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https://www.therecord.com/news-story/920...t-a-store/

As it stands right now there are 7 retail stores allocated to the "west" region of Dufferin-Wellington, Hamilton, Niagara, Haldimand-Norfolk, Brant, Waterloo, Perth, Oxford, Elgin, Chatham-Kent, Essex, Lambton, Middlesex, Huron, Bruce, Grey, and Manitoulin. Three are in London, one is in Niagara, and one is in St. Catharines (but the name indicates Niagara). It's fairly likely one or both remaining stores will be located in Hamilton or Windsor, which would leave Waterloo Region without a single store.
(03-06-2019, 05:43 PM)Bob_McBob Wrote: [ -> ]https://www.therecord.com/news-story/920...t-a-store/

As it stands right now there are 7 retail stores allocated to the "west" region of Dufferin-Wellington, Hamilton, Niagara, Haldimand-Norfolk, Brant, Waterloo, Perth, Oxford, Elgin, Chatham-Kent, Essex, Lambton, Middlesex, Huron, Bruce, Grey, and Manitoulin. Three are in London, one is in Niagara, and one is in St. Catharines (but the name indicates Niagara). It's fairly likely one or both remaining stores will be located in Hamilton or Windsor, which would leave Waterloo Region without a single store.

Unsure how London got 3, but I am guessing this region might still get one. The population base is way larger than Windsors, only thing against Hamilton is that it's close to St. Kits, and the other 905 cities to the north-east.
Windsor is a hot market because of the border, same as Niagara. Hamilton I think has more dispensaries than anywhere else in Ontario, and half the lottery applications and 4 of the 7 winners were located there. The real head scratcher is how many ended up in London.
(03-06-2019, 05:46 PM)jeffster Wrote: [ -> ]
(03-06-2019, 05:43 PM)Bob_McBob Wrote: [ -> ]https://www.therecord.com/news-story/920...t-a-store/

As it stands right now there are 7 retail stores allocated to the "west" region of Dufferin-Wellington, Hamilton, Niagara, Haldimand-Norfolk, Brant, Waterloo, Perth, Oxford, Elgin, Chatham-Kent, Essex, Lambton, Middlesex, Huron, Bruce, Grey, and Manitoulin. Three are in London, one is in Niagara, and one is in St. Catharines (but the name indicates Niagara). It's fairly likely one or both remaining stores will be located in Hamilton or Windsor, which would leave Waterloo Region without a single store.

Unsure how London got 3, but I am guessing this region might still get one. The population base is way larger than Windsors, only thing against Hamilton is that it's close to St. Kits, and the other 905 cities to the north-east.

They have no process to allocate to specific cities. They just randomly picked seven applications for the "west region" and then the applicants choose their cities.

This might be OK if we had a reasonable base of stores to start with, but given that there won't be any more for another year, it's a pretty slipshod process. But they really, really didn't want LCBO to run the cannabis shops ...
(03-06-2019, 05:57 PM)tomh009 Wrote: [ -> ]
(03-06-2019, 05:46 PM)jeffster Wrote: [ -> ]Unsure how London got 3, but I am guessing this region might still get one. The population base is way larger than Windsors, only thing against Hamilton is that it's close to St. Kits, and the other 905 cities to the north-east.

They have no process to allocate to specific cities. They just randomly picked seven applications for the "west region" and then the applicants choose their cities.

This might be OK if we had a reasonable base of stores to start with, but given that there won't be any more for another year, it's a pretty slipshod process. But they really, really didn't want LCBO to run the cannabis shops ...

You mean our provincial government is doing things badly?!  Say it isn't so!  </sarcasm>

Also, Ford is failing to sell weed effectively...that's the one thing I thought he'd be good at.  </sarcasm>

Now that that's out of the way, yeah, this distribution is unfortunate. I am still curious about Windsor though, do they really expect cross border travel? The consequences for trying to take product back across the border would probably be extremely severe, and I'd suspect there'd be a decent risk of getting caught, they have dogs and the right to search, etc, might even be safer to buy it illegally in Detroit.
(03-06-2019, 06:11 PM)danbrotherston Wrote: [ -> ]
(03-06-2019, 05:57 PM)tomh009 Wrote: [ -> ]They have no process to allocate to specific cities. They just randomly picked seven applications for the "west region" and then the applicants choose their cities.

This might be OK if we had a reasonable base of stores to start with, but given that there won't be any more for another year, it's a pretty slipshod process. But they really, really didn't want LCBO to run the cannabis shops ...

You mean our provincial government is doing things badly?!  Say it isn't so!  </sarcasm>

Also, Ford is failing to sell weed effectively...that's the one thing I thought he'd be good at.  </sarcasm>

Now that that's out of the way, yeah, this distribution is unfortunate. I am still curious about Windsor though, do they really expect cross border travel? The consequences for trying to take product back across the border would probably be extremely severe, and I'd suspect there'd be a decent risk of getting caught, they have dogs and the right to search, etc, might even be safer to buy it illegally in Detroit.

Well, not only that, but if CBP is asking their citizens if they had any of the whacky-tobaccy, I am pretty sure they can do tests if they say no. If they say yes, they'll have issues too. As far as I know, Michigan hasn't legalized the drug yet.

As for the gov't, I don't put blame on them. They inherited something that they didn't want, and I am sure had Wynne won, it probably wouldn't have been significantly different. These issues (including shortages) fall on Trudeau.
(03-06-2019, 07:07 PM)jeffster Wrote: [ -> ]As for the gov't, I don't put blame on them. They inherited something that they didn't want, and I am sure had Wynne won, it probably wouldn't have been significantly different. These issues (including shortages) fall on Trudeau.

Cannabis distribution is managed by the provinces so you can't blame the feds for that. Or are you saying the feds should have managed it instead of allowing the provinces to do it?

Wynne's plan was to leverage the LCBO, and their planning was fairly advanced. Whether the LCBO model would have been better or worse, I think it's safe to assume that the rollout would have been considerably more organized.
If this is how it pans out, this is ridiculous. Regardless of your thoughts on legalization, if there are seven stores in the West region, Waterloo Region needs to be one of the locations.

And three in London??? Seriously??
(03-06-2019, 07:07 PM) pid=\66610' Wrote:jeffster

Well, not only that, but if CBP is asking their citizens if they had any of the whacky-tobaccy, I am pretty sure they can do tests if they say no. If they say yes, they'll have issues too. As far as I know, Michigan hasn't legalized the drug yet. 

Even if it were legal in Michigan (it isn't) the border is federal jurisdiction, and they still say it's illegal.
People from the states can come, buy an edible, hit the casino and spend the night. They don’t have to take it home, pot tourism has a lot of value.

I’m surprised one of the London retailers didn’t see the opportunity and open their shop up the 401 here.

This is another indicator that the current Ontario government doesn’t even care about sound finances. Even, population-based distribution of licenses would maximize tax revenue but as it is there’s no reason to buy legal pot. The grey market is giving out discounts, freebies, gifts and other aggressive tactics to stay alive. There’s also no concerns about sharing credit card data with the US government (although plenty of concerns about what an illegal operation does if you give them a credit card).
(03-06-2019, 10:38 PM)tomh009 Wrote: [ -> ]
(03-06-2019, 07:07 PM)jeffster Wrote: [ -> ]As for the gov't, I don't put blame on them. They inherited something that they didn't want, and I am sure had Wynne won, it probably wouldn't have been significantly different. These issues (including shortages) fall on Trudeau.

Cannabis distribution is managed by the provinces so you can't blame the feds for that. Or are you saying the feds should have managed it instead of allowing the provinces to do it?

Wynne's plan was to leverage the LCBO, and their planning was fairly advanced. Whether the LCBO model would have been better or worse, I think it's safe to assume that the rollout would have been considerably more organized.

A federal issue because it was federally mandated. Not like in the USA where it is state mandated.

Now, should the feds have managed it? Yes, actually, I think they should have. That way it would have been consistent between all provinces, and likely less issues, especially availability. At some point, after 2 or 3 years, it could've been handed over to the provinces, if that was their desire, or privately (like what they did with Petro Canada).

The LCBO method may have worked okay, but it wouldn't have been pro-consumer. I do believe it would have been a much better tax-grab model than the one the Conservatives went with. The province needs money. A fool and his money quickly depart, and the government would have been much richer to spend money on healthcare.
Northern Ontario is even more screwed by the uneven distribution, the only two stores will both be in Sudbury.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/s...-1.5045548
Clearly the lottery method was not well thought through.
I'm ok with the lottery system, but the regions should have been better thought out.

They should have decided that London gets X, Waterloo Region gets X, Ottawa gets X, etc. And THEN do a lottery for each region that decides who gets to open up shop.
(03-08-2019, 02:52 PM)Spokes Wrote: [ -> ]I'm ok with the lottery system, but the regions should have been better thought out.  

They should have decided that London gets X, Waterloo Region gets X, Ottawa gets X, etc.  And THEN do a lottery for each region that decides who gets to open up shop.

Yes. A lottery could have worked well. But the implementation we got seems to have been dreamed up in five minutes. I'd say dreamed up by an intern, but most interns would have come up with something better than this.
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