Blog
May 12, 2020

Daily updates on the Coronavirus and its effects on cannabis markets

Throughout each day, our staff will post updates on the Coronavirus and its effects on the cannabis industry in all the markets we cover.
Written by
Liz Connors
Published on
May 12, 2020
Vapor pen icon
Interested in the vapor pen market? Read our comprehensive 2023 report. Get the low-down on which brands and form factors are gaining the most market share as well as demographics about the consumers doing the most purchasing.

As COVID-19 continues to spread across the world, affecting businesses along the way, we are all watching for information on how this pandemic will impact our organizations.

At Headset our mission is to help cannabis operators succeed through data, and we are in a unique position to share as much information as possible to all of the frontline operators in our industry as soon as we uncover it on a daily basis. Please be well and stay safe - the entire Headset staff.

May 12, 2020 11:00am

Psych! We're nerding out on all this data and couldn't wait to share our latest findings.

For example, above shows the percentage of sales each weekday made up in each week. Excluding for weeks that contain holidays we see that sales are generally quite predictable. In normal weeks we see that Fridays generally make up between 19.8% and 18.5% of the week's sales.  Even weeks that contain holidays are predictable when looking at trends from prior years. With the Friday after Thanksgiving (Black Friday) seeing sales spikes and Christmas day seeing much slower sales.


Stepping into March we found trends to be highly unpredictable, with the weeks beginning March 16 and March 23 being particularly unusual as customers rushed to stores to make purchases when the stay-in-residence orders began taking place. The last week of March (week starting March 30) saw a slightly more normal pattern beginning our move away from panicked buying and into a new normal trends.

April brings about a new normal (excluding the week that starts on 4/20). Click on that week in the legend field to remove it from the visualization and you will see we have started to return to a more normal space. However, this trend deviates markedly from pre-Covid. Looking at these trends (and removing the week of 4/20) we now see that Fridays saw a 6.2% decline in their share of sales (making up on average only about 17.7% of sales compared to 18.9% pre Covid). Saturdays now see 5% less of the week's sales (down from 16.3% pre-covid to 15.5% in April and May). Note the spike on Wednesday the week of 4/13. This was 4/15, the day the US began issuing stimulus checks. These stimulus checks lead to an increasing in spending on Wednesday of that week. The trend did not persist through to the following weeks.

May 5, 2020 11:00am

Over the past seven weeks, we've kept you up to date with the latest market data and intelligence as the industry endures the challenges of COVID-19. We're proud to look through this piece and see how many insights we were able to provide, in real-time. We're pivoting these updates to another location - please keep track ofthe ever-changing landscape with weekly updates in our new report on COVID-19 impacts. You can find it here, expect to see robust updates on the prior week throughout the rest of May.

April 30, 2020 2:00pm

Today, we will be reviewing cannabis sales by generation in the state of Washington, focusing specifically on Gen Z customers. Stepping back for a moment, if we look at sales share by generation during the COVID crisis, we see that Millennials make up between 53% - 55% of total cannabis sales in WA on average, making them the highest spending generation. Since the week of March 16th, we see the sales share for Millennials has remained more or less flat while sales shares from Gen X, Baby Boomers, and the Silent Generation customers have declined slightly. The only group with a noticeable sales share increase has been Gen Z, growing by an average of 3.66% WoW over the trailing five weeks. This growth begs the question, if Gen Z customers are growing their share of sales, what are they buying?

It is no surprise to see that the vast majority of spend from Gen Z customers in WA goes to inhalables such as Flower, Vapor Pens, Concentrates, and Pre-Rolls. While the aforementioned categories have remained flat in terms of sales share growth, we do see that the advent of COVID has encouraged Gen Z customers to break out of their typical inhalable categories and into non-inhalables, such as Beverages, Tinctures, and Topicals. For example, over the past five weeks WoW Beverage sales share growth came in at 13.9%.

Covid-19 cannabis sales share by generation
Covid-19 cannabis sales share by generation
Covid-19 Generation Z cannabis category sales share
Covid-19 Generation Z cannabis category sales share

April 27, 2020 10:30am

Today's question of the day... "Are we back to normal yet?" Specifically, are consumers shopping predictably and returning to their normal patterns?  The answer is... No.  Looking at sales trends across states we see the typical predictable pattern of sales rising throughout the week cresting on Fridays has not returned to normal. Even after 4/20 sales we see that shoppers continue to shift their sales into weekdays, with each week demonstrating a unique pattern that is more closely associated with news patterns about stay-in-residence orders.

Covid-19 and % change from prior day's cannabis sales
Covid-19 and % change from prior day's cannabis sales

April 24, 2020 1:30pm

In the week starting on 3/16, when the Covid-19 virus began to be a concern for consumers we see that Pre-Roll sales declined, while sales of all other cannabis products increased.  This decline in sales was not unilateral across all Pre-Roll package sizes. Single Joint Pre-Rolls {which are half grams or smaller} were actually up by 1.5% and multi-pack Pre-Rolls were up by 1.0%. The decline in sales of Pre-Rolls was driven by a 3.2% decline in sales of Single Joint Pre-Rolls in packages larger than a half gram.  Larger joints (those above half gram) are often a product that are consumed socially with multiple people sharing a joint. These products, saw a decline in sales when consumers began to worry about the transmission the Covid-19 virus. However, sales of joints that were sized for personal consumption were not as impacted.

In the most recent closed week (starting on 4/13) we see Pre-Roll sales recovered (though they were not growing as quickly as non-Pre-Roll sales) as consumers went to stores to purchase products in anticipation of 4/20.  During that week we see that sales of Single Joint Pre-Rolls in packages larger than half a gram were up by over 10%, likely, as consumers went to purchase items for consumption on 4/20.  In addition, sales of multi-pack Pre-Rolls were up only 4%. Thus, consumers were likely less concerned with stocking up for the future and more interested in purchasing a product for their 4/20 celebrations.

Cannabis sales growth from the week prior during Covid-19
Cannabis sales growth from the week prior during Covid-19

April 20, 2020 11:00am

Happy 420 from the entire Headset team! For today's update, we will begin looking at how 4/20 was affected by the change in consumer trends due to Covid-19.  Previously, we predicted that, unlike prior years, 4/20 would not see the remarkable sales spikes (usually at about 100% growth of a typical day). Rather, we predicted that sales throughout the week leading up to 4/20 would see increases as consumers planned ahead to avoid lines and honor social distancing guidance. While we do not yet have data for 4/20 sales, we do see that the trends are playing out as expected.

The graph below examines the state of WA. Here we see that sales in the 6 days leading up to 4/20 (4/14 to 4/19) were elevated compared to 2019.  In fact, sales during those days amounted to about $23.3M - up 32% from the same days last year ($17.6M).  For reference, in January we saw 2020 sales come in 15% higher than 2019. Thus, this 32% increase cannot be entirely attributed to year over year growth and rather is a shift in sales, likely as consumers pulled their 4/20 spend earlier in the month.  Looking at the current sales trends we believe that the week of 4/14-4/20 this year will see a similar total sales increase to last year, in fact ringing in just slightly over the normal 15% YOY growth we saw in January.

Forecasted daily sales of adult use cannabis in Washington
Forecasted daily sales of adult use cannabis in Washington
Forecasted daily sales of adult use cannabis in Washington

April 17, 2020 1:00pm

Today, we look at sales over the most recent few days. We wanted to see the impact of two big events, the first being the issuance of stimulus checks in the US and the second being the start of 4/20 sales in both the US and Canada. Comparing sales each day this week to sales in the prior week we find that there was in fact increased sales on 4/15 (the day stimulus checks began to hit American wallets). We expected sales to begin to grow toward the end of the week as consumers began to make their 4/20 purchases. To better extrapolate if the sales increases were due to the stimulus checks or the 4/20 effect we have shown sales growth in AB Canada (no stimulus checks were issued on 4/15).  In AB we see sales in fact slightly elevated but not nearly in the same manner as in the US states leading us to conclude that a least a portion of the sales surge on 4/15 was due to stimulus check spending.

% Change in cannabis sales over same day last week during Covid-19 in April
% Change in cannabis sales over same day last week during Covid-19 in April

April 16, 2020 1:00pm

Today we will be reviewing how consumer purchases of premium eighths (3.5 grams of Flower) has remained constant despite the economic impact of COVID-19 on the cannabis consumer's wallet. One could hypothesize that consumers would begin shifting their eighth purchases to lower priced items given the possibility of a smaller budget, but this has yet to occur. We analyzed purchases of eighths in both Washington and California over the trailing 30 day, comparing Mondays in the graphics below, and found that the sales share of premium priced eighths (>$25 in WA and >$35 in CA) remained steady at roughly 30% and 45% of total eighth sales. Although there has not been a clear shift in consumer spending yet, this could change shortly as government issued stimulus checks make there way into consumer bank accounts and economic conditions continue to fluctuate.

Cannabis sales share in California and Washington for eighths of flower by price
Cannabis sales share in California and Washington for eighths of flower by price

April 14, 2020 11:00am

Today we're looking at Canada. A special nuance to the market is that cannabis 2.0 products were hitting store shelves right around the time consumers were being put into stay-at-home orders. It appears these products are doing quite well with market share in Canada (looking at AB, BC, and ON combined) increasing quickly in these new product categories:

Cannabis category sales market share in Canada
Cannabis category sales market share in Canada

April 10, 2020 1:45pm

Today we are looking at sales pattern shifts as a result of the shift in purchase patterns of consumers during the Covid crisis. This data compares sales in (WA, NV, CO, CA, and OR) markets.  We examine the sales from the week of 2/10/20-2/16/20 to the sales from the week of 3/30/20 to 4/6/20.

What we found is that sales have shifted slightly away from evenings and weekends during this time. This is likely due to consumers no longer stopping into retailers on their way home from work, but rather shopping at times that are most convenient and offer the safest way to shop, keeping social distancing in mind.  Further, as the industry shifts to include more online click-to-collect and delivery we can expect sales to shift away from weekends and evenings.

This chart is an index of sales for the week of 3/30/20 to 4/6/20 compared to the week of 2/10/20-2/16/20. Numbers above 100 represent times where sales are more common than before (meaning we see more sales volumes during these times) and numbers below 100 represent times where sales are less common than before (meaning we see less sales volumes during these times).

We see that Tuesday and Wednesday mornings are seeing significantly increased sales volumes and evenings, especially Friday evenings, are seeing significantly less volume.

As retailers look to staff their stores, and producers look to deliver products to be on shelves, these historic sales pattern shifts should be kept in mind so that cannabis operators can continue to serve customers during this time of unique demand patterns.

It is worth noting that Wednesday, the week of 3/30/31 included 4/1 - the first day of April 2020. We believe this sales spike is likely the first sign that 4/20 is alive and well, despite the uncertain times we find ourselves in.

Index-of-cannabis-sales-for-the-week-3302020-462020-compared-Covid-19.jpg
Index-of-cannabis-sales-for-the-week-3302020-462020-compared-Covid-19

April 9, 2020 1:15pm

Here we compare the market share on the 1st-7th of Feb to that of Apr. Market share for these products increased from about 10% in early Feb to around 12% today. This increase has likely been driven by decreased consumption of inhalable products due to negative media attention on the effect of smoking and vaping on lung health and the current threat of coronavirus respiratory infections.

Cannabis Beverage and Edible % of sales in Washington state
Cannabis Beverage and Edible % of sales in Washington state

April 8, 2020 2:15pm

Today for our Covid-19 analysis, we compare two of the OG rec markets - CO and WA. These mature markets have seen pretty different sales trends since the start of the Covid-19 crisis last March. We find that while both initially saw dramatic sales spikes in mid-March, we see that WA sales are currently slightly above average daily levels and CO sales are just below. This could be due to the collapse of tourism as CO is a common vacation destination this time of year for Spring Break ski trips.

Average store change in cannabis sales during Covid-19
Average store change in cannabis sales during Covid-19

In the above chart, we see average store change in sales (compared to the average sales on the same weekday in Jan/Feb 2020). The shaded area displays the 95% confidence interval of that average.

April 6, 2020 1:15pm

Today, we decided to see if the Covid outbreak had changed category preferences in AB. We know in the US there has been a slight shift away from Pre-Rolls. This trend is present in Canada as well with market share of Pre-Rolls falling from 22% in early March to 17% today. It looks like much of this shift was captured by the Flower category which saw a rising market share throughout the end of last month - increasing from 53% at the beginning of March to 57% at the end of March/beginning of April.

% of total cannabis sales in Alberta Canada effected by Covid-19
% of total cannabis sales in Alberta Canada effected by Covid-19

April 3, 2020 11:15am

Happy Friday! Below are two charts. The charts show the % of prior day sales {example: if you see 110 this means that sales on that day were 10% higher than the day prior}. The first shows the daily % of prior day sales in Jan and Feb 2020. The trend you see is the very predictable and regular trend of sales growing on Fridays (up 25%-40% over Thursday), sales slightly waning through the weekend (with Saturdays about 5%-15% smaller than a Friday), and sales gently climbing Mondays-Thursdays.

% of prior day cannabis sales as it relates to Covid-19
% of prior day cannabis sales as it relates to Covid-19

Marvel at its predictable beauty! Humans and AI algorithms alike rejoice in the predictable trends! Now.... let's look at what happens when we add in the most recent month....

Seasonal patterns in cannabis sales durning Covid-19
Seasonal patterns in cannabis sales durning Covid-19

What does this mean for you during this time? It means that things are changing rapidly. Staffing your stores and stocking your products following previous weekday or seasonal patterns might leave you overstaffed or shorthanded!

"I cannot stress enough how historic this trend pattern change is, and that March and April (at a minimum) of 2020 will forever be a footnote in the data, requiring forecasters for YEARS to come to exclude and adjust this data as they attempt to decipher trends," Liz Connors, Headset's Director of Analytics.

April 2, 2020 9:30am

Today we're revisiting the category-level response to COVID-19 in our US Markets.


Here we see that sales of product categories have responded very differently to the COVID-19 crisis. In this analysis we compare the average daily sales of each product category before the COVID-19 sales bump began (January 1st through March 6th) to the COVID-19 crisis time period (March 7th through March 31st).

Across US adult use cannabis markets, the average daily sales at large increased by 10%. This provides a good baseline to compare each category against. Edibles, Beverages, and Flower were the only categories to have average daily sales increases that beat the market at large, with Edibles being the clear front runner at 28% growth.

At the other end of the chart, Pre-Rolls and Topicals completely missed out on the COVID stock-up sales surge, both having 13% decreases in average daily sales volume between the two time periods. This implies that customers were not focusing on these product types when thinking about stocking up ahead of a potential period of quarantine.

April 1, 2020 12:30pm

We're highlighting what we're seeing in Canada for today's update. Let's get into it! We see that private retailers in AB, BC, and ON saw similar sales patterns to their American counterparts during the Covid-19 run on retail stores.

Median % Increase in Cannabis Sales Compared to Avg. Daily Sales in January and February
Median % Increase in Cannabis Sales Compared to Avg. Daily Sales in January and February

This analysis compares the median store sales growth in comparison to the average daily sales (of the same weekday) in Jan/Feb 2020.  We see that Monday March 16 was a pretty outstanding day with the median sales growth ringing in at 60% more than an average day at the beginning of the year.  The most recent week (March 20-March 26) we see that sales remain elevated compared to normal levels but only slightly so with Thursday March 26 seeing a dip in sales below average for this time of year.

March 31, 2020 11:45am

We're focusing on Oregon today! We are looking at the median daily transaction size in OR retailers in 2020.  We see that from March 16 to March 22, the median transaction was was over $40 every day (compared to closer to $30 in Jan/Feb). This represented a 35% increase in the typical transaction size. The shaded area displays the 25th to the 75th percentile - meaning more than half of stores saw average transaction sizes in that range.

Average Cannabis Basket in Oregon
Average Cannabis Basket in Oregon

Further, the visualization illustrates that transaction sizes are larger on weekends; however, starting in mid-March we saw weekday transactions as large (or even larger) than weekends.  

March 30, 2020 1:30pm

Today we look at Adult Use sales in WA {Note: In WA Adult Use cannabis shops are open and operating with social distancing in place}. Demand remained high throughout last week, though softened over the weekend with sales at about 10% below normal levels.

Change in cannabis sales for median stores in Washington state
Change in cannabis sales for median stores in Washington state

March 27, 2020 11:30am

We've got a little bit of CA data for you today. Looking at stores that remained open in California we see that sales volumes have begun to return to normal levels in the most recent days.  Last week retailers saw sales increases of nearly 100% (meaning sales were 2x a normal weekday). During this most recent week, sales volumes have returned to normal seasonal levels with most retailers seeing sales that were, on average, similar to sales levels pre-crisis. {Note: This data compares the median change in sales each day in March to the average daily sales on the same weekdays in Jan/Feb 2020. This data only considers stores that have remained open.}

Median change in cannabis sales each day in March to the average daily sales on the same weekdays in January to February 2020
Median change in cannabis sales each day in March to the average daily sales on the same weekdays in January to February 2020

The black line in this graph is a 0% change in sales compared to average daily sales (for that same weekday) in Jan/Feb 2020. In this graph 0% would mean sales growth was flat so stores were selling similar to their pre-crisis levels.

This next graph looks at the changes in Edibles, Pre-Roll, and whole store for the median store in CA (same assumptions as above).

Changes in Cannabis Edibles, Pre-Roll, and whole store for the median store in California
Changes in Cannabis Edibles, Pre-Roll, and whole store for the median store in California


Edibles are seeing significantly more growth and a much softer fall than our beloved Pre-Rolls. With most states prohibiting social gatherings there just aren't nearly as many joints being passed around. However, having an Edible and watching Netflix is a pretty great way to socially distance.

March 26, 2020 12:00pm

In Colorado on March 23rd, we saw increased stocking up as consumers were faced with the potential closure of Adult-Use stores in the city of Denver (Source). This led to not just increases in sales but also interesting purchase behavior. For example, it appears that many consumers picked up beverages as an impulse buy when in stores and fewer people selected pre-roll products.  Pre-crisis we saw that 20% of baskets contained a pre-roll item in Colorado; but on March 23 only 15% of baskets contained a Pre-Roll.

Colorado cannabis pre-roll basket analysis
Colorado cannabis pre-roll basket analysis



March 25, 2020 11:35am

Interested to see what those longs lines at Denver cannabis shops on Monday caused? (other than a reversal of the mayor's decision to close rec cannabis stores?)

General fears have been driving stock-up behaviors throughout the month of March in all states. From March 16 to March 22 we saw the average store in Colorado receiving about 40% higher sales volumes than an average week. The potential closure of recreational cannabis stores in Denver on Monday led to surges in purchases. On March 23rd the median store saw a 60% increase in sales compared to an average Monday. This was especially apparent in Denver were increased to an average of 120% their normal levels (so the median store saw more than double their normal sales volume) on Monday.

Headset Covid-19 Denver Colorado percentage increase in-cannabis sales for open stores
Headset Covid-19 Denver Colorado percentage increase in-cannabis sales for open stores


March 25, 2020 8:12am

Today we look at the state mandated stay-in-residence orders on adult use cannabis retailers.

Here is an interactive graph you can use; hover over each state/province to learn more:

On top of this interactive graph, we've also compiled a list of resources to help you track and reference shown information above. We've included the official government announcement as well as market specific news coverage.


March 24, 2020 11:10am

Today we again look at inventory levels. Over the weekend we saw inventory levels decline in most states as consumers continued to make purchases are higher rates than is normal. This lead to a decrease in the average weeks of inventory a cannabis retailer has on hand. For example, an average retailer in AB now has enough inventory for about 4.5 weeks of demand (compared to 5.2 pre-covid) a decrease of 17%.

Average weeks of cannabis inventory carry by market
Average weeks of cannabis inventory carry by market


In NV inventory levels are increasing, this is caused almost entirely by a significant decrease in demand as many major retailers are seeing lesser foot traffic due to fewer tourists in Clark County (home to Las Vegas). In Dec of 2019 Clark County made up about 80% of Nevada's Cannabis retail excise tax.

March 23, 2020 9:23am

Over the latter half of last week and into the weekend we saw the winds shift dramatically in some states.  The stock-up behaviors demonstrated early last week cooled off by the weekend in both CA and NV.

However, sales growth remained strong in other states.  We saw the median same store sales index over at about 120 in CO and WA {meaning the median store in WA and CO saw about 20% higher sales volumes through the weekend than an average weekend in February}.

However, in CA and NV where shelter-in-place (for CA) and non-existent tourism traffic (for NV) results in dramatic declines in sales.  Looking at the graph below, where the black line at 1.0 represents and average sales day, we see that sales in CO and WA are still above average with CA slightly below and NV dramatically below The black line represents the 'average' on the chart below.

Index of daily cannabis sales compared to February average
Index of daily cannabis sales compared to February average

March 20, 2020 12:04pm

In Adult Use cannabis stores we see that inventory levels have started to decline. For example, in CA pre-covid crisis we found average inventory carry levels to be about 4.7 weeks {meaning the average retailer had about 4.7 weeks of inventory on hand}.

Average weeks of cannabis inventory carry by category in California
Average weeks of cannabis inventory carry by category in California

Examining inventory levels yesterday {3/19/20} we found this had decreased to only about 3.3 weeks supply (based on current demand). This was most concerning for Capsules which saw the average inventory carry decline from 9 weeks to 5. Some products, like Topicals, have been left out of the stock-up purchasing and actually seen their inventory levels climb, up to 14 weeks supply, compared to 13 pre-crisis.

Average weeks of cannabis inventory carry by market
Average weeks of cannabis inventory carry by market



In NV, a state that sees much of its volume from tourists, we find that inventory levels actually have climbed. Up from about 6.7 weeks of inventory (on average) to over 9 today.

In Canada (looking at private retail in BC and AB) we find that inventory levels are also rapidly declining with average inventory coverage at about 5.8 weeks pre-crisis and 3.1 today. With hard to find Edibles and Beverages being the most likely to see inventory depletions.

For pre-crisis we looked at inventory levels on 1/30/20 and compared sales volumes in the immediate week prior to inventory levels on 3/19/20 compared to sales volumes in the trailing 7 days.


March 20, 2020 8:36am

Through our previous analysis we have shown that last weekend (Friday 3/13/2020 through Sunday 3/15/2020) recreational cannabis sales greatly increased in comparison to the previous four weekends - likely due consumers wanting to ‘stock up’ before a period of social distancing / self quarantine. This analysis dives deeper into the demographics of that sale increase. Who was making the effort to stock up and who wasn’t?

Methodology Note: all analyses compare the weekend of 3/13 -3/15 to an average of the four previous weekends (including Fridays).

While both genders saw significant increases in cannabis spending, females had more than double the sales growth of males. As we have previously reported, males make up roughly two thirds of cannabis spending on any given day. Therefore, it could be speculated that females were less likely to have cannabis products on hand and more likely to feel a sense of urgency to stock up.

Cannabis Sales Growth by Gender

Covid-19 cannabis sales growth by gender
Covid-19 cannabis sales growth by gender



Cannabis Sales Growth by Generation

  • All generations younger than Baby Boomers saw big increases in sales, while Baby Boomers actually had slightly lower sales than the four previous weekends. The youngest generation of legal purchasing age - Generation Z had the largest increase in sales over the trailing four weekends at 42.1%. This sends a clear message about which generations did and did not prioritize cannabis ahead of a period of potential scarcity.
  • Silent Generation is not listed because there was no significant change in this age group.
Covid-19 cannabis sales increase by generation
Covid-19 cannabis sales increase by generation


Market Share by Generation - 2019 vs COVID Stock Up Weekend

  • In terms of market share between the generations some similar trends emerge. Baby Boomers were only generation with a decrease in market share. Dropping from 19% in all of 2019 to only 11% on 3/13 through 3/15.
  • Generation Z maintained at 4% for both time periods and the Silent Generation also held steady at 1% of sales.
  • Both Millennials and members of Generation X had significant increases in market share, with Millennials moving from 48% in 2019 to 54% of sales on the COVID sales surge weekend and Gen X increasing from 28% to 30% of sales.
Cannabis market share by generation 2019 vs covid-19 stock-up weekend
Cannabis market share by generation 2019 vs covid-19 stock-up weekend



Average Basket Size Increase by Generation

  • Here we can see that across all generations the size of baskets increased significantly versus the four trailing weekends. As we saw on the previous graph, Generation Z had the biggest increase in total sales and here we can see that was driven by a nearly identical increase in basket size (+40.3%).
  • Interestingly, even though their total sales decreased slightly, Baby Boomers’ average basket size increased by more than 12%. This indicates that that decrease in sales was caused by members of this age group not prioritizing cannabis during this “urgent” shopping period and not visiting dispensaries - not that they weren’t ready to stock up when they chose to make the trip.
  • Silent Generation is not listed because there was no significant change in this age group.
Covid-19 average cannabis basket size by generation
Covid-19 average cannabis basket size by generation


March 19, 2020 9:16am

Adult Use cannabis sales in Canada (British Columbia and Alberta) mirror trends in the US. Yesterday's sales reflect a waning market share for Pre-Rolls likely as people do not want to be sharing joints. While in Canada there is a very limited amount of Edibles and Beverages we see that Oils are picking up market share. Growing from 8% of the market about a month ago to 10% today.

British Columbia and Alberta adult use cannabis sales market share
British Columbia and Alberta adult use cannabis sales market share

March 19, 2020 8:30am

How has covid-19 changed cannabis product preferences?
How has covid-19 changed cannabis product preferences?

The graph above is sales on 3/18/20 vs. 2/19/20 (both a wednesday on before the virus was in the US and one much after) of the distribution of Adult Use sales of cannabis products in WA, CA, NV, and CO. It looks like Edibles saw the biggest shift in sales growing from 11% of the market to 14% of the market - a 27% increase in market share in only 4 weeks.

March 19, 2020 8:16am

On March 16th sales of Adult Use cannabis in Oregon were about 75% higher than the average sales on the 4 trailing Mondays with average baskets up to $43 before taxes (compared to $32 on an average Monday). Below is a comparison of sales increase in all states.

March 18, 2020 11:51am

Looking at sales between 3/15/20 and 3/17/20 we saw that Flower sales shifted toward large package sizes as consumers stocked up. Sales for ounces were up over 100% (over a comparable weekdays in the trailing 4 weeks). It looks like people aren't going for grams in this trying time.

Washington State sales increase in flower by cannabis package size march 2020
Washington State sales increase in flower by cannabis package size march 2020


March 17, 2020 4:54pm

For Colorado:
Basket sizes in CO grew substantially on 3/16 compared to the trailing four Mondays as consumers stocked up. In Denver the average Adult Use cannabis basket before taxes was $58 (compared to $45 on an average Monday). This sales growth was seen in other cities as well with the average basket in other cities in CO also up 29%. Much of this increase in Flower sales which were up over 80% compared to an average Monday. For Products here is some CA data:

Looking at Adult Use cannabis sales data in California we find that as Californian's rushed to stock up on cannabis products we saw both Edibles and Beverages see significant sales lifts. One of the most stocked up on products was Plus Products Gummies which saw a sales boost of 157% compared to a normal Monday as well as Lagunita's Hi-Fi beverages which saw a boost of 70% compared to an average Monday. Pre-Rolls were the least stocked up product, however, single strain CBD Pre-Rolls did see a boost of over 100%. In PreRolls Indica's saw a large sales boost (~40%) compared to Sativas (~25%).For Products here is some NV data:

While sales boosts in NV were not as dramatic as WA or CA we did see Flower sales boosted on Monday to just over 50% higher than the trailing four Mondays. There were bigger winners though; both Old Pal and Garden of Weeden who's Flower products saw sales of over 2x normal on 3/16/20 compared to the trailing four Mondays.

March 17, 2020 4:11pm

For Canada (specifically AB) on 3/16 the median like-store sales growth (compared to the prior 4 Mondays) was 65% with some stores seeing sales over double their normal Monday volumes.  Interestingly, this occurred more in the morning hours.  During the hours between 10am and 12pm we see that sales volumes were about 155% higher than average.  This was due both due increases in transaction volume (with the average number of transactions per hour up about 70%) and an increase in average basket size with average baskets between 9am and 1pm average $55 CAD (before taxes) compared to average baskets of $36 on the prior four Mondays.

March 17, 2020 2:21pm

For yesterday in CA. We did not see sales crest 4/20 spikes though it was close. In CA Adult Use Cannabis sales yesterday (3/16/20) were 56% higher than the trailing 4 Mondays (for comparison 4/20 was 122% larger than an average Saturday). However, Edibles saw gains of 107% over normal volumes yesterday (so sales were twice as high) and on 4/20 of last year it Edibles were boosted 120%, so pretty darn close. Since Edibles give you a great way to consume cannabis with very little touching your face I think that could point to Coronavirus sales spikes.

March 16, 2020 2:15pm

Sales of Adult Use cannabis in WA were up 23% on Friday, 14% on Saturday, and 33% on Sunday (over prior week). This was driven by a modest increase in total baskets (about 6% increase in tickets) and a large increase in average basket.

Average baskets on Sunday were $33.70 before taxes, up 22% over the prior week and 28% compared to baskets in Jan and Feb of this year. The increase in average basket size was driven by increases in stock-up baskets with over 21% of baskets being greater than $50 (before taxes) compared to only 16% in the prior week.

Edibles saw a 51% increase in sales, Flower just over 20%, Concentrates and Topicals saw the smallest increases.

In Edibles Craft Elixirs and 4.20 bar saw some pretty out of the ordinary increases with sales jumping 90% and 80% respectively.



Subscribe To Headset
Stay up-to-date on everything happening in the cannabis economy:
Read about our privacy policy.
Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.

Join over +3,500 cannabis companies

Stay ahead of your competition & achieve long-term success in the cannabis industry.