Even as demand for cannabis surges, the coronavirus pandemic has proved a reckoning for many companies in the business. But medical cannabis company Trulieve has managed to perform under pressure — something CEO Kim Rivers attributes in part to a dogged focus on its home market of Florida.
"For us, it was about really focusing on building a brand; focusing on winning customers and loyal and repeat business from those customers; and, again, expanding in a thoughtful and intentional way," Rivers told Cheddar. "Folks were kind of enamored with the thought of being in as many locations at one time, but that can lead to very inefficient business practices."
As its contemporaries have shuttered operations, canceled deals, and filed for bankruptcy — or the U.S. equivalent — amid a year full of challenges exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic, Florida-based Trulieve has continued to grow. The company opened its 55th dispensary in Tarpon Springs, Florida on Thursday — its 53rd location in the Sunshine State — as well as touting a hiring spree when it reported earnings back in May. At the time the company said it had filled 500 positions since mid-March and was looking to onboard some 300 more employees, according to Green Market Report.
Even so, navigating the pandemic has not been easy, Rivers said. Trulieve had to drastically pivot the nature of its business to accommodate pandemic-related restrictions. Pre-pandemic, Rivers said about 80 percent of business came from walk-in customers. After the onset of the pandemic, that fell to about 10 to 15 percent with the remaining business coming from pickup and delivery.
"We saw a dramatic shift in our business pretty early on," she said
"We had to double our fleet of cars. So we went from 100 vehicles to 200 vehicles pretty much overnight. We deliver next-day across the state of Florida. In addition, rolling out technology platforms to make transactions as contactless as possible," she later added.
In spite of the challenges, the pandemic hasn't been all bad for cannabis. Demand has proven remarkably robust — except in markets that rely heavily on tourism — and medical markets like Florida have only gathered steam, Marijuana Business Daily reported.
Promising revenue forecasts placing the global market's potential at $42.7 billion by 2024, according to marketing research firm BDSA, have some revenue-starved state governments, like New York and Pennsylvania, eyeing legalization as a means of injecting some much-needed cash back into the economy.
Rivers likened the trend to the end of Prohibition, which coincided with the Great Depression.
"There are a lot of parallels with the cannabis industry today. Similarly, we have a prohibited substance that we know can not only bring folks and help the economy but also of course bring relief to people in a medical sense. So I think it really is a win-win," Rivers said.
Activists have been pushing to legalize adult-use cannabis in Florida for years, but the two petitions to get it on the 2020 ballot fell short of signatures in late 2019.
Rivers said it "remains to be seen" whether potential tax revenue will be a consideration in legalization talks next year.
A Michigan judge is putting sponges in the hands of shoplifters and ordering them to wash cars in a Walmart parking lot when spring weather arrives. Genesee County Judge Jeffrey Clothier hopes the unusual form of community service discourages people from stealing from Walmart. The judge also wants to reward shoppers with free car washes. Clothier says he began ordering “Walmart wash” sentences this week for shoplifting at the store in Grand Blanc Township. He believes 75 to 100 people eventually will be ordered to wash cars this spring. Clothier says he will be washing cars alongside them when the time comes.
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.
At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
You'll just have to wait for interest rates (and prices) to go down. Plus, this deal's a steel, the big carmaker wedding is off, and bribery is back, baby!
It’s a chicken-and-egg problem: Restaurants are struggling with record-high U.S. egg prices, but their omelets, scrambles and huevos rancheros may be part of the problem. Breakfast is booming at U.S. eateries. First Watch, a restaurant chain that serves breakfast, brunch and lunch, nearly quadrupled its locations over the past decade to 570. Fast-food chains like Starbucks and Wendy's added more egg-filled breakfast items. In normal times, egg producers could meet the demand. But a bird flu outbreak that has forced them to slaughter their flocks is making supplies scarcer and pushing up prices. Some restaurants like Waffle House have added a surcharge to offset their costs.
William Falcon, CEO and Founder of Lightning AI, discusses the ongoing feud between Elon Musk and Sam Altman, and how everyday people can use AI in their lives.
U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum “will not go unanswered,” European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen vowed on Tuesday, adding that they will trigger toug
