Avoiding the race to the bottom.

Your Wallet, The Box and The Art of Selling

As a personal cannabis connoisseur I don't want to see CA Adult Use market become a immediate race to the bottom, here are some thoughts on selling premium Cannabis products and a reminder that "you get what you pay for" should still apply to our market.

We sell many expensive specialty products at MedMen that few people have ever seen before. Whether you are from traditional retail or well rooted in the cannabis industry I have seen many people fall into a few different traps. The first and most important thing to overcome is selling with YOUR wallet and spending habits in mind, you are great but don’t assume everyone to be like minded. Some people have large amounts of expendable income, others are celebrating a special event and you should certainly never let someone's appearance stop you from suggesting products. The next deadly trap for those of us familiar with this industry is becoming stuck in the mental box of the "Cannabis industry" as defined by the expectations of those who built it in it’s current form. We know the market is rapidly changing and so are the expectations, tastes and concerns of the people we serve. No longer can we make assumptions about “willingness to spend” on a product that might be based off of aged expectations from an increasingly smaller and smaller number of people

“But why would I ever buy that? And who needs it?” “Why is this so expensive?!”. I see these questions mishandled from time to time but the truth is simple - tell the truth. Do you know how I respond if someone asks me why they should buy a Thai stick for $200? I tell them they shouldn’t. I tell them about the quality of cannabis used to make it and the premium extracts used to seal it and explain how something like this shouldn’t even exist, it’s irresponsible to put that much high quality material into one product! I explain the time that goes into it and how hard the process is to replicate. Identify on what occasions others have purchased one “Yeah, I suggested it to a gentlemen as a gift for his friends wedding reception and he was able to share it with the entire party!”. You may not sell the product right then but you have now opened up this patient's horizon and altered their perspective to think about these types of products more akin to their liquid counterpart wine, which is also a high touch plant that has a wide range of consumers and product tiers.

All of this being said there should not be a movement away from access to quality cannabis for patients that can't afford top shelf cannabis products but if there is no range and the new market does not get educated on quality then the whole evolution of quality craft cannabis could be set back years and even 'top shelf' will be nothing more than tasteless salt based cannabis just like you see in cheap produce.