going to be on the midterm ballot , we created a long-term plan to get our facilities ready for the launch . That meant renovating all locations to add more checkout stations , improve customer and back-of-house flows , and streamline check-in processes . Each of our five locations has between 10 and 14 checkout stations , which allows us to shorten wait times dramatically . We ’ ve held multiple job fairs to fill open positions and have hired over 70 + staff members to our dispensary teams . During the Rec launch , we were fortunate enough to have assistance from our executive team and cultivations staff members , who also all stepped in to work long shifts .”
( Side Note : Clayton Stallings , Director of Marketing and Content Development , The EVOLUTION Magazine : “ I can ’ t tell you the number of CEOs , Directors , VPs , and other various leadership positions that were running cash registers and filling in for multiple staff positions through the madness of the first few weeks of adult use . That is true leadership . Salute to all of you .”
PRODUCT PREPARATION –
Bethanie White , Director of Marketing , Clovr
“ We have doubled and , in some places , tripled production batches , put in hundreds of extra man hours , and almost tripled our team count — and still can ’ t keep up with demand . As soon as something is ready for dispensaries to sell , it is gone within hours . With that many more bodies , processes have had to be reworked and new SOPs in place . We have put off adding any new items until after 420 . With the launch of rec , and then the proceeding holidays and events , we are just trying to make sure we get the products that patients and customers count on to stay on shelves consistently .”