All the Ontario cannabis stores you won’t see on April 1 GlobeBusiness
Companies and entrepreneurs snapped up hundreds of locations, often for above-market rates, last summer after the Ontario government announced a private system for selling recreational cannabis. Industry observers were expecting more than 1,000 stores to open within the first two years of the private market.But this week’s grand openings of cannabis stores in Ontario promises to be underwhelming.
“I was definitely caught off guard, I think everybody was caught off guard,” said Tom Dyck, chief executive of mihi, which had secured more than 40 locations across the province to open a chain of recreational cannabis stores before Ontario moved to a phased approach. “We had the team, we had the leases secured, we had the stores designed, the applications were completed and notarized, criminal checks were done.
Others are in the same position, though not everyone eager to sell recreational cannabis in Ontario can afford to wait for the province to deliver on its promise of returning to an open licensing regime.
“A lot of it seemed like desperation,” said Brandon Long, a 20-year-old tow truck driver who was among five winners in Eastern Ontario. “They were extremely desperate to meet a person who had won and they were almost begging for the opportunity.”
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