Brick and mortar retail has struggled to keep up profitability in recent years. According to Time Magazine, in 2015, Black Friday sales fell one billion dollars from the previous year.
Many aspects of our lives are changing as we enter the digital age. The change is highly visible within the retail sphere. Gone are the days where consumers were constrained by physical store’s inventory and business hours. Consumers want to shop, compare, and make informed decisions. The pressure for the impulse brick and mortar buy is becoming obsolete.
However, there is one industry that can, at least temporarily, help fill the void left by traditional retailers. Currently, marijuana products can only be sold, in compliance with state law (not federal law), in person. Last week, on Canna Christmas (April 20th) alone, marijuana sales topped 37 million dollars across the United States. MMJ Freeway, a seed to sale tracking software, has provided these statistics.
The numbers represent a 30% increase over the previous year even as consumers spent an average of 20$ less per transaction. This is likely due to growing operations increasing and becoming more efficient.
Marijuana is enjoying its highest popularity since modern polling covered the issue. With 80% of Americans supporting medical marijuana, and 58% support legal recreational marijuana, we should expect to see great increases in sales. Tax revenues collected from 37 million in one day are substantial. More states unable to fully recover from the decade’s economic malaise, may want to turn to cannabis.
The number is only poised to grow as more states will adopt legal cannabis. Eventually, the black market should shrink. Besides the documented 37 million spent legally on cannabis, there are still a high number of illegal transactions across the United States. Rolling those sales into legal dispensaries will result in a tremendous uptick in revenue.
The increased canna businesses that are surely on the way will need space to operate. According to Business Insider, approximately 15% of all retail space will either fail or be converted into non-retail space within the next decade Can these new green businesses fill the vacant retail space we are sure to see in the near future? If they do, could 4/20 eventually replace Black Friday as the premiere retail holiday?
