I know it’s supposed to be summer-fun-in-the-sun at its finest, but August in Ontario was anything but business as usual for licensed cannabis shops. Did you notice your faves were out of stock? Did your neighbourhood store shut down for couple of days? Did you hear tales of cyber attacks at OCS?
…that’s how I spent my summer too.
I used to HATE when my dealer was out. As a regular consumer/chronic, you get into a routine, a regular cadence of buying weed. Hooking up with my dealer was a standard part of my week. In my earlier years it was grams at a time, several times a week; as I got older I started buying quantity for convenience.
When my dealer would disappear, or would complain that supply had run dry, it was a disaster. Going without weed wasn’t an option – calling around to see if a friend’s dealer could sort me out was a pain.
That’s something I love about licensed retail cannabis in Ontario – stores are convenient. Delivery is convenient. I don’t have to plan it out, I don’t have to wait on someone else to get around to seeing me. If I try a new store I don’t have to worry that my half quarter is actually 3g of shake with one baby nug – and if it is, I can complain and possibly even exchange it. I can visit any shop I want and know what I’m getting. They’ve got everything I want in one stop – from edibles and bud to pre-rolls and concentrates. I actually love browsing other stores’ rolling paper selections, that’s my guilty pleasure.
But this summer the supply ran dry.
There was a cyber attack that shut down the Ontario Cannabis Store – the only wholesale supplier of cannabis products for each, every and ALL licensed cannabis stores in Ontario. The attack kept stores from putting in replenishment orders. It stopped deliveries of new products to stores. There was no way for Ontario cannabis retailers to restock the shelves, and many sold out to the walls.
And while we Ontarian retailers were complaining about the cyber attack on August 5, it was like BC said “Hey Ontario, hold my joint.”
BC didn’t have any mere cyber attack. Oh no, we’d already bought that t-shirt.
On August 17 there was a full on strike by BC’s cannabis supplier/distributor – the BCLDB. It wasn’t even a strike about cannabis supply; retailers and consumers were collateral damage. BC retailers were shut off from receiving cannabis for about 2 weeks. Shelves went bare, stores closed, people were laid off and consumers were left to fend for themselves like the old days.
I learned 2 things about legal cannabis from this:
- It’s still a young industry. Contingency plans need to be made, alternate sources of supply need to be established. Shutting down the supply chain isn’t a good option. It should never be an option!
- The licensed cannabis market is strong and healthy. Where I once heard a lot of people say “My dealer charges me less!” and “My dealer has better shit!” I was now hearing “Well where am I going to get my pre-rolls?” and “But I love those edibles, nobody does them quite the same” and “I rely on that brand for X, Y, and Z!”
When we finally started getting shipments into cannabis retail stores after about 10 days without any replenishment of products, I had customers coming back in with relief and gratitude. We had commiserated about the lack of products and celebrated together as they returned.
If the sheer volume of cannabis sales and numbers didn’t already speak loudly enough (June 2022 cannabis data shows Ontario sales topped $152 MILLION!) the customers coming back, happy to find what they want sure did. As they say (they being one of my committed regulars) “Absence makes the heart grow fonder,” and he wasn’t wrong.
Things are back on track – both in BC and Ontario. But it’s no fun when your dealer says no deal. I didn’t see that coming, and I think there were a lot of people who had no other choice but the legacy market. I heard plenty of stories about trips to unlicensed suppliers – some of it nostalgic, some of it frustrating and much of it appreciative of the quality and convenience of the licensed market.
So, let’s not do that again.