Cannabis Companies Hiring to Meet Demand
Local cannabis businesses are seeing an unprecedented surge in sales as public health precautions to slow the spread of the coronavirus force workers to stay home. Cannabis businesses are allowed to continue operating across the state as officials deem them to be an “essential service.” The city of Sacramento confirmed on Thursday evening that it would allow all cannabis businesses to continue operations as they are “considered medical/health-related, and therefore essential services.” The policy includes all businesses types, from dispensaries and delivery to manufacturing and cultivation.
On Friday, Maisha Bahati, the CEO of local cannabis delivery business Crystal Nugs, said her business had 10 orders in the queue before it started the workday at 8:30 a.m.
“It’s been insane,” Bahati said. “I hate to say things have been great, but cannabis has been doing magnificent.”
She said she's planning to double her company's fleet of drivers to keep up with demand in the coming weeks and months, which would bring her total number of drivers to 10.
Crystal Nugs is getting not only a lot of new customers, but also receiving orders from first-time cannabis users, including elderly customers and women, Bahati said. A portion of those customers were also stockpiling, she said, as it was unclear earlier in the week whether cannabis businesses would be considered essential or non-essential businesses.
Supply chains were ready for the influx, Bahati said, as most distributors had already begun preparing their inventories for April 20, the unofficial cannabis holiday that usually accounts for an increase in sales and consumption.
“Everyone in cannabis is realizing this might be recession-proof,” Bahati said.