Tag: Featured Story

Social Dispensary’s giving program began with roughly $1,100. Since 2022, contributions tied to eligible sales have generated more than $143,000 for local nonprofits. Co-founder Josh Riggs explains how a dependable funding model keeps the program going through lean quarters, how he measures customer engagement without overstating the results, and why employees and brand partners remain part of the commitment.

Cannabis consolidation often is explained as the natural result of scale and efficiency. But a new international report asks whether regulation itself gives larger operators an advantage by making fixed compliance costs easier to absorb. An independent operator and a regulatory expert examine where essential safety standards end and one-size-fits-all regulatory burdens begin.

A healthy P&L doesn’t mean work is happening efficiently. Human resources executive Claire Lizear explains how unclear ownership, repeated work, and preventable turnover create costs leaders may overlook.

Legacy strain names do more than evoke nostalgia. Headset data and retail operators suggest names like Blue Dream, Sour Diesel, and OG Kush give consumers familiar reference points for navigating crowded menus, recalling previous experiences, and finding acceptable alternatives. That recognition can translate into measurable commercial value.

Cannabis retailers are discounting more than a quarter of shelf value, according to recent data. That may be doing more than squeezing margins: Repeated promotions can teach shoppers to treat the sale price as the real price. For brands and retailers, the challenge is making discounts work without training customers to wait for them.

Cannabis menus increasingly sound like dessert boards, and new sales data suggest the shift is more than playful branding. Flavor-forward names may be helping products speak a language mainstream consumers already understand while raising larger questions about merchandising, cannabis culture, and when a product name becomes a flavor claim.

Dispensaries have spent years competing on assortment, but a sprawling menu can shift the burden of choice onto the shopper. Retail orchestration takes curation a step further by dynamically deciding which products deserve attention based on shopper context, timing, inventory, margin, and other business priorities.

A Sixth Circuit ruling in a cultivation dispute erased a $31.8 million lower-court verdict and exposed a broader problem for cannabis companies: Federal courts may refuse to enforce contracts tied to federally illegal activity. Attorneys disagree about how broad the ruling is, but they agree operators should rethink forum selection, arbitration, and enforcement strategy.

Pumpkin spice mania has reached cannabis, but fall flavors are only part of the story. Brands and suppliers are using limited-edition flavors, colors, and collections to borrow a proven CPG tactic: create urgency, refresh crowded shelves, and experiment with new products without turning every launch into another permanent SKU.

The D.C. Circuit declined to suspend Attorney General Todd Blanche’s limited marijuana rescheduling order while several challenges to its legality proceed. The court also denied two state-licensed operators full intervenor status but allowed them to participate as amici.