The legal weed business taught customers to chase the next deal, and independent dispensaries are paying the price.
Twenty percent off flower. Buy two vapes, get the third for a penny. Thirty percent off the entire store until noon. Double loyalty points on Wednesday, unless Thursday’s sale turns out to be better.
Cannabis retail has become a relentless hunt for the next markdown. In mature markets, falling cannabis prices have made legal weed dramatically more affordable for consumers. They have also left retailers fighting over shoppers who may have no reason to return once the coupon expires.
Cortney Brown, Marketing Chair at the Cannabis Chamber of Commerce and CMO at cannabis advertising and analytics company MediaJel, believes retailers helped create the problem themselves.
“I think we’ve trained them,” Brown told High Times. “Consumers love finding value, but they don’t wake up hoping to wait until Friday to buy cannabis. The industry created that behavior by teaching customers that if they wait another day, someone will inevitably offer a better deal.”
Photo courtesy of Maria Fernanda Pissioli via Unsplash
The Cannabis Price Wars Were Trained Into Existence
Price compression is not necessarily bad news for the person standing at the register. Lower prices can make legal cannabis accessible to people who were previously priced out, particularly in states where taxes and regulatory costs pushed dispensary weed far above traditional-market prices.
The problem starts when lower base prices collide with a retail culture built around constant promotions.
According to Headset’s analysis of cannabis retail margins, average U.S. gross margins fell from 52.6% in 2021 to approximately 42.7% during 2025. That decline has consequences beyond the sales floor. Less gross profit can mean tighter payroll, smaller purchasing budgets, late vendor payments, and less money available for expansion or product development.
Brown traces …
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Author: High Times / High Times
