Vancouver cannabis stores and growers reported their biggest April 20 sales weekend since recreational stores first opened in July 2014.
Each year, stores seem to get more traffic for the marijuana holiday, known as 420. This year, High Five Cannabis in Orchards reported close to $90,000 in sales. The Herbery, which has three stores across Vancouver, had a 20% increase in sales at all stores compared with 2018, and Greenhead Cannabis on St. John’s Boulevard reported a host of new customers and also the best sales day since it opened in May 2015.
“We did really well,” said Calista Crenshaw, owner of High Five Cannabis. “It was our biggest day in three years. I think part of that had to do with this 420 landing on a Saturday, but we were very busy.”
Stores across town pulled in extra staffing to meet the demand, and several had lines circling their buildings.
“We got a lot of new customers, and we had different vendors come in and set up in our parking lot over the day,” said Amy Graeff, managing director of Greenhead Cannabis. “We sold more product from Green Revolution and House of Cultivar than we’ve ever sold before. Overall we did a little better than we did the year prior. Each year we seem to do a little bit better.”
High Five used a take-a-number system to get through the initial sales rushes, and the store was packed all day, Crenshaw said.
One aspect that seems to be drawing new customers to her store is the availability of locally made CBD products in its glass shop, High Five Supply. Customers seem to be slowly getting over the stigma of cannabis through the growing popularity of CBD, Crenshaw said.
“Having CBD options has brought a whole new rash of customers to us,” Crenshaw said. “Customers get used to it, decide they like CBD and then some move on to cannabis.”
Jim Mullen, chief operating officer at the Herbery, said he thinks the growing popularity of CBD may be good for the cannabis industry, because it’s breaking down some of the stigma.
“The stigma is falling away, at least slightly I think, because of the uptick in interest in CBD,” Mullen said.
For the holiday, the Herbery also launched a new floor design at its Chkalov location featuring a large cannabis cigarette, called a blunt. It was very popular with the 420 crowd, Mullen said.
“People loved it,” Mullen said. “We want to encourage people to come in and pose with it, crouch down and pretend to smoke it or ride it and post their pictures to Instagram. It’s a lot of fun.”
Top sellers at the Herbery this year were products from three local growers – Going Green, Cedar Creek Cannabis and Fairwinds Manufacturing. Phat Panda, a Spokane grower, was also very popular, as were the Smokiez Edibles line, Mullen said.
“We had the best 420 sales at all three stores since we opened them,” Mullen said. “It was a fantastic 420, everybody was great. And our Chkalov location was actually the number one seller of Smokiez Edibles in the entire state of Washington.”
The Herbery chain more than doubled its normal Friday sales numbers for the Saturday holiday, he added.
High End Market Place downtown had its second best 420 ever, coming in about $8,000 short of its 2017 sales high for the holiday. The sales were about a 5% improvement over 2018 sales, said Gareth Kautz, co-owner of the store.
“We didn’t have any crazy increases in volume, but we were steady all day long,” Kautz said. “It didn’t die off until we closed, either.”
Top sellers at High End Market Place were Heavenly Buds, Sunshine Farms, Doghouse Cannabis and Smokiez Edibles, he added.
High End Market Place also recently became the first cannabis business to become a Certified Clark County Green Business. The certification assesses many business practices both for environmental and community impact including: energy/water usage, waste/recycling and community/employee engagement. To become certified, High End Market Place was required to meet a minimum of six assessment areas, and be committed to implement goals maintaining and improving upon the standards laid out through program.
Three goals High End Market Place is committed to accomplishing in 2019 include reducing paper usage by 30% and switching to post consumer recycled paper; joining forces with the local nonprofit, the Watershed Alliance; volunteering at three community events as well as continuing to partner with cannabis producers/processors who use environmentally safe products when it comes to growing/processing and packaging techniques.
Cedar Creek, an award-winning Clark County grower that was featured at The Herbery and other stores across the state, said it also did very well for the day. The past week was the grower’s best week ever, selling $93,000 worth of product, said Ann’ette Michaelson, co-owner of the company.
“We sold a lot of flower and vapes,” Michaelson said. “But we’re also really gearing up to add a lot of new products this year, which will also increase our orders.”
The company plans to launch new strains, a wax line and a line of edible products this year, she added.
Crenshaw said that while 420 is an insane and busy day at her shop, it’s also one of her favorite days of the year because it brings her entire staff together.
“It may be crazy but we never get our whole crew under one roof,” Crenshaw said. “It’s so fun to get the whole crew together. I had everybody in who works for us plus about five people who don’t anymore come and do cameos. The whole morning crew got off at the same time, and I gather there was some great celebrating.”
The Herbery recently launched a new floor design at its Chkalov location, and they are encouraging customers to pose with the new design and take photos. The Chkalov location was the number one seller of Smokiez Edibles in the entire state of Washington on April 20.
Courtesy of The Herbery
