Here Are The Products That Boosted Green Wednesday Sales (And The Ones That Slacked)

By Debra Borchardt, Green Market Report

The joke about walking your cousin every Thanksgiving could be a thing of the past. With so many new ways of consuming cannabis, that “walk” to smoke a joint undetected with your cool cousin could become Thanksgiving history.

Drinks, edibles and in some cases the handy vape pen dominated sales on Green Wednesday, as the day before Thanksgiving is known.

Inflation also seemed to rear its ugly face this year. Sales transactions increased, but customer spending was lower. Data from Headset and Jane Technologies show Green Wednesday continues to be a winner for cannabis use.

Headset ran the numbers to see if Green Wednesday sales exploded compared to previous Wednesdays for pharmacies — and they did. Combined sales data from California, Colorado, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, Oregon and Washington state showed a 48% jump in sales compared to previous Wednesdays in November.

Headset also found that this year’s Green Wednesday is after 4/20. and the Friday before July 4th was the third highest selling day. Green Wednesday overtook Black Friday as the busiest day of sales during the Thanksgiving holiday. In 2021, Green Wednesday saw a 61% increase in sales compared to a typical Wednesday.

As expected, Thanksgiving Day sales fell as many pharmacies closed for the holiday, and Black Friday saw only a modest 1% increase. It looks like consumers have stocked up before heading off to visit relatives for the weekend.

Secret stoners

performance category

The products that people could consume without Aunt Gertrud getting any wiser grew. Headset noted that topicals (15.7%), beverages (13.2%), and edibles (6.1%) all saw sales growth during the holiday season. The most affected were popular inhalation products such as concentrates (-11.4%) and flower (-10.8%).

In Jane’s data, vape cartridges were the top-selling category, beating Flower by 20%. Vapes are easy to carry and don’t smell nearly like smoking bud.

sales lift

Jane Technologies looked at nationwide sales and specifically the new New Jersey market. Jane found that overall Green Wednesday sales increased 77% nationwide compared to the previous four Wednesdays. The average store saw a 20% increase in sales compared to the previous year.

In New Jersey, sales increased by 100%. In more mature markets, sales fell or increased only slightly. Sales in California were down 8%, Colorado down 7% and Massachusetts down 30%. Average sales at Illinois Green Wednesday stores rose 9%.

RELATED: Green Wednesday: Here’s what a new survey of cannabis shopping trends reveals

It seems consumers were on a budget this year. Transactions were up, but shopping carts weren’t full. Nationwide, Jane Technologies said the average car size was down 8% from a year ago. Car size fell 18% in California, 8% in Colorado, 17% in Massachusetts and 14% in Illinois.

Photo by Ivan-balvan/Getty Images

discounts

Headset noted that discounts rose across the board during the holiday, with the average discount increasing 7.3 percentage points over the three holidays to 21.8%.

While Green Wednesday was the largest sales day, it had the smallest average discount (19.8%), although an increase of nearly 6 percentage points over a typical Wednesday. Thanksgiving (22.2%) and Black Friday (23.7%) saw the largest average discounts, both up more than 8 percentage points compared to a typical Thursday and Friday.

Finally

Grabbing a drink or something to eat during the holidays may have replaced the annual walk with your cousin. It might ease the tension that comes with some family gatherings and even increase cravings so you can avoid offending grandma by not eating that second piece of cake.

Ultimately, the cannabis industry, which has seen declining sales in some markets, must have been pleased to see customers pouring in on Wednesday. Let the holidays begin! And let’s keep up this tradition of taking your cousin for a walk – just bring him a gummy bear instead.

This article originally appeared in Green Market Report and has been republished with permission.