Sara B. Gluck, MBA

Every cannabis operator in Massachusetts should read this: MA cannabis businesses are enduring one of the worst AR problems in the state. Companies are bleeding cash because outstanding invoices aren’t being collected. It’s a highly competitive and fragmented market. That means lots of brands willing to give cash strapped dispensaries terms. And cash strapped dispensaries are borrowing from Peter to pay Paul… Which means brands can’t pay their vendors… And so it goes. Here are three ways MA operators can protect cash flow: 1. Define and enforce payment terms—early and hard Institute clear, written contracts with precise deadlines, penalties, and remedies. Set net terms and stick to them—don’t let "one-off" deals slide into unpaid cycles. Follow up at 15, 30, and 60 days proactively. Internal collections are always our preferred route; CannaBIZ Collects is here when it hits 90+ days. 2. Use a credit check system Cannabiz Credit Association is an amazing resource for helping you avoid bad actors. Our database consists of real time AR information from some of the industry’s biggest companies. Jeeter, Kiva, The Cannabist Company - all sharing information about who isn’t paying on time. Don’t go to market without it. 3. Don’t budge Sure the market is competitive on the brand side, but it’s also competitive on the retail side too! There are 650 stores in MA. If one is being a stickler on your terms and you suspect they might not pay, no problem, take your product elsewhere. Have the confidence to walk away if the signs are pointing to a debt hole. Look, you didn’t start this business to chase debt. That’s why I started my business! But know that you can minimize the chances of having to chase debt by doing credit checks on the front end. And if you do have some “customers” who are over 90 days late, that’s what our collections business is for. You need to run your company. Not run around after late payments. Anyone in MA have some boots-on-the-ground updates on the AR situation?

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For years, THC beverages were available in dispensaries across America. Nobody bought them. Beverages sat at roughly 1% of total dispensary sales, consistently, for years. The format made sense on paper, but the consumer just wasn't there because people walking into a dispensary want high-potency products. Not “low-dose social beverages”. Then something changed: Hemp-derived THC beverages started appearing in liquor stores and convenience stores, right alongside beer and RTDs. And the numbers went insane. Liquor stores started reporting that THC beverages were making up 10 to 20% of their total sales almost overnight. Top Ten Liquors in Minneapolis now carries over 300 hemp-derived THC beverage SKUs and the category makes up 15% of total sales across all their stores. At Earl Giles restaurant, THC drinks now account for 20% of all beverage sales while alcohol still holds 75%. The Total Wine founder said at WSWA that THC beverages did a billion dollars in sales through liquor stores last year alone and estimated this could be a $20 billion business for the channel if properly regulated. The product didn't change; only the shelf. It turns out THC beverages aren't competing with alcohol. They're riding it. When people go to a liquor store, they're already in beverage-buying mode, thinking about what they're going to drink tonight. Dropping a low-dose THC seltzer into that context is a completely different decision than walking into a dispensary and choosing it over flower or gummies. So alcohol didn't just make room for THC beverages, it’s what made THC beverages a real category. Which is why the November 2026 federal ban is such a mess. Congress is about to wipe out a billion-dollar category that exists almost entirely because of the infrastructure, the retail relationships, and the consumer behavior that the alcohol industry built. The brands that survive are going to be the ones that figure out how to stay on those shelves legally. The ones that don't will quietly disappear back into the dispensary, where nobody bought them in the first place.

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40 Comments

The cannabis industry still hasn’t figured out what it actually wants from field marketing. After 5 years, 4 companies, and hundreds of retail and large-scale activations, I’ve seen the same pattern over and over: Field teams are asked to do everything. Drive immediate sales, build brand awareness, educate consumers, support retail relationships, but rarely given clear priorities or consistent ways to measure success. So what happens? Execution becomes inconsistent. Wins are hard to replicate. And field marketing gets treated like a nice-to-have instead of a true growth driver. Meanwhile, the CPG world figured this out a long time ago. Field marketing there is structured and intentional: Clear objectives tied to each activation Defined success metrics Tight alignment between brand, retail, and field teams A balance between short-term conversion and long-term brand building Cannabis has one of the most engaged point-of-sale environments of any industry, but we’re still operating without a real playbook. There’s a lot we can borrow from CPG. The question is whether we’re willing to get more disciplined about how we show up in the field.

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"In November, New York’s Office of Cannabis Management approved a PCAwaiver for a competing dispensary within the proximity protected radius. That approval occurred just days after stricter regulations took effect that expressly barred the PCA waiver under the applicable circumstances. At the public meeting where the PCA waiver was granted, regulators acknowledged the new rules were already in effect, but stated they would not apply them and would instead use prior standards."

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Thinking about applying to be a cannabis operator in New Jersey? 🌿 The state’s Cannabis Regulatory Commission has outlined clear licensing categories — from cultivation to retail — giving entrepreneurs new opportunities to join the growing industry. Whether you’re preparing your application or optimizing your operations, understanding NJ’s regulations is key to staying compliant & competitive. 📈  💡Did you know? GrowerIQ’s seed-to-sale software is fully integrated with Metrc in NJ, supporting licensed producers with digital traceability, cross-team transparency, and simplified reporting from day one. Learn more below.🔗 https://heyor.ca/S7pjDP #NewJerseyCannabis #CannabisLicensing #SeedToSale #GrowerIQ #CannabisCompliance #CannabisRegulatoryCommission #CannabisNJ #Metrc

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Cannabis founders build ‘premium’ brands to avoid competing on price. Guess what? In CPG, even premium products have to compete on price. Part of the issue is that many founders don’t understand what premium means, and therefore don’t understand what a premium buyer persona looks like. Premium does not mean luxury. Patagonia is premium. Gucci is luxury. Veuve Clique is premium. Dom Perignon is luxury. Premium buyers still look at price tags. Patagonia competes on price against North Face in REI. Veuve competes with Moet on price in liquor and grocery stores. Premium buyers and budget buyers are both driven by the same thing: value. However, what creates value for each group is slightly different. Budget buyers are looking for the best combination of price and quality, generally with a hard line spending cap that is difficult to break through. For this segment, cannabis is 90% CPG, and 10% Fashion. Premium buyers are judging products on a 3-way vector of price, quality, and ‘instagramability’ / “clout generation”. They generally shop with a more flexible spending cap. For this segment, cannabis is 40% CPG, and 60% Fashion. A couple key points to remember: *Budget shoppers still buy premium products! This is especially true in mature markets where a consumer might walk in with $80 to spend per week, but can grab a weeks worth of products for $60. Oftentimes, they ‘splurge’ fill the remainder of their cart of premium goods. *Premium shoppers account for less than 10% of the cannabis market. They might be the loudest group, and they are certainly the most over served. *Serving budget shoppers (successfully) doesn’t mean serving up garbage. It means delivering the best product possible, at a target price.

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New York’s cannabis market is moving into a new phase—seed-to-sale traceability is coming. Jorge Vasquez (Vasquez Attorneys at Law, P.C.) and I (BioTrack) sat down to unpack what licensees and industry stakeholders need to know ahead of these upcoming compliance deadlines. From required system integrations to enforcement timelines and traceability expectations, we break down what’s coming—and what you can do now to prepare. Drop your questions below and stay tuned for more insights from our ongoing series. #newyork #NYCannabis #SeedToSale #BioTrack #CannabisCompliance #Traceability #supportlegalcannabis #legal

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Sent my first contract to a cannabis supplier exactly the way I would at JP Morgan. Formal agreement. Wire instructions. Fifteen pages. Professional. Got a text back two days later: "Yeah, we're good." That was the deal. I sent the same packet five more times before someone finally pulled me aside: "This isn't how we do things here." I wasn't wrong that the process would eventually be needed. I was just trying to introduce it before anyone was ready. That gap — between being right and being useful — is one of the most expensive lessons in emerging markets. The four others I had to learn the hard way: → Your past experience doesn't expire. It just needs to be applied differently. ↲ You can't lead what you don't understand. Get your hands dirty first. ↲ In emerging industries, relationships and trust ARE the infrastructure. ↲ Information without execution is just noise. ↲ Differentiation looks like confusion to others at first. That's confirmation — not a warning. Full piece in Authority Magazine Authority Magazine   — link in comments. #Founder #CPG #Canabis

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Here’s my go to market plan for a hemp Bev company wanting to scale DTC today - Tech & Brand Foundation - Shopify website; simple theme - Klaviyo for retention - Product photography & 3D renders - Clear voice & tone guidelines; what’s the story. Don’t just say it’s a lemonade to not get a hangover. This matters more than the look & feel at this point - Setup pixels on your website for Meta, Reddit etc - Setup Social Snowball for affiliates & influencers - Google Search Console / Bing Webmaster & SEMRush to track your SEO. - Triple Whale for attribution - Elevar to enhance data to send more flows to new customers. - Recharge for subscriptions - JudgeMe for reviews. - Wholesale Groilla if you want to do B2B as well (without upgrading to Shopify +) Yes Shopify is the death by as thousand apps ($300-400 easy) GTM - Seed 50-100 people with product. Choose 2-4 unique angles / hooks. Generate ton of UGC to test later & get early social proof - Choose 1-2 strategic towns to focus on. Provide drinks to key influencers in these towns; based on your market demo & encourage social sharing etc. - Do popups at venues that allow & align - Win retail in small areas - Begin top of funnel media campaigns focused on driving consumers to store. Offer an incentive. Capture email along funnel. - Call every customer you can, record all the calls, dig into things that matter (flavor, brand, messaging etc) & build a database to help tweak. - create localized category / location pages to help with SEO. - Know your margins & numbers. It’s likely you’ll lose money on first sale; so track LTV closely & really understand who is your VIP customer & why. - Laucnh small campaigns on Meta & Reddit to test the ads you built. Understand how it works & doesn’t work yourself. Media buying isn’t hard anymore; it’s the creative process that is. But it can be hard to pay someone to figure it out bc may take a while & could get expensive. - Install Microsoft Clairty to get user journey data on the site. Take initial conversion rate after 3-6 months of data & find a conversion rate specialist & have them spend a few hours auditing & offering ideas. Then slowly test them. - Segment audience best you can for emailing as list grows. VIP customers get one message. New customers get a different. Etc - Offer a sampler pack for a reduced rate to encourage early adoption. Try and win ever customer back thru email & outreach. Do what doesn’t scale early to scale. Focusing on smaller / specific geographical areas will improve chances of winning & then use it as a case study to go win more local areas.

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The real risk for local cannabis retailers and brands isn’t new regulations. It’s being quietly removed from the shopping path while customers end up at a competitor’s store. Most operators are still focused on promotions. Still pushing deals. Still assuming the market behaves the way it did last year. Meanwhile, customer reach is being filtered. Recent hemp regulation changes accelerated this shift. Now platforms are adjusting their rules and deciding who they can present safely, leading customers to follow whichever store they see first. The smart play right now isn’t louder offers. It’s being the brand that can be chosen without friction. Operators who recognize this early pull those sales back into their stores instead of watching them drift elsewhere. I laid out how I’m helping leaders take back market share and drive more store visits as the rules change → https://lnkd.in/eYcDNFnY

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Mom-and-Pops in all states have to start working together. Im my past life I owned a roofing company. I was a member of The Florida Roofing and Sheet Metal Association (non-profit).We were a trade organization. We all paid membership dues. Our dues paid for a lobbyist who represented us at the state capitol. Without representation builders would have put us out of business. Why hire a licensed contractor when the builder could hire two guys in a truck with a nail gun?The builder warranty is good for a year. Without Mom-and-Pops the product sucks. The consumer needs y'all. Especially with medicine. Without a lobbyist all Mom-and-Pops have one foot out of the door already. Stop complaining individually, and start working together. Y'all are all entrepreneurs. Act like it.

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Rethinking Dispensary Design: The “Liquor Store Model” Most cannabis retailers are stuck between two extremes: 1️⃣ The overstaffed “one-to-one” model, where every customer needs a dedicated budtender. 2️⃣ The underwhelming kiosk model, where customers swipe endlessly until they’re frustrated or give up. Here’s a better way. Imagine a dispensary designed like a wine shop. Products are grouped by category (Indica, Sativa, Hybrid, CBD, etc.). Each strain has empty display packaging paired with a clear, engaging description card with tasting notes, effects, and key details. Customers can browse at their own pace, guided by clear signage and smart merchandising. This setup: ✅ Reduces labor needs — fewer staff can serve more customers without sacrificing service. ✅ Improves education — clear descriptions help customers make confident choices. ✅ Increases engagement — browsing feels like shopping, not waiting in line. ✅ Solves “swipe fatigue” — no more endless kiosk scrolling. We already see this in liquor and specialty wine stores and  it’s time cannabis caught up. The future of dispensary CX isn’t about more tech or more staff. It’s about intentional design that makes buying cannabis feel intuitive, enjoyable, and efficient. What do you think, would you shop here ❓ #CannabisRetail #DispensaryDesign #CustomerExperience #CannabisOperations #RetailStrategy

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The Cannabis CMO is dead.  Long live the CMO Many cannabis firms now rely on performance-based marketing tactics to generate sales, distribution and shelf space.  Brand building in cannabis has not been officially eschewed, but rather de-prioritized.  The reasons for this lack of attention – a desire for higher spend efficiencies, immediate sales impacts etc. – are obvious, except for a hidden one... The decline of the CMO role at many cannabis firms.     When a company focuses on tactics at the expense of more strategic brand development, they are hurting long-term profitability and competitiveness. Neglect is not prudent, even for financially-strapped LPs and MSOs.  This post is not intended to be an esoteric debate on whether cannabis is a CPG-based industry and therefore brand-dependent, or something else, where brands are less important. Fact is brands matter even when there is very little product differentiation, infrequent buying and industry price pressures.  Think bottled water, cement and moving companies, all of whom have strong brands. The data is clear: businesses with strong brands (product or corporate) enjoy higher valuations, price premiums and consumer loyalty. What we should be thinking about is why cannabis brand development is so bad.  I don’t make this point flippantly; just compare brand valuation metrics of the highest performing weed products to their peers in other sectors. Weak canna-branding has many culprits.  I want to focus on the CMO, the role that should be accountable and responsible for brand building. In many firms, the CMO is 'missing in action' for 3 reasons: 1️⃣ No one home Many cannabis firms don’t have a CMO, even a fractional one.  It is difficult to build and nurture brands if the leadership team lacks a senior person with brand ownership, skills and a mandate. And just because you have a senior marketer that doesn’t mean they have built brands or even know cannabis. 2️⃣ Misalignments When present and able, the CMO can be motivated by other corporate imperatives (e.g., short term sales) and performance measurement schemes.  In other cases, an over-stepping or zealous C Suite peer will intrude on the CMO's brand-building mandate and complicate their efforts.  3️⃣ Org Gaps The firm must truly commit to brand development.  This includes making & sustaining investments, being patient with the journey and having a centralized brand team that coalesces operating units & functions around a well thought out brand strategy. If you truly want to build strong brands, do quality consumer research, invest appropriately in brand building, align your organization, and find yourself a talented and empowered CMO. Let’s talk. I provide fractional CMO and consulting services that build powerful brands that delight consumers and drive market caps. 🔔 Ring the bell on my profile page to get VIP notifications #cannabisindustry #cannabis #CMO #brands #cannabiscommunity

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One of the most important things cannabis media can do right now is preserve perspective. At the recent Seshn Events with Jake Boynton and Joint Venture & Co. concert benefiting Freedom Grow sponsored by Jeremy Ortiz CLCS CICS Ganjier Product Specialist at Big Night Live in Boston, Beard Bros Pharms & Media participated in Fat Nugs Magazine’s Faces of Cannabis photo series with Derrall Peach alongside advocates and industry leaders including Dustin Hoxworth and Angela Pih. Events like this matter because they reconnect the legal cannabis industry to the human stories that built it. The uncomfortable reality is this: while cannabis businesses continue scaling, fundraising, and expanding into new markets, people are still incarcerated for nonviolent cannabis offenses. Some of those individuals helped lay the foundation for the very industry generating millions today. That contradiction should remain front and center. Freedom Grow continues doing the difficult and often overlooked work of supporting incarcerated individuals and their families while advocating for justice and reform. They are not just talking about change. They are actively participating in it. https://freedomgrow.org/ For us, this was more than a photo shoot or networking event. It was a reminder that cannabis culture loses credibility when it separates success from accountability. The industry needs more moments where advocacy, culture, media, business, and community exist in the same room together. What responsibility do cannabis brands and media companies have to continue supporting criminal justice reform as legalization expands?

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A lot of cannabis sales teams are underperforming - not because of talent, but because of structure. Here’s the core problem: - You’ve got hunters doing account management - You’ve got farmers trying to cold open new doors - And you’ve got no one doing either job well The skillsets are different: Hunters are aggressive, focused on net-new revenue, willing to take rejection, and thrive on momentum Farmers build deep relationships, protect share, grow accounts over time, and hate being yanked off accounts When you blur the lines, you get: 🔻 Lumpy pipeline 🔻 Shallow relationships 🔻 Burned-out reps 🔻 Sluggish expansion Especially in cannabis, where accounts are fragile, cycles are long, and buyers are overwhelmed, you need clarity. Ask yourself: - Who’s actually responsible for new business? - Who’s nurturing your highest-potential accounts? - Are the same people doing both? If so, is that working? Getting this right doesn’t require a bigger team. It just takes a smarter one. Curious how others are thinking about this. What’s working? Where are you getting stuck?

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It’s amazing how many cannabis “consultants” on this app have only worked at one dispensary according to their bios. Some have never worked at a cannabis dispensary at all. Yet they have no problem telling others how to run a shop and people are actually paying them for their advice.

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Dispensary discounts are killing your retention. I talk to cannabis companies doing millions in monthly revenue who cannot answer one basic question: Why do customers actually come back? They track visits. They track loyalty points. They track discount redemptions. But when you ask what creates preference, the room goes quiet. During my recent conversation with Jael Harris, one thing became clear. Most dispensaries are solving the wrong retention problem. Especially retailers surrounded by competitors who feel forced into discounting just to stay relevant. That space between visits is where dispensary customer retention is actually decided. Not at the register. Not in the POS. Not in a BOGO text. Between visits is where customers remember how they felt, whether they felt seen, and whether the brand reflects their values. It is where cannabis customer retention shifts from incentives to identity. That is why Jael’s work with Mary Main stands out. They did not out-discount nearby dispensaries. They out-connected them. By building culture into the store experience, empowering staff to represent the community they serve, and showing up authentically beyond four walls, they reduced price sensitivity without chasing loyalty gimmicks. This is what a real dispensary retention strategy looks like. Retention as influence, not transactions. Loyalty as trust, not points. If your store feels trapped in a discount cycle, this conversation will challenge how you think about retention, margin, and long-term cannabis brand loyalty. Join us on this week's Cannabis Marketing Live Podcast episode for a candid breakdown of how culture, community, and experience build demand without discounting. #Cannabismarketing #cannabis #cannabisdispensary #retailstrategy

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Revenue is a vanity metric in a broken dispensary. I’ve walked into stores that were “growing” — revenue up, traffic steady, marketing active — and yet the operation underneath was quietly deteriorating. Top-line growth can create a false sense of health in cannabis retail. In fact, growth often masks structural weakness. Then 280E hits. I’ve seen dispensaries feel successful all year, only to realize at tax time that their “profitability” never translated into real cash. When federal liability is applied under 280E, margin discipline becomes unforgiving. Revenue doesn’t matter if taxable income outpaces operational efficiency. In this industry, inventory control and cash management aren’t best practices — they’re survival mechanics. Before I celebrate growth, I look at structure: • Inventory velocity — how much capital is trapped on shelves? • Aged payables — are we financing growth on vendor credit? • Labor-to-revenue ratio — are we scaling intelligently or just adding bodies? • Gross margin by category — are we buying strategically or simply expanding width? • Discount leakage — are promotions quietly eroding profitability? In struggling stores, I often see the same sequence: Revenue increases → assortment expands → inventory balloons → cash tightens → discounting rises → margin compresses → vendor pressure builds → operational stress follows. From the outside, it looks like momentum. On the inside, it’s a tightening cash cycle. Growth doesn’t fix weak systems. It amplifies them. Before adding SKUs, extending hours, or launching new promos, the fundamentals have to be stable: Clean turns. Disciplined purchasing. Predictable cash cycles. Labor aligned to demand blocks. Vendor strategy — not vendor chaos. A healthy store grows because its systems are strong. A broken store grows until those systems collapse. Curious how others are pressure-testing performance right now. Beyond revenue, what metrics tell you a dispensary is actually healthy — especially under 280E?

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New Jersey’s cannabis market is in a quiet war right now — MSOs vs. mom-and-pop dispensaries. This isn’t just competition. It’s a structural shift in what this industry is becoming. MSOs have scale, capital, buying power, layered compliance teams, and infrastructure that most independents simply can’t match. They can weather price compression. They can absorb margin pressure. They can outspend. But mom-and-pop shops have something MSOs can’t manufacture — community equity. They know their customers. They build trust. They adapt faster. They feel every regulatory shift, every tax burden, every inventory squeeze in real time. Here’s the real tension: • Are current regulations unintentionally favoring capital over community? • Can small operators survive long-term price compression? • Do consumers truly value local ownership — or just lower prices? This isn’t about picking sides. It’s about sustainability. A healthy NJ market needs both operational sophistication and local roots. If consolidation accelerates too aggressively, we risk losing the very culture that built this industry. If independents refuse to evolve, they risk being outpaced. The future probably isn’t domination — it’s adaptation. Curious to hear from others in NJ cannabis — where do you see this heading over the next two years?

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