Cannabis report shows low sales in O'Leary and online

The P.E.I. Cannabis Management Corporation released its annual report for 2019 and found that sales at the O'Leary store and online were low compared to its three other stores.

The O'Leary store, which opened in January, sold $87,543 worth of product and online sales were $104,902.

The corporation's Charlottetown location made the majority of the province's cannabis sales, with 60 per cent of the total sales revenue, amounting to just over $4.2 million. 

Zach Currie, the director of operations for P.E.I. Cannabis, attributed the low sales in O'Leary to the location opening later than expected. 

He said he thinks the low online sales are because people prefer to shop for cannabis in the store. 

"I think people enjoy coming in, interacting with our tremendous retail teams, going through that consultative process, being able to see the product, being able to observe the product in one of our sensory pods and engage with a staff member," he said.

Retail stores increased nationally

Michael Armstrong, an associate professor at the Goodman School of Business at Brock University, follows the cannabis industry across Canada.

He said the report showed that P.E.I. is doing well in comparison to other provinces. 

"P.E.I. was one of the province's that had the least problem with product shortages," he said. 

"They had enough inventory in the year to support nine months of sales, whereas other cannabis agencies — the figure is closer to two months of sales."

Armstrong said P.E.I.'s success can be attributed to the number of stores in the province "that made it easy for customers."

"Provinces that had higher percentages of sales online like Quebec, 19 per cent online — that was because they didn't have enough stores. And so it actually hurt their sales per capita," he said. 

Currie said he's happy with what the corporation has achieved so far in comparison to other provinces. 

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