This post was originally published on this site.
Join NY Cannabis Insider at our next industry networking event on Aug. 15 at Madame Mikette’s in NYC. Tickets will sell out.
Since mid-May, Queens-based CAURD business The Cannabis Place has been delivering weed throughout the New York City metro area, as CEO Osbert Orduña and his team work to open a brick-and-mortar dispensary.
NY Cannabis Insider wrote about a recent meeting of Queens Community Board 5, at which board members and members of the public heckled and shouted at Orduña, a service-disabled veteran and native of Woodside, as he presented plans for the business’ dispensary in Middle Village.
Delivery sales at The Cannabis Place have been going very well, Orduña said, and his team is working hard to open the in-person shop by September.
This week, Orduña spoke with NY Cannabis Insider about delivery vs. brick-and-mortar in New York City, what products are selling best among The Cannabis Place’s customers and what the city’s legal weed retail market might look like in the future.
The following has been slightly edited for length and clarity.
When did you launch delivery sales?
May 17, 2023.
What went into setting up a delivery service that meets OCM regulations?
Basically, we have to do everything that a storefront retail dispensary would do with regard to things like security, lighting, vaults, the access control system, the point-of-sale system, and everything.
In addition to that, we had to procure vehicles, set up our GPS tracking, set up surveillance for the vehicles, and establish our communication system.
How many workers do you currently employ?
We are a team of basically just under 20 people. We have fulfillment personnel, dispatch personnel, mobile budtenders and management personnel.
Do you have company vehicles for deliveries?
Everything is company-owned: the vehicles, the tablets, phones, radios; everything is company-owned. Our mobile budtenders, who are going out to meet with our clients, are our direct employees.
Can you tell me about your delivery business model?
There is a scarcity of available dispensaries in the area, and so we deliver seven days a week. We don’t charge anything for delivery. Our goal is to put up licensed cannabis products and make them easy for folks to purchase, and we don’t believe in nickel-and-diming for delivery costs.
The price that the cannabis product costs is what the person pays, there’s no delivery fee whatsoever. We deliver from Manhattan to Queens, Brooklyn, Nassau, and Suffolk County as far as the Hamptons. We also deliver to Westchester County on Wednesdays.
What kinds of products are selling best?
Edibles and their subcategories – such as drinks, gummies, etc – combined, are probably the most popular type of items that we have. But that’s very, very closely followed by flower and pre-rolls. Sometimes, on a given week, they may even change position.
With our robust product line – whether they’re infused pre-rolls, or particular strains of flower – we’re not looking at just the name or the cultivar; we’re actually looking at how it tests with our cadre of product testers. These are seasoned cannabis consumers with decades of cannabis consumer experience. It’s because of the fact that folks know that if we have it on our shelves, it’s something that is going to be fire.
I’ve heard people predict that delivery might be the best retail business model in New York City, since it reduces overhead and conforms with the way many people have bought weed for decades. What are your thoughts on delivery vs. brick-and-mortar in NYC?
I think it’s a combination of both. You do have consumers that want to come and have the in-person experience – albeit, maybe just to verify that this place is legit. I think that for us, the delivery model has helped us in wanting to engage with folks who would be out of our normal radius of where one of our brick-and-mortar storefronts is going to be – which is in Middle Village, Queens.
That dispensary is going through the approval and build out process now, we expect to have it open by September. We’re very excited, because we will always have free delivery as part of our operations. So for folks that meet us by coming to a brick and mortar, they’ll realize that, ‘oh, wait, you will deliver this to my house,’ so if it’s a rainy day, or a busy day, or something, we can bring it to their door. But for folks that will never set foot in our store, we’re continuing to build on the delivery experience. We have our own app on the Apple iOS store, and very soon, we’ll also have an Android app.
Where are you at when it comes to opening the brick-and-mortar shop in Queens?
The property is under lease, we’ve already been through our community board – which was an interesting experience. We’re well underway, we’re engaged with our architect and design team and we’re in the process of getting the construction done.
The community board meeting at which you presented got heated and raucous at times. Was this surprising to you, or did you expect that kind of reception?
I don’t think anyone can expect that type of confrontational and disrespectful treatment in regard to a couple of people at that meeting. The majority of the community was very open-minded, and we had a lot of folks that were there who were very positive towards us and towards having a licensed dispensary in their community. There’s always going to be that handful of people who, unfortunately, are going to act in a manner that’s not acceptable.
In terms of brick-and-mortar vs. delivery, what do you think the cannabis retail market in New York City will look like in five years?
I think that there will always be a need and a want for brick-and-mortar locations, so people can go there and shop and peruse the products and engage and interact with people. But as we’ve seen, in a post-COVID environment, delivery across every industry has increased exponentially. So, I think that we can expect to see the same thing within the New York cannabis market as people become more aware of, and more comfortable with, cannabis and actually ordering cannabis online.