Unethical dispensaries must be sent a message

I was just reading in another thread how there is no shortage of clubs in the bay area and everywhere else, obviously misrepresenting product and intentionally selling outdoor buds for 50 and 60 an eighth while savagely lowballing growers to the tune of 2000 or less per pound. This is not news to me but sometimes things just have a way of becoming impossible to ignore and begging to be dealt with.

I always remind people I am not just saying "Pay us more, pay us top dollar for top product" what I am saying is "Let the retail price reflect the wholesale" meaning while pounds have dropped in price at minimum 20% and up to 50% since fall 2009. At the same time retail prices have not changed much at all. Eighths are still commonly sold for 50 each although some places do in fact now offer wide selections of bud for 30 and 40 which reflects the lower wholesale prices that are in effect.

I would have no problem if the new trend of 2000$ pounds = 25$ eighths all day long for the patients. When 2000$ pounds still turn into 45, 50, 60 dollar eighths then I know for a fact that growers are being conned and dispensaries have gotten some fat egos that need to be put in their place.

So why should indoor growers now be forced to eat shit and die which seems to be the attitude of most dispensaries. (It is important that I make clear MOST dispensaries and clubs are taking advantage but SOME are truly awesome places with excellent management that do a great service. ) While it would be difficult and maybe not effective to organize growers in any kind of protest or picketing of dispensaries, getting patients together with growers and even disgruntled employees might get somebody's fucking attention!

It would benefit everyone involved if patients and growers would organize to identify clubs that screw growers and rip off patients. Then bombard them with negative publicity and try to boycott them. If it works EVERYONE benefits even the clubs. A realistic markup of 60-75% for dispenaries would still provide them with ungodly amounts of cash profits and the 2000$ pound would become a fairly and accurately priced 25 or 30 dollar eighth. In the end all I really want is for retail dispensaries and clubs to realize that this entire scene hinges on the growers and everything was going quite well before pot clubs came along. If they all closed tomorrow, people would still get their buds.

The prices over there are a rip-off!!!

We'd suggest posting spider mites through their letter boxes,, so the equally over-charging growers take them home to eat their crops up ... just as long as NO spider mites are harmed in the process... lol

Best bet is to find an outlet that provides meds at a reasonable price... better still grow your own,, all the knowledge is here on this forum

Peace n love

You have to take into account the overhead that goes into a dispensary. Rent, utilities, bud tenders, recepetionists, security guards, managers, (health insurance for employees), business insurance, lawyer retainers, taxes, niceties (couches, tv's, free water/soda, music), rx bottles, scales, rx bags, huge safes, security cameras, secuirty alarms, security doors, construction costs, display cases, magnifying glasses, point-of-sales systems, desks, printers, paper, ink, and so on and so on. The list of expense items can get really long for a respectable shop....

Not to mention the risk of facing a 20 year stint should the feds ever come in and want to make an example of you or the constant threat of theifs who are willing to put people in danger or destroy the dispensary to try and gain access to cash or product. That is why security guards and security measures are such a vital element into any good dispensary. Theifs look for weakness and easy targets, if you put measures to detour these people you are much less likely to encounter this problem, but security can be very costly.

I dont think patients really mind paying these prices and being able to shop in secured, friendly and knowledgeable facilty, when the guy down the street selling out of his living room is charging the same price...

I do agree that price should be reflected to associate real world costs and should marijuana be legalized, there would be more people in competition and people would actually have to take these prices into consideration rather then being able to charge any price they would like.

I dont know what the quality is like in the bay that growers are getting 2k for, but the duffles of turkey bags ive seen for that price have been some seriously god awful shit and alot of times id see all sorts of pests or mold/mildew on it. Down here for real quality your looking at high 2 low 3 for really good OD/GH and mid to high 3 on top shelf indoor...

i like market solutions. While i'l like to disagree with BhT about overhead and the like, i won't. I'm admittedly without hands on exp in running a "dispensary" but, business is business and margins are margins (I have run a business.). So... back to market solutions....

How about you guys work with your traditional "brokers"? or show some love to a friend in, how shall we say..., an emerging market. Lets assume you want 36, but you can only get 24, from the dispensary. Let a "broker" get em for 3 and watch what happens. (fictional numbers. but it would be the easiest way to make change in my opinion)

Suddenly the dispensaries can't get the amounts they need and prices start to inch up.
I'ld favor education of the consumer over a merchants plan, but what you gonna do. That being said, the community has to stop caving somewhere. The money, not any one person's or group's, just the volume of cash can destroy the community.

Im not saying theres no money to be made in dispensaries, im just saying its not the instant gold mine many people make it out to be. Then again I suppose it really depends on how you run it. At my spot, I was constantly overweighing peoples meds. throwing free edibles and meds to our regulars all the time. We also ran alot of deals and raffles. we had grow tutorials. we Had Wii tournaments. we had strain report contests . we partied every holiday - free food - free meds - free edibles - live music - dj's . There was always something happening. It was a really fun enviorment for everyone involved. Nobody ever left unsatisfied (well maybe except a few middlemen and growers who brought us subpar product trying to scam it over on us and the patients - i used to get a kick out of calling people out on bad meds, then i had a vendor break down in tears telling me about how hes late on mortgage and overdue on medical bills. so i try to be less cynical with vendors now. you never know what people are going through...) I never really cared much about the money as long as I got my bills paid and took care of my people and my family. I simply enjoyed the waking up everyday with a smile on my face because I knew that the day ahead of me would be filled with helping the people of my community and being around good friends/family and doing what I love. Im saddened that our industry is still overcoming the hurdles to become legal because I really find joy in running the shops and interacting with people everyday. hopefully One day we will no longer need to fear imprisonment for doing something that is completley harmless. That will be a wonderful day.

Whats dank to you is not dank to someone else. most og,chem,sourd,sour dub still going for 4 or 4+ got to grow what the patients want most and it has to be fire. Most of the meds I come across are B grade at best but the guys that grew them think there A grade. The 10% of growers that put out the dank always get paid the other 90% need to step up there game.

I posted a review of a dispensary a while ago that is in Anaheim. They use schwagg to make their edibles and try to pass of schwag hash as the real deal.

That is the sort of attitude I see here in socal. Try to rip the ppl off to make a quick buck.

not all places do this of course but there are plenty that will sell you buds with pm or really damp.

AAA ALL THE WAY

AAA ALL THE WAY

dont go to a pot club ! go to a medical marijuana dispensery

RIP DR JAY

I'm glad that nobody's gotten heated, some good comments here. For the record I grow my own under prop 215/sb420, it's the chronic and the best around wherever I'm at. I don't do any business buying or selling with clubs/dispensaries. I just keep hearing about low low prices they pay getting lower every day almost and the prices they charge stay the same. Everything is relative you know the market could be high or low but the wholesale to retail has got to me more in line for me to believe good growers will get compensated fairly. I get what you're saying bigherb that is normal retail overhead though is it not? I get it that the dispensaries are competing with one another also, that's got to be a bitch. I just wanted to start a discussion and see what happened. The fact remains that there is no excuse for places that deliberately fix prices on the wholesale side while not lowering their retail prices. If there is more supply and more competition that needs to be reflected on the retail end.

That 2k figure was an average for OD just for argument's sake.

Bang for the Buck

Bang for the Buck

Block2TheFuture said:

I'm glad that nobody's gotten heated, some good comments here. I just keep hearing...

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Block2 I'm happy for that non-heated part as well my freinds and thank you for that! B2TF..you say "I keep hearing..", some of the things you said are the first I've heard of these with the emphasis you placed upon them. I didn't realize it was such a huge issue and I moderate a medical forum on the worlds largest growers site, so much for me being current.
I'd like to use my experience in the wholesale/retail industry to point out a couple things. My article here The Marijuana Connoisseur and Cannabis Marketplace has a little more on my past.
IMO, There are two things that drive the consumer, price and quality. I thought for years peeps would be loyal to a brand but that went out the window when $3.99 12 packs of cheep beer showed me differently years back. In todays market, I believe the consumer will eventually shop at the clubs, dispenseries, where they get the best smoke for the best price, bang for the buck. Thus these low-ball retailers will only have poor quality product because the growers will eventually be able to get what they want from the respected hi-quality clubs.. Yet-like the $3.99 12pack, some clubs will still be able to sell to peeps that can afford only that.
Respect..DD

KRD said:

Whats dank to you is not dank to someone else. most og,chem,sourd,sour dub still going for 4 or 4+ got to grow what the patients want most and it has to be fire. Most of the meds I come across are B grade at best but the guys that grew them think there A grade. The 10% of growers that put out the dank always get paid the other 90% need to step up there game.

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There it is in a nutshell. If the quality is above reproach, it will bring a good price.

Very good subject. I was having this exact conversation with someone today. As a small business owner I know for a fact that there are business expenses to be paid so there is a big gap between what the wholesaler gets and the retailer gets.

With a lot of dispensaries though I suspect greed is the motivating factor with what they charge. In my business (not mj related) I make my money in volume, not quantity. I make mucho money because people want a good product at a fair price. I make it a point to undercut my competitors and it works well for me.

Someone showed me some OGK today that they got from a local place here, what a joke. A bunch of stuff that could not even be called "popcorn" at 27.95 an eighth! What a rip.

And I don't know if this is germane to the issue, but how, exactly, does the clubs main buyer even know what the thc level of the product is? Or, what about me telling you that I am selling you brand x weed when it is something completely different. I promise you that the buyer where I get my meds does not know jack. I could tell him I have some long lost strain and he would buy right into it.

Lastly, I think that prop 19 failed here in cali precisely because the wholesalers knew that their prices would plummet once 215 passed. It al boils down to this, imho, money talks, bullshit walks and everyone wants to ride for free. I solved the whole issue for myself by growing my own. In a couple of months I will NEVER walk into a dispensary again.

Just comes down to experience. I've seen hundreds of strains maybe thousands. I've grown many of the elites. I've grown alot of seed crops. But it really comes down to quality. If it's good product not many care what the name is. It takes a keen eye and an experienced pallate to choose the meds for a shop. You can send samples of meds to labs to be tested to know if there are any diseases as well as thc, cbd and cbn percentages. Some patients like this, most don't care..

I know that this thread seems to be about U.S dispensary's but I smoke often at a couple different spots out in van, started out @ one place usually had good flavors , all medicinal strains , then after a few months I return and got a hand full of differnt ones and they all were super weak not medicinal @ all, then the next day hit the new one up down the street never been there, but all where banging taste , smell, actually worth the money , and thats how it should be !!, you shouldnt be allowed to sell garbage @ dispensary"s , I dont see who needs commercial weed for medication

peace TS

teemu shalanie said:

I know that this thread seems to be about U.S dispensary's but I smoke often at a couple different spots out in van, started out @ one place usually had good flavors , all medicinal strains , then after a few months I return and got a hand full of differnt ones and they all were super weak not medicinal @ all, then the next day hit the new one up down the street never been there, but all where banging taste , smell, actually worth the money , and thats how it should be !!, you shouldnt be allowed to sell garbage @ dispensary"s , I dont see who needs commercial weed for medication

peace TS

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I can go get 6 hamburgers for $5 at mcdonalds or pay $10 for a Kobe burger at the restaurant down the street. There is a market for everyone and peoples best response is with their wallet. If a place buys shitty weed that's because they know they can sell it. Places that only have good weed know that's what their patients want. You have to know your demographic. We always strived to make our prices reflect the yield. Which meant we had good selection at all prices. If a plant yields more why should we charge the same as a plant that yields very little. Our patients respected this system because not all patients can afford the most expensive meds, but shouldn't be forced to smoke subpar medicine. We've had amazing meds like Casey jones, chem 4 and heavy duty fruity as low as $8/gram