Legal weed shops are notably behind schedule in New York, but delivery services could start as early as next week and they're expecting to do some brisk holiday business.
After the Office of Cannabis Management announced last week that it had issued its first 36 retail licenses as New York moves closer to becoming the largest legal weed market in the country, the sad fact is that precious few retail shops are set up.
Chris Alexander, executive director of New York's Office of Cannabis Management, told WNYC s Brian Lehrer Friday that they are hoping to get the ball rolling by giving retail non-storefronts the ability to begin delivery service as early as next week as a way to jumpstart adult-use cannabis sales.
Alexander said that operational details will be available this coming week because you are allowed to deliver your products pre-ordered and delivered with authorization to have a dispensary.
Sell It Before It Rots: As it is, tons of cannabis worth millions of dollars grown in upstate New York have been sitting in warehouses. If farmers don't get their crops into stores soon, their nearly billion-dollar revenue will start to rot.
Delivery Will Get The Ball Rolling.
The delivery option was a positive development, according to Dan Livingston, executive director of the Cannabis Association of New York.
There is a certain amount of excitement because we had the sense that delivery might not make that first cut, Livingston said. It is exciting to know that dispensaries are going to be able to run their own delivery because we know that that's where the market is, in New York City in particular. Open Secret: Weed Delivery In NYC Has Been Going On For A Long Time?
Weed delivery has been going on in the Big Apple for a long time. Many say delivery has been the heart of the city's booming legacy cannabis industry, from where the state's legal cannabis bureaucrats seem to be taking a lesson.
David Feder, an attorney who founded Weed Law, said that while New York s 150 licensees have been assigned specific counties for their retail operations, the delivery services will allow them to function anywhere in the city.
Licensees can be running two very significant and meaningful brand experiences that can cater to different audiences, because it's a whole universe that can be completely different from the retail experience a brand has, Feder said.