Pandemic brings sales surge at Yakima County cannabis shops | Local

“If you look at the numbers over the last four years, there was a big spike when (cannabis) sales first started,” said Ryan Bailey, manager of the Bake Shop in Union Gap. “It kind of plateaued for a while after that — then the pandemic hit.”

Sales increased as the pandemic took hold.

“The demand was extraordinary,” added Liz Hallock, owner of Sweet Relief Cannabis Express in Yakima.

Sales of recreational marijuana products had a bumpy beginning in the city of Yakima and Yakima County after Washington voters approved the recreational use of cannabis in 2012.

After the state established a legal market and devised a regulatory plan, Yakima County commissioners enacted a ban on cannabis businesses in 2014, noting a majority of local voters rejected the statewide initiative.

Several small operations provided cannabis for medical use, with no interference by the county, as the medical marijuana market at that time was regulated separately from the broader recreational market.

In July 2016, the state combined regulation of the medical and recreational marijuana markets, meaning Yakima County shops providing medical marijuana would conflict with the local ban if they sold cannabis to recreational users.

The Yakima City Council voted to ban cannabis businesses in January 2014, but a new council reversed that decision in May 2016. Sales were first allowed in mid-September of that year, which gave the city time to work out buffer zone requirements around protected sites, such as schools and child care centers.

There are five retail cannabis dispensary licenses allocated to Yakima within city limits, said Randy Beehler, the city’s communications and public affairs director.

The first full fiscal year of Yakima County retail sales, from July 1, 2017, to June 30, 2018, generated $19.3 million, and $7.1 million in excise taxes (which are 37%, above and beyond the sales tax, on cannabis products).

Sales increased modestly over the next year, to nearly $22 million in fiscal 2019 (a 14%) increase. Then in mid-March of 2020, events and businesses began to shut down as COVID-19 cases started spreading.

“It’s been pretty crazy in the industry as far as traffic goes. The whole pandemic thing has really been a help to our business,” Bailey, manager of the Bake Shop, said. “The last two years, from the start (of the pandemic) until about August, it was just ridiculous.”

Cannabis retailers were considered an essential business by Washington state officials. They stayed open during the pandemic while other businesses closed their doors. The Bake Shop remained open and saw most of its sales increase via in-store shopping, Bailey said.

Sweet Relief, on the other hand, closed its doors for the safety of its employees, Hallock said. But that didn’t stop sales from booming via drive-thru and curbside delivery.

Both Bailey and Hallock said stimulus checks from the government often turned into marijuana sales.

“With online ordering, we were able to track sales day-to-day,” Hallock said. “This is anecdotal, but whenever pandemic assistance came to people, there was like a fourfold increase in sales.

“People were sitting at home, with very little to do. Everything was closed,” she added. “Checks came from the government, and people were spending them on weed, not on rent. I’m not sure that was for the best.

“I mean, we want people to patronize our business, but we also want them to provide housing, food and clothes for their children.”

Bailey and Hallock say the surge in marijuana sales has slowed over the past few months, as more entertainment options and businesses reopen and federal COVID assistance ends. This has led to plenty of product availability in Yakima County stores, and perhaps an oversupply of marijuana as growers have increased their production.

“The real peak (of sales) didn’t really start until July of last year, and now there’s a glut,” Hallock said.

Victor Davila, head of marketing and sales at Yakima Weed Co., noticed another change in customers’ purchasing habits since the pandemic began.

“Prior to COVID, when it would get cold outside, there would be a big drop in sales,” Davila said. “It seems like that’s gone now — people are spending more year-round.”

Yakima Weed Co., located at 1606 Fruitvale Blvd., opened a second store in August at 1209 E. Washington Ave. in Union Gap after sales surged during 2020.

“We get a lot of customers from the Lower Valley — then they don’t have to drive all the way up into Yakima,” Davila said.

Bailey believes the pandemic surge was accompanied by a greater public acceptance of cannabis products as a legitimate business, even in Yakima County.

“I feel like people are starting to get over the stigma,” he said. “People who weren’t using cannabis before are trying some of our products.”

Statewide marijuana sales support Bailey’s argument, and reflect the surge of sales seen in Yakima County. Hovering just below or just above the $1 billion level for fiscal 2017 through 2019, sales of marijuana increased to $1.27 billion in 2020 and just under $1.5 billion in 2021, according to Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board data.

Washington’s upward trend in legal marijuana sales mirrored those in other states, as cannabis products sold in record amounts by mid-2020 as coronavirus spread across the nation, according a study recently released.

The International Journal of Drug Policy examined four states — Alaska, Colorado, Oregon and Washington — and noted that marijuana sales ”have increased more during the COVID-19 pandemic than in the previous two years.”

The study, authored by a group of health researchers, gathered pre-tax cannabis sales data from state regulatory agencies and compared those numbers over time. It found that even amid stay-at-home orders that dealt hard hits to other economic sectors, cannabis sales increased. The study was examined by reporter Ben Adlin on the Marijuana Moment website, www.marijuanamoment.net