Proprietors scrambling to meet demand, ramping up deliveries to customers spending more time at home

Toilet paper, hand sanitizer and food aren’t the only things flying off the shelves amid the coronavirus scare in Southern California. Marijuana is the latest addition to the consumer stockpile.

Industry professionals are enjoying the spike in sales, which has prompted one proprietor to buy two used Priuses in the past week as deliveries soar. He said he is planning to buy three more in case his dispensaries are ordered shut and he has to transition his shop workers to drivers.

“If you asked me a week ago if I would be buying five or six used Priuses, I’d have said, ‘Why would we be doing that?’ ” said Kyle Kazan, CEO of the Glass House Group, which operates four dispensaries across the state, including Bud and Bloom in Santa Ana, The Pottery in Los Angeles and The Farmacy in Santa Barbara and Berkeley.

Industry is ‘on fire’

“It’s pretty crazy,” Kazan said. “Cannabis, it’s the right industry to be in. It’s on fire.”

Overall sales at Bud and Bloom have climbed by about 30% in the past week, said Kandice Hawes, community outreach director for the shop. The dispensary has seen a surge in both new customers and in the amount that each customer is spending.

“A supervisor came into the break room and said he just sold $1,500 worth of edibles to one customer,” Hawes said Tuesday, March 17.

Consumers are limited in how much marijuana they can stockpile because state law restricts purchases by adults to an ounce of cannabis each day.

Bud and Bloom hasn’t experienced any product shortages yet, Hawes said. But it has had to make changes to its operations and to postpone many upcoming events.

Senior hour each morning

For the first time in three years, Hawes said the dispensary had to cancel its free bus service that brings residents from the Laguna Woods senior community to Bud and Bloom. But it is starting a “senior hour,” where only seniors — who are most at risk of getting seriously ill from the virus — are allowed in the shop from 9-10 a.m. each morning.

Bud and Bloom also installed hand sanitizer stations. Hawes said cannabis manufacturer Rho Phyto realized it had all the ingredients to make hand sanitizer and is now donating large containers to licensed shops and customers.

The Santa Ana shop also is limiting the number of customers allowed in the store at any given time. It’s allowing customers to phone in their orders, so they can get in and out more quickly. They’re also trying to launch curbside pickup and the delivery arm of the business within days, rather than in a couple months as planned.

Sales triple in 1 week

Oakland-based Ganja Goddess, which delivers marijuana to customers up and down the state, is also enjoying robust business, especially in the past week.

“Right at the end of last week, we saw a huge uptick. Our sales have tripled in the past week. Everyone’s working overtime,” said Zachary Pitts, CEO of Ganja Goddess.

Pitts is conflicted on what exactly has caused the spike in demand — a fear of scarcity or just people spending more time at home until the virus is contained.

“Initially, I was thinking people are just worried they’re not going to be able to get some in the future, and so they were stocking up,” Pitts said. “So many people are staying home, and cannabis is perfect for staying at home and watching Netflix.”

People ‘afraid to go out’

Jim, the general manager of a Redlands-based marijuana delivery service who declined to give his last name and asked that his business name not be disclosed, said business has increased by a third in the past week, and expects it to double in the next week or two.

“I’m seeing more people coming out of the woodwork and afraid to go out and interact with groups, so I’m getting increased response. I’d say it’s probably going to keep increasing,” said Jim, who has delivered marijuana to hundreds of customers from Calimesa to Fontana for the last 2 1/2 years.

“They’re concerned about being around large groups of people. They don’t like going out and want to stay indoors and see if they can weather the 14-day incubation.”

Essential business?

While marijuana dispensaries and delivery services scramble to meet the increasing demand across Southern California, others are also pushing the state to expand its list of essential businesses to dispensaries.

In a letter Tuesday to Gov. Gavin Newsom, Jerred Kiloh, president of the United Cannabis Business Association and owner of The Higher Path dispensary in Sherman Oaks, urged Newsom to include cannabis operators on the list of essential businesses needing to stay open during the COVID-19 restrictions.

“Mandating legal retailers and distributors to shut down will only allow the illicit market to flourishand will expose consumers to harmful untested products,” Kiloh said in his letter. “We humbly ask that you classify cannabis retailers and their supply chain partners as essential business, just like pharmacies, so wecan continue providing crucial medicine to our patients/members.”