Chris Simpson, the manager of Shire Green Cannabis, got a couple of unexpected visitors to his Fifth Avenue shop a few months ago.
One of his store employees recognized them as managers connected to the three B.C. government cannabis retail stores which operate in Prince George.
“It was the GM for all the B.C. Cannabis Stores and one of the (government store) managers here and they came to scope out our store and see what we were doing differently,” said Simpson. “I went out front and I was like ‘hey, how’s it going?’ and they just were like, ‘Oh, you caught us, ha ha ha.’”
As a store owner, Simpson would have no objection to a private cannabis store owner checking out how and what products he’s selling at his store, but he wasn’t impressed with government operators doing a little undercover surveillance at his store.
“The big difference is this is our government that’s competing directly with me as a private retailer and they have access to my sales and see what orders I’m placing,” said Simpson. “The manager that came in even mentioned that he was doing a walk-through in their warehouse down on the coast there and he saw my order up on the screen when they were picking it.
“I was like, ‘Well can I come down to the warehouse and see how they do it?’ I’ve asked, but I’m not afforded the same opportunities. Eventually they would see it on our website anyways, I think the biggest issue is they see the volume, so if they’re seeing we’re going through a lot of this or a lot of that, a smart person would place their orders based on that kind of information.”
Because all cannabis stores in the city have to order from the government supplier and are served by a central distribution centre in Richmond, Simpson has no control over how soon his products will get delivered.
“When we receive our delivery it would be like every Monday and the window used to be (9 a.m.-1 p.m.) and it kept getting delivered outside that window,” he said. “Whenever I talked to the delivery drivers they told me they had to visit certain government stores before going to others “
Simpson said he called the Liquor Distribution Branch for an explanation why the delivery drivers weren’t instead instructed to simply follow the most efficient route without prioritizing the government stores to try to speed up the process, his question went unanswered.
“There’s really nobody to contact and talk to about these issues,” Simpson said. “I’d like to just see private retailers get a little more assistance and more understanding.”
“They did open it up that you can do direct delivery from little producers but they have to be in British Columbia and produce under a certain amount. But the government still takes their 15 per cent cut, even though they’re not handling the product.”
Once he places an order, there’s no way for Simpson to return anything he’s purchased unless the product is spoiled or defective, and he can’t adjust the amount originally ordered without cancelling the order entirely.
Government policies on customer discounts are too restrictive for Simpson’s liking. He can’t offer loyalty programs or give discounts to seniors or students. Any discount has to apply to all customers.
“What you can actually say (in advertising) is so restrictive that it might not even be worth the effort to actually go through with it because you can suffer significant fines of loss of license,” Simpson said. “You can’t advertise that you’re selling a certain product or that you have deals. At what point is the province going to step in and help this industry?”
There are 12 privately-owned stores and two public government cannabis shops currently operating in Prince George. License applications for privately-owned cannabis and liquor-primary stores must first be approved by Prince George city council and the province Liquor and Cannabis Licensing Branch has the final say on whether a business operator can set up a store.
While liquor-primary stores are required to follow rules on how close they can be to each other, Simpson said there’s no such buffer zone enforced with cannabis stores. In downtown Prince George, Epik Products was allowed to open on George Street less than block from an existing Grasshopper store.
Shire Green has nine employees and Simpson says he can’t compete with the government stores on wages and benefits. He admits a majority of product prices in the two government store prices are lower than what most privately-owned stores can offer.
“I beat them on a few things, just out of spite, because it’s just kind of a fight between us now,” he said. “Times are tough and people are pinching pennies and we do what we can to help them out, like narrowing our margin, trying to focus on deals I can find on the government website, and I’ll get that just because I know I can offer it at a better price.”
