Canadian retail cannabis sales saw their first decline in November 2021 after steady inclines since February 2021. Sales dipped 2.88% to $353.7 million with all provinces except Ontario and Saskatchewan seeing reductions in sales.
Since 100 new stores opened in November, this means the average sales per store decreased, which is not great news for big city markets battling with market saturation.
Central Canada
Ontario saw 56 new store openings, yet sales only increased 1.86% in November to $148.4 million. The provincial store average went down to $117,201 from $120,433.88 in October.
Quebec only opened three new government-run stores and sales dipped 6.75% to $48.9 million.
Prairies
Saskatchewan is the only Prairie province that saw retail sales rise but only by 1.5% to $14 million and two new stores opened. Manitoba’s sales decreased 6.46% and Alberta followed suit at with a reduction of 6.56%.
Western Canada
British Columbia fared no better with a 5.31% decline despite opening 8 new stores in November.
Atlantic Canada
The Maritimes all saw reduced sales with New Brunswick’s sales going down 13.02%. Nova Scotia dropped 8.23% and Newfoundland and Labrador declined 6.33%
We should see this trend reverse in December as sales typically increase with Christmas shopping.
November Retail Sales (x1,000)
Canada $353,654
Newfoundland $5,382
Nova Scotia $7,436
New Brunswick $6,154
Quebec $48,927
Ontario $148,376
Manitoba $13,043
Saskatchewan $14,035
Alberta $59,025
British Columbia $47,827
Source: Statistics Canada