The NJ cannabis market remains dominated by large corporate Multi-State Operators (MSOs) as it boomed over the 4/20 holiday weekend, according to estimated data from Lit Alerts.
NJ’s Estimated 4/20 Weekend Sales
According to Lit Alert, New Jersey beat New York in sales for the 4/20 weekend. In both New Jersey and New York, people stocked up the most on Friday.
- Friday, 4/18: $5.25 million
- Saturday, 4/19: $5.06 million
- Sunday, 4/20: $4.45 million
NY Daily Estimated 4/20 Weekend Sales
- Friday, 4/18: $4.45 million
- Saturday, 4/19: $4.22 million
- Sunday, 4/20: $3.51 million
According to Lit Alerts, “the average sales of a NJ door far outstrips the average sales of a NY door, especially as you move down the list.”
In addition, NJ cannabis companies are allowed to promote themselves more (like advertising here on Heady NJ!)
Notably, “NJ has a fraction of the illicit market issues that NY does,” they said.
Top Selling NJ Cannabis Brands
- Ozone (Ascend)
- Rhythm (GTI)
- Garden Greens
- Select (Curaleaf)
- Fernway
- Kind Tree (TerrAscend)
- Essence (Verano)
- Dogwalkers (GTI)
- Kynd (Ayr Wellness)
- Legend (TerrAscend)
- Wyld
- Savvy (Verano)
- Gron
- Simply Herb (Ascend)
- Pete’s Farmstand
- Clade 9
- Verano
- Camino Gummies
- Wana Brands
- Grassroots (Curaleaf)
Most Successful 4/20 Weekend Dispensaries
- Indigo – Brooklawn
- Curaleaf – Bellmawr
- Ascend – Rochelle Park
- Nirvana Dispensary – Mt. Laurel
- Apothecarium – Phillipsburg
- Puffin Store – New Brunswick
- Ohm Theory – Elmwood Park
- NJ Leaf – Freehold
- New Era Dispensary – South Bound Brook
- Curaleaf – Bordentown
- Ascend – Fort Lee
- Hashery LLC – Hackensack
- AYR – Woodbridge
- Nova Farms – Woodbury
- Curaleaf – Edgewater Park
- Apothecarium – Maplewood
- Premo – Keyport
- AYR – Eatontown
- SoulFlora – West Milford
- Apothecarium – Lodi
About 7 or 8 are not large MSOs, depending on how you count.
The dispensaries by the Pennsylvania border are clearly benefiting and would lose a lot of customers if Pennsylvania ever got its State Senate dominated by Republicans to approve adult-use cannabis legalization.
Other dispensaries benefit by being in more prosperous communities, with the nearby towns not allowing dispensaries.
Top Selling NJ Cannabis Product Categories
- Flower (39.8%)
- Vapes (26.2%)
- Pre-Rolls (14.7%)
- Edibles (12%)
- Concentrates (3.8%)
- Topicals (0.3%)
- Tinctures (0.2%)
- Beverages (0.2%)
Heady NJ has only seen a few legal cannabis drinks being sold. They are small bottles limited to 100 MG of THC. They are thus different than intoxicating hemp drinks sold at liquor stores.
Corporate versus Craft Cannabis
The largest MSOs have dominated the NJ adult-use cannabis market since it opened three years ago Monday on April 21st. They have benefited from being the first to market.
Thus few independent and craft cannabis companies were eager to mark the occasion. In contrast, some started celebrating the 4/20 weekend last Thursday and Friday.
Many diehard cannabis community faithful, and especially those with an underground legacy bent, do not like these corporations due to their issues with prices, quality concerns around mold and bacteria, desire for a monopoly or cartel, labor issues, and indifference to social justice and the community.
But more casual cannabis consumers do not seem to mind the prices, quality issues, or questionable values.
This is likely not unique to cannabis.
Some companies are in a few states, and then came to Jersey. They often don’t like MSOs either. They see large MSOs as especially greedy with greater access to capital. So, the smaller MSOs are more likely to have some community values and better products, depending on who you ask.
Other companies made white labeling and production deals with MSOs to avoid the problems that stopped 2/3 of the conditional license winners from opening. Those with production deals insist they bring unique cannabis strain seeds, baby clone plants, recipes, or ingredients to the table to make quality products. In a white label deal, they slap a pretty label on a product.
They are also weed company executives who don’t like to smoke weed.
But MSOS are not all alike. Some are better than others.
NJ Cannabis Market Data Methodology
According to LT, their software crawls cannabis retail menu data multiple times a day. It then performs an analysis of the changes and creates a new dataset.
According to them, it is not a Point of Sale (POS) cash register-type system data. It’s supposed to be a guide to help brands and retailers better understand the market.
“The menus we crawl include the quantities available for the various products. We track those quantities as people purchase. We then take that tracking and apply a predictive model of the events to understand the total estimated sales,” their Public Relations specialist explained.
“It’s not POS data, but it’s pretty darn close and can really help operators get a sense of what’s happening in a market,” she added.
The PR specialist noted that because they track quantities, they can figure out which dispensaries are doing the best.
Their data includes out-of-stock alerts, low-quantity alerts, and estimated sales via inventory quantity tracking. So, for their customers in the industry, they can analyze such data.
