Hey all.
I have been trying to get my brands I am working on into local and regional CA retail stores.
Anyone have any tips?
Do I just keep emailing the purchasing managers at these retailers?
Thanks for any help!
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Read this thread.
You have to understand that there are literally hundreds of people trying to do the same thing you are. If you do not have significant brand recognition, you are going to need to pick a few shops and treat them very well to build it. Stores aren’t going to want to take product that they may end up stuck with. Offering high margins to the store while supporting the shit out of your products with PAD’s and possibly bogos is about the only way. Be prepared to run cash flow negative until you have recognition.
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Show up in person. Build relationships and offer product on consignment, no money from them up front.
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What type of consignment terms do people start off with, for concentrates and prerolls.
30 day?
60 day?
Read through that whole page a few months back.
More concerned about the CA Cannabis market.
Seems very tough to get recognition in any way.
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No shop is going to pick up stuff they haven’t heard of unless you literally irritate them until they’ll take it or get the product in with a reputable distro that already has products in their shop.
You have to accept right now that there are very few stores you can walk in to or call and actually get in contact with someone that actually has the authority to buy.
You need to thoroughly grea$e the wheels with free product and apparel for the tenders. Everyone else is giving them free stuff, if you aren’t, they won’t be moving your product. In the end you will be paying dearly for advertising one way or another.
There are some shops that rent shelf space. They would be a place to do a proof of concept at.
Where in CA are you located?
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Solid advice 
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I worked as a purchasing manager for 1.5 years the market is tough for anyone ESPECIALLY mfg goods.
Companies will offer 20-30% discounts on all products & they have a team for CAD/PADs(pay a pretty girl 25+ an hour to come to a shop for 3-5 hours pushing a product on people) we get so many offers of these we wouldnt even bother if they werent doing buy one get one half off most were BOGOs(only notable brands like rawgarden didnt/wouldnt.)
Consignment is a good way to get into a store, we gave a lot of people shots and theres so many products that even if you get shelf space you really have to help push it with vendor days(the best is grtting samples to the shop and if a budtender really loves it they will push the hell out of it, you can adn will spend a lot of money doing this w.o much success) Net terms are usually 30and a lot of people are on them but like kiva, rove, select and such. Smaller brands was pay as it sold cause we gave a lot of smaller people chances and it rarely worked out.
Ive had brands come in and do bogos every week for a year straight trying to take market share. Vapes are a hard game. Concentrates, edibles and other mfg goods dont sell like most assume. Flowers is easily 80% sold out the door but to be fair we were a microbuisness that grew our own weed and attracted people cause we packaged fresh on site.
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You need to beat people on quality AND price while doing a hell of a lot of support. Be prepared to do net 30 and not get paid back in 90 days if ever. Hopefully you aren’t in gummies or vapes as those are the most saturated markets here.
I am in SoCal, LA/OC area.
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So, I am doing prerolls…
I have a high end line, a middle, and a lower staged for release later in the year if the first 2 move some units.
The higher end lines are good flower (not trim) infused with live rosin and/or Ice Water Hash.
Middle is a little less heady flower infused with Ice water hash and distillate or live/cured resin and distillate.
Lower end is lower graded flowers with distillate and terpenes.
I am also releasing some middle - lower end grammed live rosins and BHO extracts along with the joints.
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I only ask because the CA market is weird depending on location. Nor cal may as well be a separate state and socal is really a collection of niche markets…
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How’s it going?
I was very surprised when I was up in Norcal before Covid in 2020 and no one had really heard who stiizy or plug and play were.
Edit: Another important part on understanding the California market, clinics charge on average 2.5 times what they buy it for wholesale. That infused 2 gram joint they have on the shelf for $25? They bought it at $10. Look at what your competition is selling it at, and at the very least beat them on price/offer more deals than them.
Start with stores that don’t charge shelf rent.
Get a full product line.
Give them a loss leader to take your other stuff at regular price.
When you have enough of these shops to keep you busy hire a legit sales rep to go after the bigger fish and negotiate deals for you.
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Is this manufactured in house or resale?
In the beginning with lower volume numbers it can be very hard to get to numbers that make sense doing stuff in house. We closed our solventless stuff because it just didn’t make sense as the market got more competitive and the price was driven down.
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You’re better off picking one product and getting really efficient at making the one product. California’s a beast and trying to compete with multiple products is almost impossible unless you’re huge.
It is manufactured in house, but I am not the one managing that end of the business at all.
I am managing the brands and the production of the various products we wish to release. Also most of the sales as of now.
I am trying to have us sell directly rather than continue wholesale only.
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Leaf link is like all leads, useful at some point but to measure it over others is questionable. A lot of solid advice in here
Does anyone use BDS Analytics data?
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