We are now starting to get some statistics on how the retail cannabis market is shaping up. It’s been the better part of a year now since it became legal but with the sluggish start to retail stores getting opened, the figures we were getting were not especially indicative of anything.
But now we have most of the stores that received licenses operating so we are much closer to seeing just how big a market this has turned out to be and whether or not those who invested billions in the industry will get the returns they were seeking.
In Saskatchewan, monthly sales were growing at a pace of roughly a million dollars a month earlier this year. February saw retail stores secure revenue of $4 million. Then it went up to $5 million, $6 million and $7 million in March, April and May.
But then June saw a pullback – to $6 million again. Only Saskatchewan and PEI saw the retraction while everywhere else was still growing with national sales now approaching $100 million a month. Interestingly, with only three percent of the population and more than seven percent of national sales we have been buying about twice our share on a per capita basis.
