Retail pot shops in Colorado and Washington are preparing to take advantage of their first holiday shopping season since the recreational marijuana market was launched earlier this year. Bloomberg News recently reported that many Denver dispensaries are hoping to capitalize on the insane nature of the post Thanksgiving shopper by offering them the stoner equivalent of Black Friday, which they have aptly deemed “Green Friday.”
One particular retail weed slinger, the Grass Station in Denver, plans to entice customers to visit their shop the day after Thanksgiving by offering $50 ounces, joints for a buck, and half priced vape-pen cartridges.
However, spreading the word about Green Friday sales events is not as easy as it is for traditional retail outlets that make their way selling electronics or even booze. In the case of Colorado, pot businesses have been forced to contend with a stranglehold of marketing regulations that prohibit them from placing sensible media buys, limiting their advertising reach.
It is for this reason that many pot shops have simply decided to sit out the holiday season and focus their efforts on the long term. “We haven’t spent much time thinking about the holidays,” said Mike Elliot, executive director of the Marijuana Industry Group, which represents hundreds of retail licenses. “We spend our time focusing on compliance.”
Industry experts remain uncertain if retail pot shops will enjoy the same, rabid enthusiasm for Green Friday as expected from that imbecilic society that feeds off large mobs, discounts and tryptophan hangovers during the blackened version. Yet, there is a distinct possibility the legal pot market will see an influx in sales over the holidays simply because giving the gift of weed is now well within the scope of the law.
“Christmas sales, day-after-Thanksgiving sales, your- family-is-in-town-and-you-need-something-to-get-you-through sales?” said Sam Kamin, a professor of law and marijuana industry analysts at the University of Denver. “None of that would surprise me now that the industry has come out into the open. I would expect to see the industry behaving like any others to the extent that it can.”
