It takes longer for edibles to kick in than it does for them to sell out.
The Ontario Cannabis Store launched its cannabis 2.0 sales Thursday morning, including edibles and vapes, and sold out of most of its stock within 30 minutes.
There were around 70 products available for the 3,000 customers waiting in the online retailer’s digital lobby at 8:59 a.m., OCS director of communications Daffyd Roderick said in an email.
At 9 a.m. the sale of infused chocolates, cookies, soft chews, mints, tea and vapes went live.
“In less than half an hour we were sold out of the soft chew category and other edible products were becoming very limited. We now have no edibles available, but still have reasonable stock of vape cartridges and batteries,” Roderick wrote.
Every edible is now sold out. https://t.co/Bx56nMWhGp
— Trina Fraser (@trinafraser) January 16, 2020
The OCS will not restock 2.0 products till Ontario retailers have been given an equal share of the new products, he added, which is the same policy it uses for dried flower.
Ontarians hoping to try topicals, concentrates and beverages will have to hold out just a little longer. These 2.0 products won’t be available till “later in the months ahead,” an OCS press release reads.
Retail stores struggle with lack of edible availability, sell out of stock
Products are flying off brick and mortar shelves too.
The Superette cannabis retail shop in Wellington, Ontario, sold out of its supply of edibles within 12 hours of stocking the products, Superette CEO Mimi Lam said.
Read more: Friendly neighbourhood Superette shortlisted for five Canadian Cannabis Awards
Read more: Ontario cannabis sheds lottery retail system, welcomes open market
The store managed to get its hands on around 1,000 units of edibles, which were then sold to around 200 customers, Lam estimates.
“The selection was not as deep and not as wide as I would have liked, and it was limited in terms of quantity,” Lam said.
Lower potency edibles sell just as well as high-potency products, which is dramatically different from dried flower sales, Superette CEO Mimi Lam said. Photo courtesy of Superette.
Still, customers were excited to try new edible products and gave Lam a lot of positive feedback. Most complaints she heard were around the amount of plastic packaging used, which Superette has no control over, she said.
Superette will be restocking edibles as they become available each week, which hopefully one day will mean enough supply to meet customer needs, she added.
Gummies were by far the most popular edible product and sold out first.
It’s interesting how different edible sales have been so far compared to dried flower sales, she said.
With dried flower customers are looking for high potency strains — usually the higher the better. But with edibles lower dose products are selling just as well as higher potency ones, Lam said.
That could mean customers are starting low to find a dose that works for them, or that edibles will sell to a completely different cannabis consumer than flower does, Lam added.
Cover: Olli’s (coming soon) infused edibles on display at the Vancouver 2020 Lift & Co. expo. Photo by Michelle Gamage.
michelle@mugglehead.com
@missmishelle
