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May ends with yet another marijuana sales record

Fresh-grown flower at CannaMan Farms, in Vancouver.
Fresh-grown flower at CannaMan Farms, in Vancouver.

Is it even news anymore that recreational marijuana sales are still breaking records? Well yeah, of course it is. But that’s what we’ve all come to expect at this point after a long-running trend of ever increasing revenue continued through May.

The industry raised the bar for daily sales yet again on Friday, May 29, racking up more than $1.879 million. That happened just a week after setting the previous record of $1.876 million, heading into Memorial Day weekend.

And before that, the record was set just three weeks earlier on May 1 — another Friday — at $1.856 million. The figures come from the Washington State Liquor Control Board, which releases sales activity updates each Tuesday.

May was also a record-setting month, with nearly $41.5 million in sales statewide. That’s an increase of more than $6 million from the previous monthly record, which was set in April.

For more details on how the local stores are doing, read my former colleague Sue Vorenberg’s latest blog post. Hint: Main Street Marijuana and New Vansterdam are still crushing the competition.

If you take away anything from this, it should be that Fridays are phenomenal for pot shops and there’s no telling when sales will plateau across the industry. Since the first pot shops opened in July 2014, statewide sales have reached a new high each month.

Next month should be real interesting, too, and not just because of that trend. Possession becomes legal in Oregon on July 1, yet the state won’t have any stores open until October 2016. Expect explosive sales on July 3 — yet another Friday — as customers will be looking to stock up on lots of marijuana before the fireworks shows begin.

– Justin Runquist