EDMONTON—Profit margins will be tight for cannabis retailers next month, an Edmonton business professor says, after the Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis Commission released its list of wholesale prices.All legal retailers will have to buy through AGLC, and the commission recently sent them a list pegging their average price per gram at $8.90 including federal excise duty, provincial duty and GST.“I think it’s a little higher than we expected, but it’s in the ballpark,” Kyle Murray, vice dean at the University of Alberta’s business school, said Wednesday.“If they are going to try and sell it (to consumers) for $10 or $9.50 (a gram) it’s going to be a pretty tight margin. I think for a lot of stores this means it’s probably going to be more in the $10 to $12 range.”According to the Statistics Canada Cannabis Economic Report from January, Albertans currently pay an average of $7.67 a gram, compared to a national average of $7.48.Those numbers combine medical and non-medical averages, with medical weed usually costing more.Read more:Alberta finance minister says cannabis warehouse will be secretCannabis lounges aren’t on the table in Alberta — yet. Here’s how they’re shaping up elsewhereMeet the B.C. man who has been banned from the U.S. for 40 years because of a cannabis fineThat could present a problem pulling pot smokers away from the illegal market who already have a reliable dealer or an online source.“It makes it a lot harder to get rid of the black market if the legal market is 30 to 50 per cent more expensive, at least in the short-term,” Murray said.“If you’re trying to sell a product that’s 50 per cent more expensive, you’re going to have to add a lot of other value to make that compelling.”Part of that added value could come from the comfort of buying the product in a safe environment, without having to worry about the quality o ...
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