Supreme Cannabis Company Inc. president John Fowler expects per capita spending in the province to at least double now that consumers will have physical access to legal pot, compared to buying online sight unseen for the past six months.
"In a market like Ontario, which is Canada's biggest market, these bricks-and-mortar stores are going to be critical to ensuring the success of legalization," Fowler told BNN Bloomberg.
https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/without-precedent-inside-the-scramble-to-open-ontario-pot-shops-on-time-1.1236853
Ontario's retail sales in the first several months have been mostly flat, according to Statistics Canada. In January, Ontario residents bought $8.9 million worth of cannabis, compared to $8.7 million in December. Over the first four months of legalization, Ontarians spent $38 million on legal cannabis, nearly 20 per cent of the country's total spend.
John Fowler (Courtesy of Supreme Cannabis Company Inc.) Fowler said these new stores will likely put a dent in the black market, but legal prices and the quality of the product will have to improve meaningfully to compete with illicit supply.
Fowler said Supreme Cannabis isn't planning to operate differently now that there's a new retail channel open in Ontario but intends on reaching out to the upcoming stores to educate the shops' "budtenders" on their various strains.
"The rubber hits the road when those stores open," he said.
But Fowler also puts the opening of these stores into a unique perspective, noting that "there's something really special about living in a country where whether we have enough cannabis retail stores is top line news."
"I open up my Twitter and see public officials complain that there's not enough pot stores in their ridings and I think that's fantastic to see as an entrepreneur," he said. )