Colorado marijuana shops want their share of Black Friday business, too

By Ricardo Baca, The Cannabist Staff

One of the joys of the marijuana beat is watching recreational cannabis businesses adapt to America’s many longstanding retail traditions.

Remember the marijuana food truck? Or the all-pot farmer’s market? The Halloween Candy Scare of 2014? The cannabis vending machine? And the infused Thanksgiving turkey recipe?

Colorado pot sales and taxes: Why did September’s recreational marijuana sales dip 7.3 percent from August?

Americans are exceptional at creating spectacle out of commerce. And yes, the eager-to-normalize marijuana biz is ready to behave (and benefit) like all of the others. At least one pot shop in Colorado will be marking Black Friday with legitimate “door-busting deals” that will bring many a toker to the lines that will inevitably stretch outside its doors on the weekend after Thanksgiving.

But when Denver recreational pot shop The Grass Station opens its doors for Black Friday sales at 8 a.m. Nov. 28-30, what will be their equivalent to Walmart’s dirt-cheap flat-screen TVs?

“It’ll definitely be the $50 ounces,” said Grass Station owner Ryan Fox. “Right now our cheapest ounce is $250, and some of those ounces in the $250-$325 range will be selling for $50 an ounce on that weekend.”

Know other Colorado pot shops marking Black Friday? Email their best deals to The Cannabist right here.

Celebrating Black Friday with loss-leader deals in the hopes of luring more regular customers is Fox’s way of saying that legal marijuana businesses are normal businesses.

“It’s our way of fitting in with more mainstream businesses and the businesses that are normal for Black Friday,” he said. “We also want to insert ourselves into the commerce involved from a retail perspective. It’s a great gift idea, and for some people it’s an outlet to deal with Black Friday, so maybe we’ll turn it into Green Friday someday.”

Like Walmart and its ilk, supplies will be limited — but Fox opened up to The Cannabist about what his store will be selling for how much — and in what quantities. And here’s the short list of his shop’s best deals, which will be available each morning of Nov. 28-30.

$1 joints and cones: They’ll sell 60 of these per day.

$5 grams of marijuana flower: They’ll sell 10 of these discounted grams per day.

$10 eighths of flower: They’ll sell eight of these per day.

See the rest of this shop’s Black Friday deals, including how many $50 ounces they’ll sell each morning

$50 ounces of flower: These ounces, normally priced at $250-$325, will sell for $50. They’ll sell 16 per day.

$2 10-milligram edibles: These single-serving edibles will be sold until they’re out, “and we’re well stocked on these,” said Fox, who didn’t anticipate selling out.

$15 150-milligram O.penVape vape pen cartridges: They’ll sell these small O.pen cartridges, normally priced at $30, until they’re sold out. “We will not be selling out of these cartridges,” said Fox. “We’re very well stocked.”

$20 grams of wax concentrates from TC Labs and Venom: Five grams per day will be sold.

$25 grams of shatter concentrates: Five grams per day will be sold.

What’s the difference between wax and shatter? Read our New Cannabis Lexicon, a modern glossary for marijuana rookies and experts alike

The Grass Station will also honor all of its competitors’ coupons from Nov. 17 through the end of the year.

Fox is planning on being very, very busy on the weekend of Black Friday. The shop did a similar promotion in 2013, when it was still a medical-only dispensary, and those lines of 50-60 people told Fox that the shopping holiday is applicable to the weed business as well.

“If we could we’d just stay open 24 hours all three days, but since we can’t …,” Fox joked. “Last year’s lines were as long as a few hours long … We’re ramping up on staff this year, and we’ll have more security, extra security and crowd control there.”

Advice to anyone heading out that weekend: Dress warm, prepare for a wait outdoors and bring a warm beverage. The Grass Station limits the number of people in its waiting room for security reasons, and the shop cannot distribute free coffee or donuts to waiting parties because of strict state laws, Fox said.

But once you’re inside, Fox promises to have something special — and cheap, he said.

“Overall inventory-wise, we’re stocked very heavily from now through Christmastime,” Fox said. “We think it’ll be a great opportunity for people to use recreational dispensaries to give gifts this year.”

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