More of Ontarioâs cannabis retail stores will follow the lead of two outlets that are scaling back hours because they canât keep enough product stocked, one industry watcher says.
But Londonâs three bricks-and-mortar marijuana stores â all of them open seven days a week â say they have ample supply and donât plan to decrease operating hours.
The Hobo Recreational Cannabis Store in Ottawa and Canna Cabana in Hamilton are cutting back their hours â closing one day of the week and reducing hours on others â in response to lack of supply.
âIt wouldnât surprise me if the other stores started doing the same thing,â said Michael Armstrong, a professor at Brock Universityâs Goodman School of Business who studies Canadaâs cannabis industry.
Ontarioâs 21 cannabis stores â four of the initial 25 still havenât opened â were allowed to pre-order 100 kilograms of cannabis products prior to opening, with each outlet now allowed to buy 25 kilograms per week.
âEvery week that goes by, if theyâre selling more than 25 kilograms a week, then that initial stock that kind of gave them a head start will deplete,â Armstrong said.
Pot sells for $10 to $15 per gram at most legal stores.
A spokesperson for J. London on Richmond Street says the store hasnât had any problems with the limit imposed by the Ontario Cannabis Store (OCS), the provinceâs pot wholesaler.
âWeâre obviously not ordering everything every week,â David Craig said of the many products the downtown store stocks.
âWeâre ordering the things that are selling more quickly than others . . . Weâre staying consistent.â
A spokesperson for Central Cannabis on Wonderland Road says the store isnât making the maximum weekly order.
âWe want to make sure we sell out of the current inventory that we have,â Omar Campos said, adding he expects the 25-kilogram limit will be a problem when cannabis-infused edibles are introduced to the market in the fall.
Londonâs newest pot shop, Tweed on Wellington Road South, doesnât foresee any supply problems, said a spokesperson for Canopy, the cannabis company that struck a licensing agreement with the Ontario numbered company that owns the south-end operation.
âTheyâve been forecasting and planning for their entry into the Ontario cannabis space for a long time,â Shega Youngson, Canopyâs community engagement manager, said of the owner.
Canada has been plagued by a country-wide cannabis supply shortage since legalizing recreational pot on Oct. 17.
In response, Quebecâs government-run Société québécoise du cannabis stores cut back store hours to five days a week in the fall before returning to seven-day service last month.
With more than a 150 licensed pot producers now operating, many of them expanding rapidly to meet the supply demand, Armstrong and some industry insiders have predicted there will be enough cannabis to meet demand by the end of this year.