While Black Friday this week will attract holiday shoppers eager for savings on clothing and kitchen appliances, some marijuana dispensary chains are holding a Green Wednesday sale.
Story Cannabis has two locations in Ohio. One store is in Coschocton and the other is in Cincinnati.
“It just became a marketing event like any other, like a day after Thanksgiving shopping kind of spree for people,” said Jason Vedadi, CEO and founder of Story Cannabis. “And they just kind of caught on.”
Green Wednesday is a holiday that is focused specifially on shopping deals involving legal marijuana and takes place on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Its main rival for legal marijuana sales prices is April 20 (a.k.a 4/20).
This is the first year Green Wednesday will be observed in Ohio, after residents voted to legalize recreational marijuana in the state last year.
Vedadi says Ohio does restrict advertising for marijuana sales, but he expects the up to 40% discount on most items to attract more customers.
"I think anything that kind of gets out there as kind of a theme you start reaching new customers and more customers mainly,” said Vedadi. “It's probably not the best thing for the businesses really, because they run super specials and your customers come in and they buy a lot more."
Other cannabis locations have reported that sales increased 90% on previous Green Wednesdays.
Vedadi says marijuana dispensaries in Ohio are barred from using typical advertising outlets, like newspapers, billboards and broadcasting entities.
"It's a challenge to try to figure out strategic ways to reach people without traditional advertising,” said Vedadi. "You can't really, really reach the broader market overnight like you can in other states, you know, no billboards. It's just going to be a little more steady, than kind of getting back to where I think the numbers are going to end up. It's going to take a little longer than it did in a traditional market."
States like Michigan, where recreational marijuana is legal, are free to send coupons to potential customers in other states, like Ohio.
