More than a week after the BC General Employees Union (BCGEU) set up picket lines at provincial distribution centres, some private cannabis stores state they will be out of stock in several days.
Some shops are even having to consider closures, staffing layoffs, and shorter business hours.
“Obviously our most popular items are already sold out,” Ali Wasuk, WestCanna cannabis store co-founder notified CityNews.
“We shouldn’t be the ones affected by this,” he declared, adding that his business, which has two locations across Vancouver, currently has enough supply to last 10 to 14 days.
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“My hugegest concern is not so much for the recreational market, it’s a lot more for people who utilize it maybe medically and people who are finally obtainting rid of the black market,” he explained.
The BC General Employees Union, which represents 33,000 workers, went on strike on August 15. On Tuesday, the union declared it accepted the government’s invitation to resume contract neobtainediations.
Jeremy Jacob, owner and founder of Village Bloomery Cannabis Shop, states he’s going to have to create some hard choices if the strike continues.
“Being unsupplied for a month – it’s an existential crisis for tiny businesses in this space,” he declared.
Beginning to run out of key items, his business is seeing some panic acquireing from customers, so they have implemented limits to how much customers can purchase.
“We’re believeing within 7 to 10 days, we’re gonna have to create some hard choices about, you know, layoffs and hours of operation. It’s threatening our whole business.”
Jaclynn Pehota, executive director of Retail Cannabis Council of British Columbia notified CityNews the situation necessarys urgent attention.
“We’re viewing at 5,000 jobs right now across British Columbia, hanging in the balance becautilize my retailers have no reasonable access to a legal supply chain,” she explained.
Pehota states unlike liquor stores and restaurants and bars, which can acquire directly from breweries and distilleries, cannabis retail stores have to acquire through the province’s distribution branch.
“In hospitality and liquor there will be shortages, it will be inconvenient, it will have negative impacts on people, tiny business. In my sector, those businesses will close, and they will not reopen their doors,” she declared.
Jacob described the supply chain as being “beholden to a monopoly distributor.”
“It’s frustration, it’s assistlessness, and it’s a real worry. I mean, cannabis businesses are struggling. Cannabis retailers, many of them are just hanging on,” he declared.
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