As the coronavirus pandemic causes chaos in financial markets and the global economy and sends shoppers in search of toilet paper and hand sanitizer, cannabis shops and delivery services report that they are selling more pot than usual. That would not be a surprise to MKM Partners analyst Bill Kirk, who recently wrote that a proprietary survey showed that when people are alone or in small groups, they resoundingly prefer to consume cannabis instead of alcohol.
“The vice of choice when alone is cannabis. The vice of choice in large groups or with new people is alcohol,” Kirk wrote in a recent research note detailing a survey of 1,000 cannabis consumers and 863 alcohol users. “We believe any increased stay-at-home activity related to COVID-19 will accelerate the vice share shift away from alcohol toward cannabis.”
Dispensary owners said that business has been on an uptick for at least a week, and that consumers are spending more and opting to purchase larger amounts of weed than is typical.
Wallace said that Apothecarium’s order-ahead business in San Francisco rose to 44% of all transactions, up from 13% a week ago. Beginning about March 12, the shops began to see meaningful increases in sales, with a large spike Monday — 70% to 80% above the normal number of transactions, a 50% increase in the number of customers and total unit sales up 150% — as San Francisco announced its shelter-in-place order.
The increased purchasing in California was not confined to the Bay Area, where six counties told residents to stay home Monday. Jerred Kiloh, who runs a cannabis store called The Higher Path in the Los Angeles suburb of Sherman Oaks, said that many of his customers have echoed what Kirk wrote, telling him that they didn’t want to sit at home and drink alcohol by themselves but would consume cannabis products. Kiloh said sales have increased and the average amount spent by customers at his pot shop went up 50%, to roughly $90 per person.
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