Nationwide cannabis retail sales held steady into September 2021, showing a negligible increase of 0.2%, growing from $353.9 million to $354.67 million. Store numbers, however, grew 4.8% in the same time, from 2501 to 2621, causing the nationwide sales per store average to drop 4.4% from $141,527.79 to $135,321.25.
Little Change
Across the country, there seems to be very little change in retail sales after August 2021 numbers have been adjusted. Quebec, with its stationary store numbers, saw slight variations of a couple of percents. Gatineau was the biggest winner on the east coast with an increase in sales of 3.41%, while Nova Scotia saw the largest dip of 6.45%, its sale dropping from $8.6 million to just over $8 million. Newfoundland and Labrador’s sales decreased as well, by 3.1%, despite adding two new stores.
Even though sales hovered around the same level, most provinces added new stores during September, resulting in a dip in sales per store across the board—except for New Brunswick, where it increased from $359,600 for each of its 20 stores to $363,900, and Gatineau, where sales per store increased from $249,000 to $878,000 for each of its two stores.
Ontario
As usual, Ontario takes the top spot for the most sales, bringing in $141.6 million in August, only a 1.85% increase over the month before. Stores, however, grew from 1068 to 1152, causing the province-wide sales per store to drop from $130,178.84 to $122,921.87. Toronto appears to be holding strong so far with sales of $47.3 million spread across 189 retailers. During September, only nine new Retail Sales Authorizations were approved, so sales per store are still at $250,338.62, down a little bit from $258,016.67.
Despite concerns over concentrations of stores in Toronto, there appear to be customers to shop in them, however, we don’t know how many of these stores are hitting this benchmark.
Ottawa, in fact, saw the highest increase in sales this month, growing 3.74% from just over $14 million to nearly $14.6 million. With only 40 stores in the city, each retailer could see an average of $364,800 per month.
Western Canada
Travelling to the Prairies, Alberta continues to see dropping sales per store as more store authorizations are granted—15 in September, totalling 688 stores—landing at $88,194.77. Calgary saw a slight increase in sales, the city’s 172 retailers split $16.8 million, getting an average of $97,831.40 each compared to $97,670.59 the month before. Edmonton, after adding six new retailers compared to Calgary’s two, saw sales dip ever-so-slightly, however, it pulled down the city’s sales per store from $139,837.83 to $133,746.75.
Sales in BC saw minor changes of around 1% or less, only adding three new stores province-wide. Unfortunately, sales per store decreased slightly as a result to $131,266.67 provincially and $315,627.45 in Vancouver.
As the summer winds down and university students go back to school, customers are naturally consuming less. As the holiday season approaches, we will likely see a drop in sales until December.
Monthly Canadian Cannabis Retail Sales – September 2021 (x1000)
Canada: $354,677
Newfoundland-Labrador: $5,340
Prince Edward Island: —
Nova Scotia: $8,059
New Brunswick: $7,278
Quebec: $51,304
-Montréal, Quebec: $26,259
-Quebec, Quebec: $5,764
-Gatineau, Quebec: $1,756
Ontario: $141,606
-Toronto, Ontario: $47,314
-Ottawa, Ontario: $14,592
Manitoba: $14,002
-Winnipeg, Manitoba: $9,403
Saskatchewan: $13,623
Alberta: $60,678
-Calgary, Alberta: $16,827
-Edmonton, Alberta: $20,597
British Columbia: $49,210
-Vancouver, BC: $16,097
Yukon: —
Northwest Territories: —
Nunavut: —